GREAT AVIATION QUOTES
Frank Whittle

There are 3 quotes matching Frank Whittle in the collection:

It seems that, as the turbine is the most efficient prime mover known, it is possible that it will be developed for aircraft especially if some means of driving a turbine by petrol could be devised.

Frank Whittle

Then a RAF Officer Cadet and student at Cranwell college, in his thesis, Future Developments in Aircraft Design, 1928. In 1928 biplanes still ruled the skies, and Lindbergh had only recently crossed the Atlantic.

For a detailed review of the thesis, see the 2019 paper A Commentary by Dr F Starr FIMMM, MI.MechE, C Eng. on Future Developments in Aircraft Design, A Thesis by Officer Cadet Frank Whittle, Cranwell 1928, in the Journal of Aeronautical History.

In its present state, and even considering the improvements possible when adopting the higher temperatures proposed for the immediate future, the gas turbine engine could hardly be considered a feasible application to airplanes mainly because of the difficulty in complying with the stringent weight requirements imposed by aeronautics.

The present internal combustion engine equipment used in airplanes weighs about 1.1 pounds per horsepower, and to approach such a figure with a gas turbine seems beyond the realm of possibility with existing materials.

The Committee on Gas Turbines appointed by The National Academy of Sciences

10 June 1940. Frank Whittle later said that:

“Good thing I was too stupid to know this.”

That was what it was bloody-well designed to do, wasn’t it?

Frank Whittle

Right after watching the first take-off of a British jet aeroplane, 15 May 1941, in response to Chief Designer George Carter yelling “Frank, it flies!” From his 1953 book Jet: The Story of a Pioneer.

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