Marking Sir Frank's jet engine eureka moment at Rugby factory
Dignitaries, including the pioneering engineer’s son Ian, toured the former British Thomson-Houston Works where the jet engine was first successfully tested.
Also among the esteemed guests at the GE Energy Connections factory on Technology Drive was Sir Alastair Dudley-Williams, whose father Sir Rolf was one of the jet engine’s original backers.
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Hide AdIn addition were representatives from The Whittle Commemorative Trust, Rugby Aviation Group, GE and Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society plus Rugby MP Mark Pawsey for the tour and lunch afterwards at Brownsover Hall Hotel, where Sir Frank held his wartime offices in the 1940s.
Ian Whittle brought along a model of the W2/700 jet engine, and a model of the Gloster-Whittle E28/39 aircraft which was the first aircraft to fly with the engine in 1941.