This Thread is proving rather interesting for me, and I do apologise for a certain amount of thread drift.
I was connected with Farnborough (RAE) in the early sixties and had the then privilege by working on some of the advances in aviation and most of those that seemed to not be taken advantage of by the UK or were passed over to our friends.
The Jet engine and its advances at Farnborough by Whittle, his engine was a Centrifugal compressor engine, as we all know. Those who have had to Take the CAA exam know of the disadvantages of his design.
However, he did have a parallel line of research. It was the Annular compressor concept, this was fare better than his original concept and he was able to build a basic prototype, before funding ran out.
The basic design was conceived in the late 30s. The engine design was submitted to the US as a joint project, a Jet fighter that could have been operational in the early period of WW2 was a design concept, seemingly it was beyond the military thinking of both the US and British.
I visited the Smithsonian a number of years ago, at the back of a display of various engine concepts was a very corroded Annular compressor engine. It was annotated as the first jet engine of US design of the late 50s early sixties. On the underside of the engine was a Data plate. Guess what it said. Yes. It must have been one of the early engines sent to the US from Farnborough pre second WW.
Many more stories if interested.