1948-06-12 — Page 11

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1948.

Air Commodore Frank Whittle, C.B., C.B.E.

The boy who was too small for the R.A.F.

SPECIAL train left

London for the R.A.F.

training centre at day in Halton, Bucks, one January 1923 with 600 hopeful lads aboard. Two days later a bunch of miserable rojects were deposited at the nearest

station to Halton.

Among them was a small, dark youngster of 15 from Coventry. His rejection paper read "poor physique."

WAA an

What the doctors really mennt was that he under-developed, puny speci- men, far too small for the Air Force.

He was barely five feet high. Wrote the youngster some years later: "I was bitterly dis- appointed and

much ashamed."

very

He was disappointed not just

·because he was mad to fly but because he had visions of designing wonderful aeroplane. engines.

But before the boy caught his train he took his troubles to a physical training instructor. The instructor gave him a list of body-building exercises and wrote out a diet, consisting chiefly of olive oil.

Back home he exercised and drank olive oil until in six months, he tells us, his chest expanded three inches, and he got "three inches nearer the stars."

LAST CHANCE

He got through Once more he applied, and once more the R.A.F. said no. There seemed one last chance. He went through the whole procedure again, taking the written examinations as though he had never, entered before.

This time no one recognised him and he passed. "I was in under false pretences," he con- fessed 11 years later.

And so he was enrolled as a "boy" apprentice among air- men and workshops and aero- planes.

It is well for Britain that the R.A.F. was fooled. For the boy who pencilled odd designs for new aircraft was Air Coni. inodore Frank Whittle, who recently was awarded £100,000 free of tax, a token of the nation's gratitude for his in- vention of the jet-propelled gas turbine engine.

Because he became the first

FE71

person to fashion

engine driving a plane without a pro- peller, the boy who, was too small to fly has brought man to the dawn of the Supersonic Age of flying.

Before

by..

SIDNEY RODIN

a new generation is burn his fellow mortals. may flush round the earth at more For than 760 miles an hour. Air Commodore Whittle's dis- covery has made him the greatest conqueror of speed the world has known.

WROTE THESIS

On jet propulsion With precocious brilliance he foresaw that a new method of killing distance would bring to his country not just mightier armour but a fuller life of leisure.

At Cranwell (the Sandhurst of the Air) he first talked of building an aircraft propelled by ejected gases.

He saw little hope of the propeller and its piston engine achieving speeds beyond 400 m.p.h.

In 1928, when he was 21, he had to write a science thesis. Almost like a revelation he put down clearly for the first time his idea of jet-propelled air- craft.

The thesis won him Cran- well's highest prize for aeronau tical sciences.

But his training As an air- man went on. He was already first a cadet pilot, flying his machine in 1926-an Avro 504N biplane, top speed 105.

Whittle became the best flier in his squadron, brother pilots gasping at his uerial acrobatics. The scientist was made a flying instructor, and Inter a test pilot of seaplanes al Felixstowe, pioneering in hazardous cata- pult take-offs at sen.,

Yet the slide-rule and the drawing board were never far

from his hands.

Only his

professor at Cranwell and a few technical colleagues granted him that there was sense in his sensational idens.

NO LUCK Then formed company Whittle took out the master patent for his jet engine on January-16,-1930. It was_sub_

the Ministry and mitted to turned down: "practical diffi- culties are too great."

During 1930-the year of his marriage-Whittle hawked his drawings round commercial firms, but again no luck.

I was in May 1935 that two ex-R.A.F. officers begged him to

try once more.

at

The Air Council' moved last, and the Air Ministry be came a shareholder from the start.

But they remained cautious. The work on the jet was still classed "long-term research.".

Who could blame them, when the first engines which wont beyond all previous engineering experience, broke down, one after the other under test on

the bench?

But in April 1937; in a small workshop at Rugby, Whittle made his engine run properly

for the first time.

People were complaining of excessive noise keeping them awake at night, but that did not mar the rejoicing.. possesses a champagne bottle with 40 signatures on its label.

Ile still

WHITTLE, C.B., C.B.E.

That was the bottle drunk to celebrate the success, and all solemnly smashed their glasses.

