British aviation engineer and legendary pilot Frank Whittle was the main player in the development of the jet engine that was to change the face of 20th century aviation. If you want to start an argument among a group of engineering historians, raise the idea that the age of jet-propelled flight was Sir Frank Whittle's great legacy. There will be those that challenge it outright, saying he wasn't the first 'invent' the jet engine because there was pioneering work in the field by French engineer Maxime Guillaume that predated Whittle's. There will be others who say that the birth of the jet engine can be pinpointed unambiguously to 16 January 1930, when Whittle submitted his first patent showing a two-stage axial compressor feeding a single-sided centrifugal compressor.
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