Originally Posted by
skylon
SNIP
The general concensus among jet engine experts at the time was (and correctly so) that jet engine technology was considerably less advanced than what was needed to reach supersonic performance. When Frank Whittle's farce was uncovered, the program was discretely cancelled... end of mystery.Another of my understandings is that the M.52 needed a afterburner to get through M1 but the aeroplane was too small to carry the extra fuel. One of the reasons why the M.52 was cancelled.
I've come in a bit late, evidently, but what was "Frank Whittle's farce" and where is the uncovering recorded, please?
This is purely a straight request for information; I am conscious of a great deal of mythologising about British aviation history, mostly on the lines of "brilliant industry initiatives cut down by Government stupidity/parsimony/treason." I wonder where those myths might have originated? OTOH, whilst I as a schoolboy was fed the "Whittle invented the jet engine" over-simplification, I haven't subsequently found anything one might call a farce: so I'd like to know.