Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle , OM , KBE , CB , FRS , Hon FRAeS ( 1 June 1907 – 9 August 1996 ) was a British Royal Air Force ( RAF ) engineer air officer . He is credited with single handedly inventing the turbojet engine . Whittle ' s engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany ' s Dr . Hans von Ohain who was the designer of the first " operational " jet engine . From an early age Whittle demonstrated an aptitude for engineering and an interest in flying . At first he was turned down by the RAF but determined to join the Royal Air Force , he overcame his physical limitations and was accepted and sent to No . 2 School of Technical Training to join No 1 Squadron of Cranwell Aircraft Apprentices . He was taught the theory of aircraft engines and gained practical experience in the engineering workshops . His academic and practical abilities as an Aircraft Apprentice earned him a place on the officer training course at Cranwell . He excelled in his studies and became an accomplished pilot . While writing his thesis there he formulated the fundamental concepts that led to the creation of the turbojet engine , taking out a patent on his design in 1930 . His performance on an officers ' engineering course earned him a place on a further course at the University of Cambridge where he graduated with a First . Without Air Ministry support , he and two retired RAF servicemen formed Power Jets Ltd to build his engine with assistance from the firm of British Thomson - Houston . Despite limited funding , a prototype was created , which first ran in 1937 . Official interest was forthcoming following this success , with contracts being placed to develop further engines , but the continuing stress seriously affected Whittle ' s health , eventually resulting in a nervous breakdown in 1940 . In 1944 when Power Jets was nationalised he again suffered a nervous breakdown , and resigned from the board in 1946 . In 1948 Whittle retired from the RAF and received a knighthood . He joined BOAC as a technical advisor before working as an engineering specialist in one of Shell Oil ' s subsidiaries followed by a position with Bristol Aero Engines . After emigrating to the U . S . in 1976 he accepted the position of NAVAIR Research Professor at the United States Naval Academy from 1977 – 1979 . In August 1996 , Whittle died of lung cancer at his home in Columbia , Maryland . In 2002 , Whittle was ranked number 42 in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons . Early life . Whittle was born in a terraced house in Newcombe Road , Earlsdon , Coventry , England on 1 June 1907 , the eldest son of Moses Whittle and Sara Alice Garlick . When he was nine years old , the family moved to the nearby town of Royal Leamington Spa where his father , a highly inventive practical engineer and mechanic , purchased the Leamington Valve and Piston Ring Company , which comprised a few lathes and other tools and a single - cylinder gas engine , on which Whittle became an expert . Whittle developed a rebellious and adventurous streak , together with an early interest in aviation . After two years attending Milverton School , Whittle won a scholarship to a secondary school which in due course became Leamington College for Boys , but when his father ' s business faltered there was not enough money to keep him there . He quickly developed practical engineering skills while helping in his father ' s workshop , and being an enthusiastic reader spent much of his spare time in the Leamington reference library , reading about astronomy , engineering , turbines , and the theory of flight . At the age of 15 , determined to be a pilot , Whittle applied to join the RAF . Entering the RAF . In January 1923 , having passed the RAF entrance examination with flying colours Whittle reported to RAF Halton as an Aircraft Apprentice . He lasted only two days : just five feet tall and with a small chest measurement , he failed the medical . He then put himself through a vigorous training programme and special diet devised by a physical training instructor at Halton to build up his physique , only to fail again six months later , when he was told that he could not be given a second chance , despite having added three inches to his height and chest . Undeterred , he applied again under an assumed name and presented himself as a candidate at the No 2 School of Technical Training RAF Cranwell . This time he passed the physical , and in September that year , 364365 Boy Whittle , F started his three - year training as an aircraft mechanic in No 1 Squadron of No . 4 Apprentices Wing , RAF Cranwell because RAF Halton No . 