Podcasts about sir frank whittle

Coventry University has begun work to reduce its carbon emissions and meet its net zero carbon target by 2030 by installing hundreds of new solar panels. The ambitious programme will see panels installed across campus alongside new efficient windows and a connection to the Coventry district energy network. Solar panels installed to hit net zero carbon target This network is formed of a 6.6km underground heat system that transports waste heat from the city's municipal incinerator to supply energy to major public buildings and, in doing so, has only one-sixth of the carbon emissions of natural gas. The university was awarded £13 million in Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding in February 2024 to make a significant step towards achieving this goal. Selina Fletcher, Head of Sustainability and Environment at Coventry University, said: "After much planning we can now start to see the results - we will immediately be able to see a carbon reduction as the solar panels start to generate energy and reduce our emissions. This is fantastic news for the university and showcases the first of many actions to put sustainability at the heart of what we do, benefiting our students, staff and the wider community." The grant will help Coventry University to reduce emissions from heating by a quarter as the university switches off gas boilers in exchange for the connection to the lower carbon district energy scheme. The university enlisted the help of consultant Baily Garner to collaborate with specialist contractor Geo Green Power on the installation of the solar panels, which have been successfully mounted on the Sir Frank Whittle and Charles Ward buildings, with plans to cover the roofs of The Hub and the Alma building in the new year. Nearly 800 panels will be installed across university buildings. In total these will be approximately the same scale as around 90 typical home solar arrays. This is only the start of the decarbonisation work at Coventry University - in May 2025 pipework will be put in place that will allow 11 of the university's city centre buildings to join the existing district energy scheme. The project is due to be completed in April 2026 and will is expected to save 95 tonnes in carbon reduction per year on campus once everything is installed as well as providing a real-life case study for students to see climate change mitigation in action. Coventry University is part of the city-wide Climate Change Board, and the new Climate Change Strategy can be found here. The University's full decarbonisation strategy can be viewed here. See more breaking stories here.

Hello and Welcome to TLG and to the second stage of our Full Flaps interview with Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank, the man who invented the jet engine. Ian told us so much in part one, you'd hardly believe there'd be more – but there is – and we couldn't let an opportunity like this pass us by. So here once again is Ian talking to James Cartner and me Rob Curling at his Surrey home, almost 85 years to the day since the first running of Sir Frank Whittle's revolutionary invention.

Hello and welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps, and to the full length interview with Ian Whittle, son of Sir Frank Whittle, the man credited with one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, something that changed the world forever – the jet engine. Ian is a pilot himself and flew the Gloster Meteor in RAF service, Britain's first jet fighter, powered by the very engines his father had invented. James and I had the enormous pleasure of visiting Ian at his Surrey home almost 85 years to the day since the first successful test run of his father's jet engine. Ian speaks with such passion and enthusiasm, not to mention incredibly detailed knowledge. You don't get much closer to touching history than this. I hope you enjoy it. As Ian was so generous with his time, we've split the interview into two parts, so here's part one – keep an eye out on the socials for part two – or it may already be there now.

This episode of Top Landing Gear might in itself not be worthy of going down in history, but it's all about one of the greatest inventions of the modern age, something that changed the world forever – the jet engine. And our guest is no less a person than Ian Whittle, the son of the man credited with that invention - Sir Frank Whittle. You'll hear a clip of our interview with Ian here, but not before you've heard a uniquely informative Quick Facts from Jez on what is a pretty colossal subject. And the quiz returns to Rob's safe hands after James made a brave, almost successful stab at it on our previous pod. And by the way, that will never happen again! So I hope you are feeling reassured enough to enjoy this edition – and remember to look out for the Full Flaps edition for the full length interview with Ian Whittle.  Enjoy!

We're delighted to finally get series 4 of our aviation podcast Top Landing Gear up and flying – at last! We're kicking off this first episode with a look back at some of our favourite topics and guest interviews from our first three series. There are two reasons for this: firstly they're worth hearing again; secondly we weren't organised enough to come up with a new subject in time. So for this week please enjoy, no really please try, our ‘Best of' episode, including clips from our interviews with Alan Pollock of Tower Bridge Hawker Hunter fame, Amy Johnson re-creator Amanda J Harrison, David Williams's heroic landing of a damaged fully-laden Virgin Boeing 747, and Andrew Panton, the man behind the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre and Lancaster ‘Just Jane'. We've also done a retro quiz where the team was asked questions they've all heard before. Do you think it made any difference…?  And next week we'll have the first of our Falklands guests in this 40th anniversary year of the conflict, with Vulcan 607 pilot Martin Withers. Following that, Chris Parry joins us to talk about his extraordinary experiences with ‘Humphrey' the Wessex 3 which operated off HMS Antrim.  And there'll be more to come, including the son of Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine, about both his and his father's remarkable lives in aviation. So please do look out for us @TopLadingGear and on our website www.TopLandingGear.com.   

