Sir Frank Whittle

[ricardian]

Among those who created the world we now live in, he stands alongside John Logie Baird, Alexander Graham Bell and Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Yet the genius of Sir Frank Whittle, the man who invented the jet engine, will go almost entirely unheralded when the 75th anniversary of his achievement falls next weekend.
Daily Telegraph article. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/08/sir-frank-whittles-son-accuses-whitehall-of-marginalising-jet-en/)

[Royalistflyer]

Couldn't agree more. There is no end to the recurrent stupidity and blindness of civil servants and politicians.

[Rosevidney1]

In any other country it would be properly celebrated. Not in touchy-feely multi-culti Britain though.

[RetiredBA/BY]

In any other country it would be properly celebrated. Not in touchy-feely multi-culti Britain though.

One might expect the Science Museum, where the E28/39 is exhibited,an historic aircraft ever there was one, to mark the occasion in grand style, but no, not them. Nothing.
My recent experience with the "management" of this organisation reveals them to be positively anti-aviation with little. or no interest let alone enthusiasm. The sooner someone like Alan Winn, the Brooklands Director, is brought in, the better for the aviation section of our national science museum. It's time for a complete shake up and clear out of the "jobsworths" there.

[BigDan]

Although I'm not sure if they are commemorating the first flight at RAF Cranwell, Jet Age Museum, Gloucester commemorated the unofficial first flight, last month.
For those that don't know, during high speed taxi trials at Glosters' Brockworth factory, the E28/39 hopped into the air for a short time. The aircraft was then transported to RAF Cranwell for her "first" flight.
Ian Whittle came along and buried a time capsule at the museum, on the edge of Gloucestershire (Staverton) Airport.

[tartare]

So often the story.
Someone with a brilliant idea is overlooked in the short or medium term by idiots who supposedly know better.
Only to be proved exactly right in the long term.