Evening star., 1949-11-13
England Far Ahead
of u. S. in This
Development
By Frederick R. Nicely

Several hundred selected guests
applauded the British Ambassador
as he presented to the secretary Of
the Smithsonian Institution the
first British gas turbine (turbojet)
engine to power q plane in flight
In England, 1t happened. In April.
1941.
Present, in person, to sanction
the gift to the American people.
was Sir Frank Whittle. the en-
gine's designer and now. only ~.
the father of British Jet propul-
sion. He had brought the jet over
on the Queen Elizabeth the pre-
vious Thursday for It's second and
final trip to America. The other
time, in the fall Of 1941, 1t was
flown across in deepest secrecy and
served as the model for jet engine
and jet combat plane development
for the United States military, no
actual jet engine progress having
been made over here prior to its
appearance.
u. S. Runs Behind
The British had characterized
the presentation ceremony as re-
calling "a unique phase OF close
technical collaboration between
Britain and the United States"-a
statement Fundamentally accepted
here without argument, but when
they went on to say that the cere-
mony marked "the dawn Of the Jet
era in aviation history" they were
practicing extreme austerity In
their expenditure Of words for the
dawn first broke over England
eight years ago and the sun has
been shining on the British jet en-
gine and jet plane industry con-
tinuously ever since-about the
only thing over there the sun has
been shining on.
1t is true that a shaft of that
inspiring sunlight has fallen on
the American progeny of the orig
inal Whittle jet engine and has
stimulated the growth of a healthy
crop of United States Air Force
and Navy jet combat planes. And
surely it is gratifying and COM
forting to modest Sir Frank to
know that American aerial might
in almost every particular now
stems from his original and amaz-
ingly simple jet engine.
u. S. Does Nothing
But at Tuesdays ceremony he
was too kind, too polite to refer
to. what we have done about jet
propelled airliners because he
knows we have done absolutely
nothing. Yet he and other we'll
informed Britishers on this new
subject are exercising remarkable
restraint, in spite of the recent
successes they've achieved in early
tests with experimental jet air.
liner types. There is no boasting
and gloating by them over what
is regarded by some worried
Americans as a three-year lead on
the rest of the world. And a lead
which if consistently maintained
by Britain and consistently
ignored by America, can even
tually result in the same kind Of
domination of world air commerce
as the British enjoyed for Gen.
turies on the seas.
How and when did all this hap
pen and what can we do about 1t?
How it happened: OF necessity
and regrettably it is told all too
briefly here for, as far as the story
goes, which is UP to the present,
it is another adventurous passage
in the history of a people burning
with pride in all things British
and loaded with unlimited deter
mination and energy to rule the
airways as Britannia once ruled
the waves because-its good for
the export trade, and that's the,
life blood Of England.
Studied Our Setup
The war in Europe was far from
won when the Churchill govern
ment, conscious of the ever
increasing numbers of American
two and four engined military air
transports then astounding every
one by hopping oceans as readily
as they hoped continents, rea-
soned very accurately that when
the war did end, America would
dominate the universe in both
types and numbers of air trans
ports. Almost overnight they
would become commercial air.
liners. And 1t was further rea-
soned, with extreme accuracy,
that the Americans would not
stop there but, with the war
proven basic designs in hand, they
would refine them for the post
war trade. The British faced it:
America would hold a monopoly
in both excellence and numbers
Of commercial airliners of the
standard piston-engined, pro-
peller-type for many postwar
years. (Britain's war plane pro-
duction being devoted mainly to
fighters and night bombers, pre-
vented development and volume
production of military atr trans
ports after the fashion of what
went on over here.)
Conventional Types Ignored
Having determined in late 1912
that something had to. be done
about postwar air commerce, the
government, In January, 1943.