Using eyewitness recordings from the BBC archive we hear from the pioneers of the jet engine, Sir Frank Whittle and Hans von Ohain, about the struggle to develop a revolutionary new engine in the 1930s. An invention which would change the world. Photo: Sir Frank Whittle (1907-1996) is pictured here with the Whittle WV engine at the Science Museum in London c 1988 (Getty Images)

Glosters specialised in bringing high-speed aircraft to the market, including the Sparrowhawk, Grebe, Gamecock, Gladiator, the E.28/39 which tested Sir Frank Whittle's jet engine and the Meteor which was the first Allied aircraft to enter service powered by a jet. Co-founder of the company, Hugh Burroughes, gives a personal history of the Gloster Aircraft Company (GAC). Starting with its roots in the Aircraft Manufacturing Company during World War I, Burroughes charts the challenges of developing aircraft during the interwar period. He explores the take-over of the GAC by Hawkers in 1934, gives a manufacturers' view of the Schneider Trophy Competitions and discusses the role of the company's interwar designer, H. P. Folland. Burroughes also tells us of his company's work providing the first aircraft for the jet engine, the E.28/39, together with the Meteor which followed. He concludes by exploring the Javelin programme and its part in the decline of the company after the war. All in all, he emphasises the importance of background and timing in the aircraft industry. PLEASE NOTE: The end of the lecture was missing from the original recording and a new ending was added in 2021, using Burroughes' paper published in the 1969 edition of the Aeronautical Journal. RAeS members have free access to Burroughes' paper via https://www.aerosociety.com/elibrary. Hugh Burroughes FRAeS addressed a meeting organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society's Historical Group on 14 December 1964. The lecture is introduced by J. L. Nayler FRAeS FAIAA, the recording was digitised thanks to a grant from the RAeS Foundation and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

Sir Frank Whittle’s work on the jet engine was arguably the most important mechanical engineering feat of the twentieth century. In the first RAeS Whittle lecture, the then Chairman of Rolls-Royce plc reviews the first sixty years development of Whittle’s basic ideas before exploring upcoming major advances along with the ongoing challenges to reduce product and operating costs. The inaugural Whittle Lecture took place on 4th February 1997, the podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

Miles 1940s supersonic aircraft project could have been the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. Though the project was championed by Sir Frank Whittle, who worked with Miles to supply the engine, and was supported by the scientists at the RAE in Farnborough. However, the reasons surrounding the UK Government's secretive cancellation of the project has long been a mystery. In this lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society's Historical Group, Mike Hirst explores the technical and political sides of the project, from its inception in 1943 to its cancellation in 1948. His lecture is followed by a discussion by many of the people who were there at the time, including from Miles Aircraft, the Ministry, the RAE and the project's test pilot, Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown. The lecture took place on 4 November 2004. The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

This episode begins with AVM Sir Alec Coryton explaining how the Second World War spurred-on many technical innovations that the moved aeronautics rapidly forward, then Hayne Constant, a member of A. A. Griffith’s and Sir Frank Whittle’s teams, telling the story of the early development of the jet engine and finishes with the father of radar explaining the science behind the technology and how he and his team developed the technology that was so important to the British war effort. This is the fourth episode of Powered Flight, the British contribution to flying. It was first broadcast by the BBC Overseas Service in 1959 and was introduced by Charles Gibbs-Smith. The recording was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS, was licenced from BBC/Getty Images and was digitised and released thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation and a bequest from E. H. J. Pallet.

Saro’s Chief Designer in the era of flying boats and designer of the Saunders-Roe Princess talks about the projects that dominated his career. Knowler started with Vickers and worked on the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus during World War I. After spells with A. M. Low and English Electric, he moved to S. E. Saunders and worked on flying boats. In this podcast he briefly describes working on the Saunders A.3 Valkyrie and the Saunders-Roe A7 Severn, A.17 Cutty Sark, A.27 London, S.36 Lerwick, S.R.A/1 and the S.R.45 Princess, together with Saro’s work on the Short S.25 Sunderland and Short/Saro S.35 Shetland. Knowler also recounts his experiences of working with Sir A. V. Roe and Sir Frank Whittle. These reminiscences were recorded in 1971, the podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle OM KBE CB FRS FRAeS. A presentation of his life and the development of the jet engine given by his son Ian Whittle.

The life of Sir Frank Whittle and his development of the turbojet engine.   Images through Creative Commons - Crown Copyright.

This lecture explores the categories of influence against the build-up of jet aircraft in the period from 1945 -1955. It will cover the significant contribution made by Sir Frank Whittle to in-service jet engine reliability and maintainability, the issues of new types of fuel and lubricants, flight line hazards and handling, aircraft support and aircrew survival systems, trade skills and technical organisation as the RAF entered the jet age.

This short guided walk takes in some of Rugby's 'Blue Plaques' commemorating the town's famous buildings, people and events from the poet Rupert Brook to the father of the jet engine Sir Frank Whittle. Extra copies of this audio are available already loaded onto mp3 players from the town's visitor centre.