1 School of Technical Training . was unable to accommodate all the Aircraft apprentices at that time Whittle hated the strict discipline imposed on apprentices and , convinced there was no hope of ever becoming a pilot he at one time seriously considered deserting . However , throughout his early days as an aircraft apprentice ( and at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell ) , he maintained his interest in model aircraft and joined the Model Aircraft Society , where he built working replicas . The quality of these attracted the eye of the Apprentice Wing commanding officer , who noted that Whittle was also a mathematical genius . He was so impressed that in 1926 he recommended Whittle for officer training at The RAF College Cranwell . For Whittle , this was the chance of a lifetime , not only to enter the commissioned ranks but also because the training included flying lessons on the Avro 504 . While at Cranwell he lodged in a bungalow at Dorrington . Being an ex - apprentice amongst a majority of ex - public schoolboys , life as an officer cadet was not easy for him , but he nevertheless excelled in the courses and went solo in 1927 after only 13 . 5 hours instruction , quickly progressing to the Bristol Fighter and gaining a reputation for daredevil low flying and aerobatics . A requirement of the course was that each student had to produce a thesis for graduation : Whittle decided to write his on potential aircraft design developments , notably flight at high altitudes and speeds over 500 mph ( 800 km / h ) . In " Future Developments in Aircraft Design " he showed that incremental improvements in existing propeller engines were unlikely to make such flight routine . Instead he described what is today referred to as a motorjet ; a motor using a conventional piston engine to provide compressed air to a combustion chamber whose exhaust was used directly for thrust – essentially an afterburner attached to a propeller engine . The idea was not new and had been talked about for some time in the industry , but Whittle ' s aim was to demonstrate that at increased altitudes the lower outside air pressure would increase the design ' s efficiency . For long - range flight , using an Atlantic - crossing mailplane as his example , the engine would spend most of its time at high altitude and thus could outperform a conventional powerplant . Of the few apprentices accepted into the Royal Air Force College , Whittle graduated in 1928 at the age of 21 and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer in July . He ranked second in his class in academics , won the Andy Fellowes Memorial Prize for Aeronautical Sciences for his thesis , and was described as an " exceptional to above average " pilot . However , his flight logbook also showed numerous red ink warnings about showboating and overconfidence , and because of dangerous flying in an Armstrong Whitworth Siskin he was disqualified from the end of term flying contest . Development of the turbojet engine . Whittle continued working on the motorjet principle after his thesis work but eventually abandoned it when further calculations showed it would weigh as much as a conventional engine of the same thrust . Pondering the problem he thought : " Why not substitute a turbine for the piston engine ? " Instead of using a piston engine to provide the compressed air for the burner , a turbine could be used to extract some power from the exhaust and drive a similar compressor to those used for superchargers . The remaining exhaust thrust would power the aircraft . On 27 August 1928 Pilot Officer Whittle joined No . 111 Squadron , Hornchurch , flying Siskin IIIs . His continuing reputation for low flying and aerobatics provoked a public complaint that almost led to his being court - martialled . Within a year he was posted to Central Flying School , Wittering , for a flying instructor ' s course . He became a popular and gifted instructor , and was selected as one of the entrants in a competition to select a team to perform the " crazy flying " routine in the 1930 Royal Air Force Air Display at RAF Hendon . He destroyed two aircraft in accidents during rehearsals but remained unscathed on both occasions . After the second incident an enraged Flight Lieutenant Harold W . Raeburn said furiously , " Why don ' t you take all my bloody aeroplanes , make a heap of them in the middle of the aerodrome and set fire to them – it ' s quicker ! " Whittle showed his engine concept around the base , where it attracted the attention of Flying Officer Pat Johnson , formerly a patent examiner . Johnson , in turn , took the concept to the commanding officer of the base . This set in motion a chain of events that almost led to the engines being produced much sooner than actually occurred . Earlier , in July 1926 , A . A . Griffith had published a paper on compressors and turbines , which he had been studying at the Royal Aircraft Establishment ( RAE ) . He showed that such designs up to this point had been flying " stalled " , and that by giving the compressor blades an aerofoil - shaped cross - section