THE GENIUS OF FRANK WHITTLE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 12

THE GENIUS OF FRANK WHITTLE

Britain Given Early Lead In Jet Aircraft

(Specially written for “The Press”)

FRANK WHITTLE was an inventing genius; he did not suffer from official neglect of his talents, but one of his problems was to overcome an early official caution brought about by the fact that some of his technical requirements were then undoubtedly before their time.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle’s work could be assessed in 1947 as having given Britain a technical lead in air* craft jet engines of at least two years.

The young airman devoted the whole of his Royal Air Force career to developing an idea. He brilliantly succeeded, and was substantially rewarded.

It is 25 years since an aeroplane first became airborne with Whittle engines.

Even now, still only 59, Sir Frank Whittle is apparently far from finished as a creative person. Only last year he announced a new invention—a high-speed turbo-drill for use in oil and gas exploration.

Whittle is a modest, but forceful, individualist There was sometimes a heavy price to pay in personal relationships for the results which his talent achieved.

Whittle himself acknowledged, with some asperity, that it was said in certain quarters that he was “difficult to get on with.”

He had to contend, also, with the occasional “mad inventor" charge. It was reported back to him that at one meeting in 1941, when someone quoted his views on a certain matter, a senior Ministry of Aircraft Production official said: “It’s no use taking any notice of Whittle —he’s gone round the bend.” Whittle’s work was the inspired application of

already-recognised principles. Jet propulsion is one of the most direct illustrations of a fundamental law of nature — Newton’s Third Law, which states: “Action and reaction are equal and opposite.” This natural law has been recognised by man since at least 150 8.C., when an engineer with the somewhat flamboyant name of Hero made proposals for its employment in an engine.

The gas turbine also is not new. The first design recognisable as a gas turbine was patented by John Barber In 1791. Thereafter, there was only very slow progress in gas turbine technology until the present century. It is generally accepted that progress was impeded by the lack of material suitable for continuous operation at high temperatures with appreciable stress.

Saw Potential

Whittle’s contribution was the association of jet propulsion and the gas turbine. Before him the gas turbine had been regarded, like other turbines, as a machine for supplying shaft power. Whittle recognised it as the ideal means of providing jet propulsion for aircraft His patent embodying this idea is dated January, 1930. A jet propulsion gas turbine engine to Whittle’s idea was designed, constructed and, in 1937, tested. In a flying test bed, Whittle’s engines first took to the air in May, 1941. It is one thing to have an idea. It is another to have the technical and executive ability to give it flesh.

It is still another to have the tenacity of purpose to drive through to success unshaken in confidence in the face of discouraging opposition. Whittle had these things. It is generally admitted that without Whittle’s determination to turn his idea into reality, Britain would not have begun to think about the jet-propelled aeroplane whatever thoughts there might have slowly developed about the propeller gas-turbine aeroplane—until the idea had been forced on the country by the exploits of the enemy with their jet propelled machines.

In the closing stages of the war Britain had, however, developed, on the basis of Whittle’s efforts, a new fighting weapon in the form of the Meteor jet aircraft

R.A.F. Cadet

It may be said that without Whittle the jet-propulsion engine and the other applications of the gas turbine would have come just the same. They would; but they would have come much later. Frank Whittle was born at Coventry on June 1, 1907, the eldest child of a workingclass family. He became a Royal Air Force apprentice, at Cranwell,

in September, 1923, and was one of the five apprentices of his entry to be awarded cadetships—the first step towards a full career in commissioned the R.A'.F. College (also at Cranwell) at the end of his three years’ apprenticeship. During his cadetship Whittle wrote his now celebrated thesis on “Future Developments in Aircraft Design.” This task was really the starting point of his subsequent work on jet propulsion.

In the course of the preparation of his thesis he came to the conclusion that if very high speeds were to be combined with long range, it would be necessary to fly at very great heights where the low air density would greatly reduce resistance in proportion to speed. It seemed to him unlikely that the conventional piston engine and propeller combination would meet the power plant needs of the kind of high-speed, high-altitude aircraft he had in mind; in his discussion of power plant he therefore cast his net very wide.

From this time in 1928, Whittle never ceased to think about the aero engine he wanted to design and develop. By the end of the next year he had put the first proposals to the Air Ministry, where they were received most coolly. After a few years of squadron and other general duties life Whittle attended the service engineering course. He was then selected to go to Cambridge University to take the mechanical sciences tripos—a two-year course. Cambridge Training

In later years, he said that, in the interests of his jet engine achievements, it would be very hard to over-estimate the value of the engineering training he received through the R.A.F., particularly at Cambridge. In the middle of 1936 Whittle successfully completed his Cambridge examinations and he was granted Air Ministry approval for a postgraduate year on research. In the meantime—in March, 1936—the company called Power Jets, Ltd., was formed to develop Whittle patents and ideas. The incorporation of the company was performed under certain Air Ministry conditions. Whittle now turned to his jet work, and he was never again to have the “normal” life of a serving Royal Air Force officer.

