Club Meeting 9th March 2026

President Graham welcomed members, Katherine Maxwell and Roger Collins, President of Wotton Probus Club.

President Graham introduced Club member Colin Wyatt to speak on the subject of “A Child of the Jet Age”. Colin said that his talk will be in two parts, initially about Frank Whittle one of his hero’s, and then about his career in the aviation industry.

Born in 1907, Frank Whittle co-created the turbojet engine. Colin showed a photograph of Whittle, aged 3, holding a model aeroplane indicating his early interest in flying. Due to his physical limitations he was twice turned down by the RAF, but persistence eventually paid off and he was accepted for training at RAF Cranwell. His academic and practical abilities earned him a place on the officer training course at Cranwell and he became an accomplished pilot.

In 1930 Whittle patented his design for a turbojet engine, and the first prototype engine WU1 was built in 1935. Together with George Carter at Gloster Aircraft further development continued and the first jet flight piloted by Gerry Sayers took place in May 1941. The famous Gloster Meteor jet fighter plane first flew on 5thMarch 1943.

Colin continued by describing his early love of flying, inspired by his older brother who had flown bombers in WW2. Colin spoke about his career in the aviation industry, including work on the Concorde prototype and the Olympus engine 593 Mk.610. He also detailed his further involvement in the development of other renowned jet aircraft such as Vulcan V1 and TSR2, and also his time at Moreton Valence airfield.

Unfortunately whilst Colin was taking questions from the floor an audience member was taken ill, and the talk was curtailed before the vote of thanks could be given. However it was evident that everyone had enjoyed and appreciated Colin’s informative and interesting talk.