Report - Frank Whittles Factory - April 15

[Funlester]

History -
The factory itself was owned by Sir Frank Whittle, who was born on the 1st of June 1907 and died in august 9 1996. he was a royal air force officer who was accredited for single handily inventing the turbojet engine, although the first actually working engines weren't invented until some years later. Frank had a long career in the RAF and through work related stress issues had mental breakdowns and eventually retire and received a knighthood and going to work for shells oil company as a engineering specialist. he later immigrated to the USA and in 1976 he accepted a position as a NAVAIR research professor of the naval academy. in 2002 he was nominated as the 42nd greatest Briton which after reading about him I would say I agree with.

The company itself was founded on January 27th 1936. over the years the company moved to several locations in the uk and on march 28th 1944 frank Whittle was persuaded by the air ministry to nationalise the company and become Power Jets LTD. after the second world war the company was merged with the Turbine Division of the royal aircraft establishment to form the royal gas turbine establishment.



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[Ex-GEC]

You may want to return to the GEC site and take photos of the areas where Frank Whittel actually had his facilities during the war period. Forget the vast sprawling area that was once GEC, and focus on the area near the railway line. You can see it in the background of your photo with the busses and lorries. I worked in these buildings in 1980, and can attest to being in one of the control rooms, decommissioned test cells, with a whole wall of Manometers to take pressure measurements of the engines. I will attach an Historic photo of the original cells, and you might be able to find the exact spot, matching the background Railway line and farm buildings beyond. In 1980 one of the WW2 buildings was also repurposed as the GEC site dentist. And another building was part of a GEC commissioning facility in Canada at the Cornerbrook Nuclear power plant. GEC stripped down the building and shipped it to Whetstone for rebuilding, and housing the latest development test rig. Good Luck.