In the summer of 1939 with

the Nazi danger looming close, Power Jets received a contract for an engine which could be

flown.

gas turbines, that they flying with, them a few before the war.

were days

The first British jet to go in to action took off from Manston R.A.F. airfield in 1944 to shoot up flying-bombs. It caught and destroyed more bombs than any other fighter.

The Nazis had a jet plane in

flying

action some weeks before us. But it was a rushed job.

Even towards the end of the war the life of the German jet engine was only 25 hours, com- pared with the 150 hours of the Whittle machine,

tion in America immediately Jet planes went into produc-

following Whittle's demonstra tion of his engine to U.S. officers.

In June 1940, after he had given

up to the Government all his com-

mercial interests in Power-Jota Ltd. without recompenso, he became the man responsible for creating the Al-

all-jet air force of the future. ready all home-based fighters are jet propelled.

680 M.P.H. Unofficial in V. S.

his jet has made the new

Already an American version of world speed record of 650 m.ph., with on unofficial 000.

Already our Navy in trying out first gas turbine for cars and lorries Ras-turbing war vessels, and the has been built.

Royalties from Whittle's patents continue to pour millions of Ame- rican dollars into Uio British Treasury.

1

to Inventors was going to pay him, The night before he knew what the Royal Commission on Awards Air Commodore Whittle sat in the living room of his modest home at

Rugby.

Asked if he loved speed for Ita STRAIN ON him

own sake, and for his own use, the get Nervous

Speed King said: "I like exhaustion

where I am going as quickly as I can."

The tremendous atrain of day and night work began to tell on the Inventor. Despite the careful nursing of his wife he was frequent- ly in hospital with Akin disease caused by nervous exhaustion.

But never for long, and then he was out again planning, the use of the jet against the potential menaco of fleets of high-altlude bombers. Those fleets never came, and so ground- the jet went into battle strafing in the final all-out drive through France and. Holland.

The war ended, but there was no rest for Whittle,

10

Outside in his garage was the small runabou! motor car lent him by the Ministry of Supply,

"I would certainly ilke a speedy car," said this £2,000-a-yeur serv- ing officer with his rented house and and two boys at reparatory public schools, "but who can afford it these days?"

was

A few hours later a courier was worth to tell him that he

to

our £100,000-the sum paid

generals of greatest admirals and the First World War,

for bigger than any reward ever granted by Britain to any other inventor..

The creed of a Sabbatarian

By THE REV, R. A, FINLAYSON

GLADLY confess to being a

Sabbatarian.

values.

to

Their national character of its strength and I am most has lost much

virility.

I have observed on frequent willing to indicate why I believe

the attitude of the lowns the claims of the Lord's Day visits

of the British Commonwealth should be recognised and re-

the Sabbath Day's rest. And what spected by men and women in

I have seen in Toronto, Winnipeg. every station and walk of life.

Vancouver,

Belfast, Cape Town, One fine morning in May I believe that the Sabbath is and Durban strengthens my con-. 1941, many people in the Homea divine.institution drawing its viction that the British Common- Counties rushed to their

wealth owes its strength of charac- air authority from the wisdom and ter and virility of life in no smail love of God that ordained it and measure to the physical and spiri- raid shelters thinking that heavy bomb was screaming from the sovereignty of God tual refreshment of the

that determined its obligations. Day's rest.

I believe that the Sabbath

down.

They heard a distant screech which increased until it re- sembled the sound of a giunt whistling kettle on the boil,

Then a winget, propellerless object hurtled in and out of sight.

Dec-

law found a place among the Commandments of the alogue because it defined a re- lationship between God and his creatures that was to be as per- manent as man's weakness and need of God.

I can no more regard it as a

It was the first Whittle jet aeroplane, with Flight-Lieuten-" ant Gerry Sayer in the cockpit, Jewish ceremonial regulation doing nearly 200 miles an hour than 1 cun regard the Seventh faster than the fastest R.A.F. Commandments of the Dec- They approached a firm of fighter of the time.

I regard it as having passed In 1939 the Germans had investment bankers, raised

away with the Jewish Church of his patent £2,000 capital, and in March published six Ltd. Power Jets 1936

was drawings. So feverishly had any more than did the Sixth formed.

they worked on jet-propulsion

TUMBLING TUC

DIVING LESSON AT SCARBOROUGH (Copyright le All Countries)

Commandment.