their efficiency could be dramatically improved . The paper went on to describe how the increased efficiency of these sorts of compressors and turbines would allow a jet engine to be produced , although he felt the idea was impractical , and instead suggested using the power as a turboprop . At the time most superchargers used a centrifugal compressor , so there was limited interest in the paper . Encouraged by his Commanding Officer , in late 1929 Whittle sent his concept to the Air Ministry to see if it would be of any interest to them . With little knowledge of the topic they turned to the only other person who had written on the subject and passed the paper on to Griffith . Griffith appears to have been convinced that Whittle ' s " simple " design could never achieve the sort of efficiencies needed for a practical engine . After pointing out an error in one of Whittle ' s calculations , he went on to comment that the centrifugal design would be too large for aircraft use and that using the jet directly for power would be rather inefficient . The RAF returned his comment to Whittle , referring to the design as being " impracticable " . Pat Johnson remained convinced of the validity of the idea , and had Whittle patent the idea in January 1930 . Since the RAF was not interested in the concept they did not declare it secret , meaning that Whittle was able to retain the rights to the idea , which would have otherwise been their property . Johnson arranged a meeting with British Thomson - Houston ( BTH ) , whose chief turbine engineer seemed to agree with the basic idea . However , BTH did not want to spend the ₤60 , 000 it would cost to develop it , and this potential brush with early success went no further . In January 1930 , Whittle was promoted to Flying Officer . In Coventry , on 24 May 1930 , Whittle married his fiancée , Dorothy Mary Lee , with whom he later had two sons , David and Ian . Then , in 1931 , he was posted to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe as an armament officer and test pilot of seaplanes , where he continued to publicize his idea . This posting came as a surprise for he had never previously flown a seaplane , but he nevertheless increased his reputation as a pilot by flying some 20 different types of floatplanes , flying boats , and amphibians . Every officer with a permanent commission was expected to take a specialist course , and as a result Whittle attended the Officers ’ Engineering Course at RAF Henlow , Bedfordshire in 1932 . He obtained an aggregate of 98 % in all subjects in his exams , completing the course in 18 months instead of the more normal two years . His performance in the course was so exceptional that in 1934 he was permitted to take a two - year engineering course as a member of Peterhouse , the oldest college of Cambridge University , graduating in 1936 with a First in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos . In February 1934 , he had been promoted to the rank of Flight Lieutenant . Power Jets Ltd . Still at Cambridge , Whittle could ill afford the £5 renewal fee for his jet engine patent when it became due in January 1935 , and because the Air Ministry refused to pay it the patent was allowed to lapse . Shortly afterwards , in May , he received mail from Rolf Dudley - Williams , who had been with him at Cranwell in the 1920s and Felixstowe in 1930 . Williams arranged a meeting with Whittle , himself , and another now - retired RAF serviceman , James Collingwood Tinling . The two proposed a partnership that allowed them to act on Whittle ' s behalf to gather public financing so that development could go ahead . The agreement soon bore fruit , and in September 1935 the pair introduced Whittle to two investment bankers at O . T . Falk & Partners , Sir Maurice Bonham - Carter and Lancelot Law Whyte . The firm had an interest in developing speculative projects that conventional banks would not touch . Whyte was impressed by the 28 - year - old Whittle and his design when they met on 11 September 1935 : Falk & Partners financed an independent engineering review that was favourable , and with that the jet engine was finally on its way to becoming a reality . On 27 January 1936 , the principals signed the " Four Party Agreement " , creating " Power Jets Ltd . " The parties were O . T . Falk , the Air Ministry , Whittle and , together , Williams and Tinling . Falk was represented on the board of Power Jets by Whyte as Chairman , and Bonham - Carter as a director . Whittle , Williams and Tinling retained a 49 % share of the company in exchange for Falk and Partners putting in £2 , 000 with the option of a further £18 , 000 within 18 months . As Whittle was still a full - time RAF officer and currently at Cambridge , he was given the title " Honorary Chief Engineer and Technical Consultant " . Needing special permission to work outside the RAF , he was placed on the Special Duty List and allowed to work on the design as long as it was for no more than six hours a week . The Air Ministry still saw no value in the effort , and having no production facilities of its own , Power Jets entered into an agreement with steam turbine specialists British Thomson - Houston to build an experimental engine facility at a BTH factory in Rugby , Warwickshire . Work progressed quickly , and by the end of the year the prototype detail design was finalised and parts for it were well on their way to being completed , all within the original £2 , 000 budget . Financial difficulty . Earlier , in January , when the company formed , Henry Tizard , the rector of Imperial College London and chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee ( ARC ) , had prompted the Air Ministry ' s Director of Scientific Research to ask for a write - up of the design . The report was once again passed on to Griffith for comment , but was not received back until March 1937 by which point Whittle ' s design was well along . Griffith had already started construction of his own turbine engine design and , perhaps to avoid tainting his own efforts , he returned a somewhat more positive review . However , he remained highly critical of some features , notably the use of jet thrust . The Engine Sub - Committee of ARC studied Griffith ' s report , and decided to fund his effort instead . Given this astonishing display of official indifference , Falk and Partners gave notice that they could not provide funding beyond £5 , 000 . Nevertheless the team pressed ahead , and the W . U . ( Whittle Unit ) engine ran successfully on 12 April 1937 . Tizard pronounced it " streets ahead " of any other advanced engine he had seen , and managed to interest the Air Ministry enough to fund development with a contract for £5 , 000 to develop a flyable version . However , it was a year before the funds were made available , greatly delaying development . In July , when Whittle ' s stay at Cambridge was over , he was released to work full - time on the engine . On 8 July Falk gave the company an emergency loan of £250 , and on the 15th they agreed to find £4 , 000 to £14 , 000 in additional funding . The money never arrived and , entering into default , Falk ' s shares were returned to Williams , Tinling and Whittle on 1 November . Nevertheless , Falk arranged another loan of £3 , 000 , and work continued . Whittle was promoted to Squadron Leader in December . Testing continued with the W . U . , which showed an alarming tendency to race out of control . Because of the dangerous nature of the work being carried out , development was largely moved from Rugby to BTH ' s lightly used Ladywood foundry at nearby Lutterworth in Leicestershire in 1938 , where there was a successful run of the W . U . in March that year . BTH had decided to put in £2 , 500 of their own in January , and in March 1938 the Air Ministry funds finally arrived . This proved to be a mixed blessing – the company was now subject to the Official Secrets Act , which made it extremely difficult to gather more private equity . These delays and the lack of funding slowed the project . In Germany , Hans von Ohain had started work on a prototype in 1935 , and had by this point passed the prototype stage and was building the first flyable design , the Heinkel HeS 3 . There is little doubt that Whittle ' s efforts would have been at the same level or even more advanced had the Air Ministry taken a greater interest in the design . When war broke out in September 1939 , Power Jets had a payroll of only 10 and Griffith ' s operations at the RAE and Metropolitan - Vickers were similarly small . The stress of the continual on - again - off - again development and problems with the engine took a serious toll on Whittle . He suffered from stress - related ailments such as eczema and heart palpitations , while his weight dropped to nine stone ( 126 lb / 57 kg ) . In order to keep to his 16 - hour workdays , he sniffed Benzedrine during the day and then took tranquillizers and sleeping pills at night to offset the effects and allow him to sleep . Over this period he became irritable and developed an " explosive " temper . Changing fortunes . By June 1939 Power Jets could barely afford to keep the lights on when yet another visit was made by Air Ministry personnel . This time Whittle was able to run the W . U . at high power for 20 minutes without any difficulty . One of the members of the team was the Director of Scientific Research , David Randall Pye , who walked out of the demonstration utterly convinced of the importance of the project . The Ministry agreed to buy the W . U . and then loan it back to them , injecting cash , and placed an order for a flyable version of the engine . Whittle had already studied the problem of turning the massive W . U . into a flyable design , and with the new contract work started in earnest on the " Whittle Supercharger Type W . 