The Jet Engine - The Single Greatest Ever Invention (and it's British)

A chance to travel into space, offers no better time to honour the invention of the jet engine. Its inventor - Sir Frank Whittle was an RAF pilot. His instructor noting in his logbook “Whittle’s problem is that he thinks he knows everything. But in his case – he probably does.”

The jet engine is the single greatest patented invention because of the circumstances of its creation, its impact on human endeavour and its raw beauty.

Remember the first time you heard a jet at an air show, or on a trip abroad? There’s something dark and unnatural in the roar of a jet engine that inspires sheer awe in anyone who hears it for the first time. It puts the hairs up on the back of your neck and reaches a part of your soul that a light bulb or a telephone simply doesn’t reach. It makes babies cry and onlookers turn their head skywards, no matter what they’re doing.

The jet engine has extended the reach of face to face human contact. Thanks to the jet engine, families can see each other wherever they are in the world, inside a weekend. Jet engines defend our country, they extend our reach, and of course, they propel human beings into space.

It is a British invention and it has changed the world. It was invented by a patriot in defence of his country and shows that now and then a genius can come along and uncover a path into the future.

Submitted by: Ben Conway