Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle was an RAF officer and inventor credited with the invention of the turbojet engine. Born to a small working class family in Earlsdon, Coventry in 1907, he developed a passion for aviation from a very young age. Both an enthusiastic reader and a helper at his father’s engineering workshop, Whittle eventually made the decision to apply to the RAF when he was 15 years old. Despite failing not once, but twice to pass the physical exam required for all recruits, he reapplied a third time under a different name (after being told that he could not apply again) and, as a result of an intense physical training regimen, managed to pass all physical exams and enter as an apprentice: a testament to the brilliant dedication of a man behind one of the 20th century’s most significant inventions. Years after his invention was enthusiastically adopted by the British and American air forces, he retired from the RAF with the rank of Air Commodore and migrated to America, where he lectured at an American Naval Academy until his death in 1996.
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