Long Description:Whittle was born in a terraced house in Earlsdon, Coventry,
England, United Kingdom on 1 June 1907, the son of a mechanic. When
Whittle was nine years old, the family moved to the nearby town of
Royal Leamington Spa, where his father started an engineering
factory. He left Leamington College in 1923 to join the RAF.
Through his early days as an Aircraft apprentice (first at RAF
Cranwell but latterly at RAF Halton) he maintained his interest in
the Model Aircraft Society where he built replicas, the quality of
which attracted the eye of his commanding officer, who also felt
that Whittle was a mathematical genius.
He was so impressed that he recommended Whittle for officer
training at the RAF College, Cranwell in Lincolnshire in 1926, a
rarity for a "commoner" in what was still a very class-based
military structure. For Whittle this was the chance of a lifetime,
not only to enter the officer corps but also because the training
included flying lessons. Of the few apprentices that were accepted,
only about one percent completed the course. Whittle was the
exception to the rule, graduating in 1928 at the age of 21, ranked
second in his class in academics and an "Exceptional to Above
Average" pilot.
Another requirement of the course was that each student had to
produce a thesis for graduation. Whittle decided to write his
thesis on future developments in aircraft design, notably
high-speed flight at high altitudes and speeds over 500 mph (800
km/h). 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
design was not a new one, it had been talked about for some time in
the industry but Whittle's interest was to demonstrate that at
increased altitudes the lower outside air pressure would increase
its 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.
Development of the jet engine
Whittle continued working on the motorjet principle after his
thesis work and eventually abandoned it when further calculations
showed it would weigh as much as a conventional engine of the same
thrust. While thinking about the idea 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
power a compressor, like those used for superchargers. The leftover
exhaust thrust would power the aircraft.
Earlier, in July 1926, A. A. Griffith published a paper on
compressors and turbines, which he had been studying at the RAE. He
showed that such designs up to this point had been flying
"stalled", and that by making the compressor blades into an
aerofoil shape, 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.
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 sorts 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 comment to Whittle, where they
referred to the design as "impracticable."
Others in the RAF were not so sure. In particular Johnny Johnson
convinced him to patent the idea in January 1930. Since the RAF was
not interested in the concept they did not declare it secret, which
meant that Whittle was able to retain the rights to the idea, which
would have otherwise been the property of the RAF. This rejection
would later turn out to be a stroke of luck.
Meanwhile Whittle moved onto the Officers' Engineering Course at
RAF Henlow, Bedfordshire in 1932 and then to Peterhouse, a college
of Cambridge University, in 1934, graduating in 1936 with a First
in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos.
Power jets
Whittle's jet engine patent lapsed in 1935 because he could not
afford the renewal fee of £5. Soon after this he was approached by
two ex-RAF men, Rolf Dudley-Williams and James Collingwood Tinling,
who wanted to expand the development of his engine. The three
incorporated as Power Jets Ltd. in 1936 with a bank loan of £2,000.
Work was started on an experimental engine at a factory in Rugby,
Warwickshire belonging to British Thomson-Houston, a steam turbine
company. The RAF still saw no value in the effort but although
Whittle was still a pilot they placed him on the Special Duty List
and agreed to allow him to work on the design as long as it took no
more than six hours a week.
The Gloster E.28/39, the first British aircraft to fly with a
turbojet engineFunding development of the first engine, known as
the WU (Whittle Unit) was a serious problem. Although privately
funded, most potential investors shied from a project that appeared
to be semi-secret yet had no RAF (Royal Air Force) backing.
Something seemed to be amiss; if the project was going to work, why
didn't the RAF fund it? Once again it seemed not everyone was so
sceptical of Whittle's ideas and in October 1936 Henry Tizard, the
rector of Imperial College London and chairman of the Aeronautical
Research Committee, sent details of Whittle's engine to Griffith
once again. Griffith had by this time started construction of his
own engine design; perhaps in order to avoid tainting his efforts,
he returned a much more positive review. He remained highly
critical of some features, notably the use of jet thrust, seemingly
ignoring the fact that its performance at high speed and altitude
was the crucial aspect of the programme.
Even with these problems Power Jets were able to complete the
WU, which ran successfully on April 12, 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 £6,000 to develop a flyable version.
Nevertheless it was a year before all of the funds were available,
greatly delaying development.
Meanwhile testing continued with the WU, which showed an
alarming tendency to race out of control. Due to the dangerous
nature of the work being carried out, in 1938 development was
largely moved from Rugby to the BTH's semi-disused Ladywood foundry
at nearby Lutterworth in Leicestershire. There was a successful run
of the WU there in March 1938. Although the potential of the engine
was obvious, the Air Ministry remained focused on the production of
piston engine designs.
All of these delays and the lack of funding slowed the project.
In Germany, Hans von Ohain had started work on a prototype in
1935[citation needed] and had by this point passed the prototype
stage and was building the first flyable design,[citation needed]
the Heinkel HeS 3. There is little reason to believe that Whittle's
efforts would not have been at the same level or more advanced had
the Air Ministry taken a greater interest in the design. When the
war started in September 1939, Power Jets had a payroll of only 10
and Griffith's efforts at the RAE and Metropolitan Vickers were
similarly small.