1 " . It featured a reverse - flow design ; compressed air from the outer rim of the compressor was fed into the burners and ignited , then piped back towards the front of the engine , reversing again , then finally into the turbine area . This design allowed the flame cans to be folded in length , reducing the length of the engine , and the length of the drive shaft connecting the compressor and turbine , thus reducing weight . In January 1940 , the Ministry placed a contract with the Gloster Aircraft Company for a simple aircraft specifically to flight - test the W . 1 , the Gloster E . 28 / 39 . They also placed a second engine contract , this time for a larger design that developed into the otherwise similar W . 2 . In February work started on a third design , the W . 1A , which was the size of the W . 1 but used the W . 2 ' s mechanical layout . The W . 1A allowed them to flight test the W . 2 ' s basic mechanical design in the E . 28 / 39 . Power Jets also spent some time in May 1940 drawing up the W . 2Y , a similar design with a " straight - through " airflow that resulted in a longer engine and ( more critically ) driveshaft but having a somewhat simpler layout . To reduce the weight of the driveshaft as much as possible , the W . 2Y used a large cylindrical shaft almost as large as the turbine disc , " necked down " at either end where it connected to the turbine and compressor . In April the Air Ministry issued contracts for W . 2 production lines with a capacity of up to 3 , 000 engines a month in 1942 , asking BTH , Vauxhall and the Rover Company to join . However , the contract was eventually taken up by Rover only . In June , Whittle received a promotion to Wing Commander . Rover . Meanwhile work continued with the W . U . , which eventually went through nine rebuilds in an attempt to solve the combustion problems that caused the engines to race and surge . On 9 October the W . U . ran once again , this time equipped with Lubbock ( " Shell " type ) atomizing burners which solved the racing problems , but surging continued . By this point it was clear that Gloster ' s first airframe would be ready long before Rover could deliver an engine . Unwilling to wait , Whittle cobbled together an engine from spare parts , creating the W . 1X ( " X " standing for " experimental " ) which ran for the first time on 14 December 1940 . On 10 December Whittle suffered a nervous breakdown , and left work for a month . This engine powered the E . 28 / 39 for taxi testing on 7 April 1941 near the factory in Gloucester , where it took to the air for two or three short hops of several hundred yards at about six feet from the ground . The definitive W . 1 of 850 lbf ( 3 . 8 kN ) thrust ran on 12 April 1941 , and on 15 May the W . 1 - powered E . 28 / 39 took off from Cranwell at 7 : 40 pm , flying for 17 minutes and reaching a maximum speed of around 340 mph ( 545 km / h ) . At the end of the flight , Pat Johnson , who had encouraged Whittle for so long said to him , " Frank , it flies . " Whittle replied , " Well , that ' s what it was bloody well designed to do , wasn ' t it ? " Within days the aircraft was reaching 370 mph ( 600 km / h ) at 25 , 000 feet ( 7 , 600 m ) , exceeding the performance of the contemporary Spitfires . Success of the design was now evident ; the first example of what was a purely experimental and entirely new engine design was already outperforming one of the best piston engines in the world , an engine that had five years of development and production behind it , and decades of basic engineering . Nearly every engine company in Britain then started their own crash efforts to catch up with Power Jets . In 1941 Rover set up a new laboratory for Whittle ' s team along with a production line at their unused Barnoldswick factory , but by late 1941 it was obvious that the arrangement between Power Jets and Rover was not working . Whittle was frustrated by Rover ' s inability to deliver production - quality parts , as well as with their attitude of engineering superiority , and became increasingly outspoken about the problems . Rover decided to set up secretly a parallel effort with their own engineers at Waterloo Mill , in nearby Clitheroe . Here Adrian Lombard started work developing the W . 2B into Rovers own production - quality design , dispensing with Whittle ' s " reverse - flow " burners and developing a longer but simpler " straight - through " engine instead . This was encouraged by the Air Ministry , who gave Whittle ' s design the name " B . 23 " , and Rover ' s became the " B . 26 " . Work on all of the designs continued over the winter of 1941 – 42 . The first W . 1A was completed soon after , and on 2 March 1942 the second E . 28 / 39 reached 430 mph ( 690 km / h ) at 15 , 000 feet ( 4 , 600 m ) on this engine . The next month work on an improved W . 