I have trouble with the word "inventor", for the jet engine in the form that Whittle and we know it was first patented in 1921 by Frenchman Maxime Guillaume using an axial compressor, French patent no. 534,801, filed: 3 May 1921; issued: 13 January 1922. Never built though, as the necessary technology did not exist. The very first gas turbine patent was by Englishman John Baker in 1791 UK patent no. 1833 –
Obtaining and Applying Motive Power, & c. A Method of Rising Inflammable Air for the Purposes of Procuring Motion, and Facilitating Metallurgical Operations. Although he never built one at the time a working version was shown at the Hannover Fair in 1972.
von Ohain had the first operational jet engine, the He 178 getting airborne 27 August 1939 where as Whittle was a little later, the Gloster E28/39 was in 15 May 1941.
I'm reminded of the quote "we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature". People have ideas and dreams, but are held back by the limitations of their times, metallurgy being just one of many. They lay the ground work with their ideas and dreams and folk such as Whittle and von Ohain are able to capitalise on the previous work and bring their own dreams and ideas to a project and by dint of experimentation and hard graft bring about a successful conclusion. Inventors though?
Swing technology used in the F111 was a British design
An example of who can be credited as an inventor.
The Brits built the flying wing Westland-Hill Pterodactyl Mk.IV in 1931 with small sweep changes to adjust for longitudinal trim.
Messerschmitt built one only P.1101 which never flew, had ground adjustable sweep, the US took it home after the war and used it as a basis for their Bell X-5 which had in flight adjustable positions of 20, 40 and 60 degrees.
British Barnes Wallis started work on variable sweep in 1949, however the government pulled the plug on finance so he went cap in hand to the US where he received the same reception. He came up with the idea of the outboard pivot in 1954 to solve inherent issues with the concept. The detailed implementation of the concept was done by the NASA Langley Laboratory team of Alford, Polhamus and Barnes Wallis. British engineer L. E. Baynes patented a swing wing fighter in 1949 and a supersonic version in 1956.
The F-111 was the first production aircraft to use the concept.
Question : Who was the inventor of the swing wing, the chap who came up with the idea, or those who built the first practical aircraft?