MADE FOR MAN

an ne-

uf

the

Sabbath

Princess Elizabeth was rebuked by some Scottish churchmen last month for attending the races and a night club on a Sunday during her visit to Paris. Here a leading Sabbatar- ian expounds

personal

reasons for his views on the question.

that

For that reason I belleve

liberties secured for us by

Brees

RESTOR AMERIKOS

11

For perfect

Enjoyment of cigarette. Luxury

The Finest Egyptian Cigarettes, made by

NESTOR GIANA- CLIS, Cairo, Egypt.

Prince Farouk

Agents: REUBEN IMPORT & EXPORT CO., LTD. 5th Floor, China Bldg., Tel. 22937 Distributors: Kwong Fat Choung.

56, Wing Lok St., Tel. 33518.

THE

NEW

BRITISH

LIGHTER

Registered

Trade Mark

Completely

Automatic

Obtainable at all

Leading Tobacconists and Storos..

Insist upon POLO and be satisfied...

the Subbath Day--not without Sole Agents: ANTHONY DODD 1-3 Wyndham St., H.K. struggle and suffering-should be safeguarded by the civil magistrate appointed by us to protect our other liberties, social, civil, and political.

Those liberties should not he #lched from us by our own thought- less folly or by the selfishness of others.

In place on the Statute-book of British Common Law is a recognl- tion of its authority and knowledgment, of its claims.

that the demands I believe the Sabbath are embedded in the

I think it futlic, and worse than constitution of men's nature, and futile, to attempt to draw up a that the Sabbath was made for detailed list of "do's and don'la" man because he is a man and not tor Sunday observance, since

a

machine or

un animal or an

angel.

He needs its physical rest, its mental stimulus, its mornt inspira- tion, its spiritual quickening.

Man

can surmount the sordid- ness of his material surroundings only

he apprehends spiritual values and makes them the vill mate standard of his life.

For six

days

he works amang. the material values of the world, anong

things seen and temporal.

ho should On the seventh

be Kiven an opportunity to make fresh contacts with the spiritual valuce of life, to recharge the epiritual batteries that give power, direction and purpose to his living.

tho reason

mere

the observance in

Jetter, without respect to the spirit, may Sabbath well be a breach of the Inw.

It

NOT DESIRABLE

be said in a can, however, general way that anything that motivated by commercial

greed or thoughtlessness, selfishness that disregards the sacred rights and convictions of others the Sunday cinema is an example of the one, and much of our present-day Sun- sports an example of the day other-is patently a breach of the Divine Commandment.

In fact, any activity that caters to anything less than the highest THE BULWARK

good of man, and makes of the For that

poorest Sabbath "a screaming thing of drudge in the land, equally with mere sport and noise, a day of the leisured and carefree, should drink and madness," the disturber be sot free to do business with of peace and worship, is not de- his Maker direct and unhindered. sirable, and ought not to bo tolera- Neither commerefal greed nor ted in a Christian community. I human selfishness should be per-

the In

of my erced practice mitied to rob him of his birth would make Sunday my day of right.

most serious thought, when I try bellave the Sabbath fo the to face problems and plumb depths bulwark of national righteousness, that I merely skirt on other daya; preserving the national conscience, my day of public and community developing the national character, worship in the fellowship of kin- and cleaning the national life. dred spirits: my day of domestic On this day the nation finds its peace and tranquillity, and my day Boul--and the nations that have of most willing and sacrificial largely lost their sense of spiritual and the rad.

1

PENINSULA HOTEL

The Management takes pleasure in announcing that SOF. FALLER and his

musicians

!

will play NIGHTLY during Dinner from 8 p.m.-12 'midnight and at WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY DANCES, from 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

on the VERANDAH

(First Floor)

DINE & DANCE In cool, comfortable surroundings,

and enjoy the lovely summernight breeze from the Harbour.

NO COVER CHARGE

Reservations at the Reception Office.

abandoned the Sabbath have service to the lonely, the stricken THE HONGKONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD.