Jet

On 12 April 1937 Frank Whittle became the first person to successfully start and run a turbojet engine. In may 1941 the engine took to the air in an experimental Gloster-Whittle aircraft, but despite the RAF's desperate need for air supremacy over her enemies, little support was forthcoming from the military establishment. It was the enthusiasm of the American General 'Hap' Arnold that took the next stage of development to the USA and within six months Whittle's invention was powering more American Jets than British.

This is the story of the genius throttled by British government bureaucracy, for even when in 1943 Rolls-Royce became involved with the successful design and manufacture of engines based on Whittle's concepts, his company was nationalised and banned from engine production! Although gagged for decades by the secrecy of that period, the story can now be told in full and these revelations provide a fascinating insight into the attitudes of the wartime government and military establishment, attitudes that led to one of the greatest inventions of all time being offered freely to those who were to become Britain's main aircraft manufacturing competitors.

This book was previously known as “Genesis of the Jet: Frank Whittle and the invention of the Jet Engine”. As part of this new release we have included a supplement by Ian Whittle and a copy of the patents registered in Berlin back in 1931 currently on display at the Deutsches Museum in Germany.

Cover photo by William Sebastian at http://www.williamsebastianphoto.com