The stress of the continual on-again-off-again development and
problems with the engine had a serious toll on Whittle. He suffered
from stress-related ailments such as eczema and heart palpitations,
while his weight dropped to 9 stone (126 pounds/57 kg). In order to
keep to his sixteen-hour workdays, he sniffed Benzedrine during the
day and then took tranquilizers 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.
Following the outbreak of World War II the Air Ministry changed
priorities and once again looked at the various advanced projects
underway. By 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 WU at high power
for 20 minutes without any difficulty. One of the members of the
team was the Director of Scientific Research, H. E. Wimperis, who
walked out of the demonstration utterly convinced of the importance
of the project.
A contract for full-scale development was immediately sent to
Power Jets, along with a number of tenders to various companies to
set up production lines for up to 3,000 engines a month in 1942.
Power Jets had no manufacturing capability, so the Air Ministry
offered shared production and development contracts with BTH,
Vauxhall and Rover. However, the contract was eventually taken up
by Rover only. They also sent out a contract for a simple airframe
to carry the engine, which was quickly taken up by Gloster.
Whittle had already studied the problem of turning the massive
WU into a flyable design and with the new contract work started in
earnest on the "Whittle Supercharger Type W.1." However, Rover was
unable to deliver the W.1 production engine before Gloster's
experimental airframe was ready. Whittle then cobbled together an
engine built from various test parts and called it the W.1X (the X
standing for experimental), which ran for the first time on
December 14 1940. This engine powered the Gloster E.28/39 for taxi
testing in Gloster, near the factory, when it took to the air for
two or three short hops of several hundred yards and about 6 foot
from the ground on April 7 1941.
The "full" W.1 of 3.8 kN (850 lbf) thrust ran on April 12, 1941
and on May 15, 1941 the W.1-powered E.28/39 took off from Cranwell
at 7.40 pm, flying for seventeen minutes and reaching a maximum
speed of around 340 mph(545 km/h). Within days it was reaching 370
mph (600 km/h) at 25,000ft (7,600 metres) exceeding the performance
of the contemporary Spitfires. Success of the design was now
evident to all and nearly every engine company in Britain started
their own crash efforts to catch up with Power Jets.
The W2/700 engine flew in the Gloster E.28/39, the first British
aircraft to fly with a turbojet engine, and the Gloster Meteor.A
newer design known as the W.2 was then started. Like the W.1 it
featured a "reverse flow" design of the burners, in which the
heated air from the flame cans was piped back towards the front of
the engine before entering the turbine area. This allowed the
engine to be "folded", with the flame cans lying around the turbine
area, and therefore making for a shorter engine.
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 with a
somewhat simpler layout. In order 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 disk, "necked down" at either
end where it connected to the turbine and compressor.
The Air Ministry was eager to obtain an operational jet aircraft
and authorised BTH to press ahead with a twin-engined jet
interceptor, which would evolve into the Gloster Meteor. The Meteor
was intended to use either the W.2 or the similar Halford H.1
(later named "Goblin") but de Havilland later decided to keep all
the Halfords for their design, the de Havilland Vampire.
Rover
In 1941 Rover set up a new laboratory for Whittle's team along with
a production line at their disused Barnoldswick factory but they
also set up a parallel effort with their own engineers at Waterloo
Mill, Clitheroe. Here Adrian Lombard attempted to develop the W.2
into a production quality design, dispensing with Whittle's
"reverse flow" burners and developing a longer but simpler
"straight-through" engine instead. Work at Barnoldswick continued
on Whittle's original design, now known as the W.2B/23, while
Lombard's new design became the W.2B/26. Whittle was upset by this
course of events, feeling that all work should concentrate on
producing a single design as soon as possible.
By late 1941 it was obvious to all 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 "we know better than you" attitude and became
increasingly vocal. Rover was losing interest in the project after
the delays and constant harassment from Power Jets.
Rolls-Royce
In 1940, Stanley Hooker of Rolls-Royce had met with Whittle and
later introduced him to the current CEO of Rolls-Royce, Ernest
Hives. Hooker led the supercharger division at Rolls-Royce, which
was naturally suited to jet engine work. Hives agreed to supply key
parts to help the project and it was Rolls engineers who helped
solve the surging problems seen in the early engines. In early 1942
Whittle contracted Rolls for six engines as well, known as the
WR.1, identical to the existing W.1.
The problems at Rover became a "public secret" and eventually
Spencer Wilkes of Rover met with Hives and Hooker at the Swan and
Royal pub near the Barnoldswick factory. They decided to trade the
jet factory at Barnoldswick for Rolls' tank engine factory in
Nottingham. A handshake sealed the deal. The handover took place on
January 1 1943, although the official date was later. Rolls soon
closed Rover's parallel plant at Clitheroe, although they continued
development of the W.2B/26 that had been developed there.
Testing and production was immediately stepped up. In December
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 725 kgf (7.11 kN) on May
7, 1943. The prototype Meteor airframe was already complete and
took to the air on June 12, 1943. Production versions started
rolling off the line in October, first known as the W.2B/23, then
the RB.23 (for Rolls-Barnoldswick) and eventually the Rolls-Royce
Welland. Barnoldswick was too small for full-scale production and
turned back into a pure research facility under Hooker, while a new
factory was set up in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Info from inside museum
