Frank Whittle (1907-1987)

Whittle, an officer in the British Royal Air Force, built the first successful jet engine in the 1940s.
Whittle's turbojet design powered the world's first practical jet aircraft, the Gloster Meteor, the prototype of which first flew in 1941.
The first jet-engined aircraft actually to fly was the German Heinkel He-178 in 1939.
But this later proved impractical.

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