During the first three months of 1937, having laid down requirements, Whittle and his associates made steady progress in the manufacture of components for their first experimental jet engine. They had heard vague rumours of work in other countries, but the Air Ministry told them that nothing was known of such development officially. It is now known, of course, that the Germans were working almost exactly in parallel with the Whittle team. The first test run of the

first experimental Whittle jet engine was on April 12, 1937 —and it was not without its alarms.

This narrative now jumps ahead four years. In the intervening period Whittle had designed and made a practical jet engine, and the Gloster company had built an aeroplane to carry it.

Those four years represented endless experimental and administrative problems solved to that point. The Gloster-Whittle E2B/39, powered by the W.l engine, made its first flight on May 15, 1941. This was an event which marked the culminating point of a 13-year pursuit of an idea; it is a generally recognised landmark of aviation history. The flight was made at Cranwell—because of its long runway and clear approaches —where Whittle had received his R.A.F. training. Flight trials continued for the next 12 days. The top speed reached was 370 m.p.h in level flight at 25,000 ft. This was well above the then top speed of the Spitfire. There was the most stringent security precautions, but all the R.A.F. people at Cranwell were, of course, taking the most lively interest in the proceedings.

One officer at least was greatly disturbed by what he he had seen. He sat in the officers’ mess with a puzzled frown.

“No Propeller”

When asked what was troubling him, he replied that he had seen a strange aeroplane “going like a bat out of hell” and there was something odd about it, but he could not think what it was.

After a while he said: “My God! chaps, I must be going round the bend—it hadn’t got a propeller!” This was a reasonable mat-

ter for comment in the days when a propeller was as fundamental an item for the propulsion of an aeroplane as wheels are with a motor-car today.

After these first flights there followed two years of great frustration for Whittle. It was one thing to have an experimental engine which worked; it was another thing to have a proven production model.

The flight trials had been too successful in the sense that they generated a feeling of over-optimism. Whittle was very conscious of the fact that the engine destined for production was still on the drawing board and that much development was still necessary; he was concerned that these technical factors had not been properly grasped by the Ministry of Aircraft Production.

Tension Grows

The M.A.P. decided that the production target was to be a total of 1200 engines and 500 aircraft—these to begin to appear in June and July of 1942 with production rising to 80 aircraft a month by November, 1942. It was estimated by the Ministry that there was a chance of completing the 500 aircraft by the spring of 1943. But the Ministry’s optimism on this point may be gauged by the fact that one prototype only had flown by the end of March, 1943. Tension had been building up for some time between Power Jets and the Rover Company, who were working with Power Jets on development. Whittle became convinced that he was being betrayed. In April, 1942, he complained in a letter to a senior official at M.A.P.: “It has been the custom of certain individuals to treat

me as a ‘gifted amateur,’ inventor, etc., and to talk of ’taking my child and sending it away to school,’ and to say that I have no production experience, etc., and, I believe, to represent me as a somewhat dtmcult and temperamental individual.” He hinted in the same letter that he would consider resigning from the project

Nationalised

At the end of 1942 there was, however, a new and brighter phase in the story when Rolls-Royce became much more directly involved in the development. By January, 1944, Power Jets were so well established in its work that a public announcement of its work could no longer be delayed; tremendous interest was generated by this announcement and overnight Whittle became a celebrity.

In April, 1943, Whittle had written to the then Minister of Aircraft Production, Sir Stafford Cripps, saying that he considered there was a very strong case for nationalising Power Jets. This was an expressed view which Whittle was later to regret. However, Power Jets, “the private company which founded an industry,” was nationalised on April 28, 1944. Whittle, as a serving officer, took the stand that he should not benefit from his employment in any commercial sense, therefore on nationalisation, he surrendered to the Crown all his shares and rights in Power Jets—holdings to the assessed value of £47,000. This was obviously no light sacrifice to make, and it was taken into account when, in May, 1948, he received, on the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, the sum of £lOO,OOO free of tax.

During 1944, the tempo of

engine development greatly increased, and it could now be said that the company had floated off its troubles. The first Meteors were delivered to the Royal Air Force in May, 1944. The year 1944 was one of great activity in the turbo-jet field in Germany also. The Germans were desperately in need of high-performance fighters. The effectiveness of the turbo-jet Messerschmitt 262 was well illustrated on one occasion when the Americans lost 32 out of a formation of 36 Flying Fortresses. According to the records, the first jet aircraft to fly in Germany or any other country was the Heinkel 178: it flew on August 27, 1939—nearly two years before the GlosterWhittle E2B/39. The German aircraft made one flight and never flew again. It is believed that no other German aircraft flew before the E2B.

Knighted At 41

When the Germans produced their jets there is no doubt that, of necessity, they embarked on quantity production long before they had reached a state of development which would have been considered satisfactory in Britain.

Very high speeds were achieved with the German jet aircraft—again because they had cut down on safety factors.

When peace came, the breaking up of Power Jets Limited in its old form soon followed. Whittle resigned from the board on January 22, 1946. It was 20 years since the organisation had grown from nothing to a staff of 1300. In August, 1948, Frank Whittle retired from the R.A.F. with the rank of air commodore; in June he had been knighted. He was just 41.