The invention of the jet engine by Frank Whittle

The basis for both the British and American jet programs was the engine designed, built and manufactured by Frank Whittle (1907–96), an Englishman.

Whittle invented the jet engine in 1930 in time for RAF to confront the Luftwaffe with the Battles of France and Britain in 1940 with jet fighters and bombers.

In 1926, Whittle began to study the idea of airplane propulsion without propeller. In 1928, he decided that a gas turbine could create a jet of hot exhaust gas capable of propelling a plane.

Whittle calculated that a supercharged burner would exhaust a greater volume and velocity gas than the volume that entered. These differentials would create forward motion for a plane.

Whittle’s jet engine vastly increased the speed that airplanes were able to achieve. Faster airplane travel has made the transport of people and goods to faraway places possible, boosting the worldwide economy and expanding people’s perceptions of the world.
The invention of the jet engine by Frank Whittle