2B started under the new name , " W2 / 500 " . In April Whittle learned of Rover ' s parallel effort , creating discontentment and causing a major crisis in the programme . Work continued , however , and in September the first W2 / 500 ran for the first time , generating its full design thrust of 1 , 750 lbf ( 7 . 8 kN ) the same day . Work started on a further improvement , the W2 / 700 . Rolls - Royce . Earlier , in January 1940 , Whittle had met Dr Stanley Hooker of Rolls - Royce , who in turn introduced Whittle to Rolls - Royce board member and manager of their Derby factory , Ernest Hives ( later Lord Hives ) . Hooker was in charge of the supercharger division at Rolls - Royce Derby and was a specialist in the mathematics of " fluid flow " . He had already increased the power of the Merlin piston engine by improving its supercharger . Such a speciality was naturally suited to the dynamics of jet engines in which the optimisation of airflow in compressor , flame cans , turbine and jet pipe , is fundamental . Hives agreed to supply key parts to help the project and it was Rolls - Royce engineers who helped solve surging problems ( unstable airflow in the compressor ) experienced in the early engines . In early 1942 Whittle contracted Rolls - Royce for six engines , known as the WR . 1 , identical to the existing W . 1 . When Rolls - Royce became involved , Ray Dorey , the manager of the company ' s Flight Centre at Hucknall airfield on the north side of Nottingham , had a Whittle engine installed in the rear of a Vickers Wellington bomber . This enabled testing to be carried out in a real flight environment without the aircraft depending on the jet engine for its own propulsion and safety . This was the first flying " test bed " for testing jet engines before they were used for primary propulsion in their own right . The problems between Rover and Power Jets became a " public secret " and late in 1942 Spencer Wilks of Rover met with Hives and Hooker at the " Swan and Royal " pub , in Clitheroe , near the Barnoldswick factory . They decided to trade the jet factory at Barnoldswick for Rolls - Royce ' s tank engine factory in Nottingham , sealing the deal with a handshake . The official handover took place on 1 January 1943 , although the W . 2B contract had already been signed over in December . Rolls - Royce closed Rover ' s secret parallel plant at Clitheroe soon after ; however , they continued the development of the W . 2B / 26 that had begun there . Testing and production ramp - up was immediately accelerated . In December 1942 Rover had tested the W . 2B for a total of 37 hours , but within the next month Rolls - Royce tested it for 390 hours . The W . 2B passed its first 100 - hour test at full performance of 1 , 600 lbf ( 7 . 1 kN ) on 7 May 1943 . The prototype Meteor airframe was already complete and took to the air on 12 June 1943 . Production versions of the engine started rolling off the line in October , first known as the W . 2B / 23 , then the RB . 23 ( for " Rolls - Barnoldswick " ) and eventually became known as the Rolls - Royce Welland . Barnoldswick was too small for full - scale production and turned back into a pure research facility under Hooker ' s direction , while a new factory was set up in Newcastle - under - Lyme . Rovers W . 2B / 26 , as the Rolls - Royce Derwent , opened the new line and soon replaced the Welland , allowing the production lines at Barnoldswick to shut down in late 1944 . Despite lengthy delays in their own programme , the Luftwaffe beat the British efforts into the air by nine months . A lack of cobalt for high - temperature steel alloys meant the German designs were always at risk of overheating and damaging their turbines . The low - grade alloy production versions of the Junkers Jumo 004 , designed by Dr . Anselm Franz , would typically last only 10 – 25 hours ( longer with an experienced pilot ) before burning out , and sometimes exploded on their first startup . Whittle ' s designs were more basic , with centrifugal compressors rather than the more complicated axial designs . The latter , having several stages of rotating blades , each stage increasing the compression ratio , were potentially more efficient but were much more difficult to develop . The UK designs also had better materials such as the Nimonic alloys for turbine blades . Early UK jet engines would run for 150 hours between overhauls and had better power - to - weight ratio and specific fuel consumption compared to the German designs . By the end of the Second World War , other UK engine companies were working on jet designs based on the Whittle pattern , such as the de Havilland Goblin and Ghost engines . However , the advantages of axial - flow compressors with their higher compression ratios compared to simpler centrifugal designs led to a transition to axial compressors in the late 1940s , epitomised by the Rolls - Royce Avon series , Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire , Bristol Olympus , and so forth . Continued development . With the W . 2 design proceeding smoothly , Whittle was sent to Boston , Massachusetts in mid - 1942 to help the General Electric jet programme . GE , the primary supplier of turbochargers in the U . S . , was well - suited to starting jet production quickly . A combination of the W . 2B design and a simple airframe from Bell Aircraft flew in autumn of 1942 as the Bell XP - 59A Airacomet . Whittle ' s developments at Power Jets continued , the W . 2 / 700 later being fitted with an afterburner ( " reheat " in British terminology ) , as well as experimental water injection to cool the engine and allow higher power settings without melting the turbine . Whittle also turned his attention to the axial - flow ( straight - through ) engine type as championed by Griffith , designing the L . R . 1 . Other developments included the use of fans to provide greater mass - flow , either at the front of the engine as in a modern turbofan or at the rear , which is much less common but somewhat simpler . Whittle ' s work had caused a minor revolution within the British engine manufacturing industry , and even before the E . 28 / 39 flew most companies had set up their own research efforts . In 1939 , Metropolitan - Vickers set up a project to develop an axial - flow design as a turboprop but later re - engineered the design as a pure jet known as the Metrovick F . 2 . Rolls - Royce had already copied the W . 1 to produce the low - rated WR . 1 but later stopped work on this project after taking over Rover ' s efforts . In 1941 , de Havilland started a jet fighter project , the Spider Crab — later called Vampire — along with their own engine to power it ; Frank Halford ' s Goblin ( Halford H . 1 ) . Armstrong Siddeley also developed an axial - flow design , the ASX but reversed Vickers ' thinking and later modified it into a turboprop instead , the Python . Nationalisation . During a demonstration of the E . 28 / 39 to Winston Churchill in April 1943 , Whittle proposed to Stafford Cripps , Minister of Aircraft Production , that all jet development be nationalised . He pointed out that the company had been funded by private investors who helped develop the engine successfully , only to see production contracts go to other companies . Nationalisation was the only way to repay those debts and ensure a fair deal for everyone , and he was willing to surrender his shares in Power Jets to make this happen . In October , Cripps told Whittle that he decided a better solution would be to nationalise Power Jets only . Whittle believed that he had triggered this decision , but Cripps had already been considering how best to maintain a successful jet programme and act responsibly regarding the state ' s substantial financial investment , while at the same time wanting to establish a research centre that could utilise Power Jets ' talents , and had come to the conclusion that national interests demanded the setting up of a Government - owned establishment . On 1 December Cripps advised Power Jets ' directors that the Treasury would not pay more than £100 , 000 for the company . In January 1944 Whittle was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours . By this time he was a Group Captain , having been promoted from Wing Commander in July 1943 . Later that month after further negotiations the Ministry made another offer of £135 , 500 for Power Jets , which was reluctantly accepted after the Ministry refused arbitration on the matter . Since Whittle had already offered to surrender his shares he would receive nothing at all , while Williams and Tinling each received almost £46 , 800 for their stock , and investors of cash or services had a threefold return on their original investment . Whittle met with Cripps to object personally to the nationalisation efforts and how they were being handled , but to no avail . The final terms were agreed on 28 March , and Power Jets officially became Power Jets ( Research and Development ) Ltd , with Roxbee Cox as Chairman , Constant of RAE Head of Engineering Division , and Whittle as Chief Technical Advisor . On 5 April 1944 , the Ministry sent Whittle an award of only £10 , 000 for his shares . From the end of March , Whittle spent six months in hospital recovering from nervous exhaustion , and resigned from Power Jets ( R and D ) Ltd in January 1946 . In July the company was merged with the gas turbine division of the RAE to form the National Gas Turbine Establishment ( NGTE ) at Farnborough , and 16 Power Jets engineers , following Whittle ' s example , also resigned . After the war . Long a socialist , Whittle ' s experiences with nationalisation changed his mind and he later campaigned