Testing of First Jet Engine

Date: April 12, 1937 • Location: Rugby, United Kingdom

Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with co-creating the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for a similar invention which was technically unfeasible at the time. Whittle's jet engines were developed some years earlier than those of Germany's Hans von Ohain, who designed the first-to-fly turbojet engine as well as Austria’s Anselm Franz.