for the Conservative Party ( especially for his friend Dudley Williams , who was Managing Director of Power Jets and became the Conservative Member of Parliament for Exeter ) . In 1946 Whittle accepted a post as Technical Advisor on Engine Design and Production to Controller of Supplies ( Air ) ; was made Commander , the U . S . Legion of Merit ; and was awarded the Order of the Bath ( CB ) in 1947 . During May 1948 Whittle received an ex - gratia award of £100 , 000 from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors in recognition of his work on the jet engine , and two months later he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( KBE ) , Military Division . During a lecture tour in the U . S . he again broke down and retired from the RAF on medical grounds on 26 August 1948 , leaving with the rank of Air Commodore . He joined BOAC as a technical advisor on aircraft gas turbines and travelled extensively over the next few years , viewing jet engine developments in the United States , Canada , Africa , Asia and the Middle East . He left BOAC in 1952 and spent the next year working on a biography , " Jet : The Story of a Pioneer " . He was awarded the Royal Society of Arts ' Albert Medal that year . Returning to work in 1953 , he accepted a position as a Mechanical Engineering Specialist in one of Shell Oil ' s subsidiaries , where he developed a new type of self - powered drill , driven by a turbine running on the lubricating mud that is pumped into the borehole during drilling . Normally a well is drilled by attaching rigid sections of pipe together and powering the cutting head by spinning the pipe , but Whittle ' s design removed the need for a strong mechanical connection between the drill and the head frame , allowing for much lighter piping to be used . He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 1954 on " The Story of Petroleum " . Whittle left Shell in 1957 to work for Bristol Aero Engines who picked up the project in 1961 , setting up " Bristol Siddeley Whittle Tools " to further develop the concept . In 1966 Rolls - Royce purchased Bristol Siddeley , but the financial pressures and eventual bankruptcy because of cost overruns of the RB211 project led to the slow wind - down and eventual disappearance of Whittle ' s " turbo - drill " . The design eventually appeared only in the late 1990s , when it was combined with a continuous coiled pipe to allow uninterrupted drilling at any angle . " Continuous - coil drilling " has the ability to drill straight down into a pocket of oil and then sideways through the pocket to allow the oil to flow out faster . In 1967 , he was awarded an Honorary Degree ( Doctor of Science ) by the University of Bath . Later life . Whittle received the " Tony Jannus Award " in 1969 for his distinguished contributions to commercial aviation . In 1976 , his marriage to Dorothy was dissolved and he married American Hazel S Hall ( " Tommie " ) . He emigrated to the U . S . and the following year accepted the position of NAVAIR Research Professor at the United States Naval Academy ( Annapolis , Maryland ) . His research concentrated on the boundary layer before his professorship became part - time from 1978 to 1979 . The part - time post enabled him to write a textbook entitled " Gas turbine aero - thermodynamics : with special reference to aircraft propulsion " , published in 1981 . Having first met Hans von Ohain in 1966 , Whittle again met him at Wright - Patterson Air Force Base in 1978 while von Ohain was working there as the Aero Propulsion Laboratory ' s Chief Scientist . Initially upset because he believed von Ohain ' s engine had been developed after seeing Whittle ' s patent , he eventually became convinced that von Ohain ' s work was , in fact , independent . The two became good friends and often toured the U . S . giving talks together . In 1986 Whittle was appointed a member of the Order of Merit ( Commonwealth ) . He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society , and of the Royal Aeronautical Society , and in 1991 he and von Ohain were awarded the Charles Stark Draper Prize for their work on turbojet engines . On his religious views , Whittle was an atheist . Whittle died of lung cancer on 9 August 1996 , at his home in Columbia , Maryland . He was cremated in America and his ashes were flown to England where they were placed in a memorial in a church in Cranwell . In a conversation with Whittle after the war , Von Ohain stated that " " If you had been given the money you would have been six years ahead of us . If Hitler or Goering had heard that there is a man in England who flies 500mph in a small experimental plane and that it is coming into development , it is likely that World War II would not have come into being " " As it was found later in the war the fighter superiority over Europe was key to winning the war in Europe .