Big Umbrella News
Frank Whittle - The Man Who Shrank the World
Winner of RTS West of England Award for the Best Regional Documentary 2004
First TX: March 21 2004, BBC1
Frank Whittle invented the jet engine and in 1941 the first British jet flight took off from Brockworth airfield in Gloucestershire. This film tells the story of that moment, and how the craftsmen and engineers of the West of England made possible the dream of jet flight.
It follows the work of the Gloster Aircraft Company from 1917 when the first planes were made by furniture joiners and woodworkers - through the Meteor which as the first production jet fighter saw active service at the end of World War II against the V1 flying bombs - to the first delta winged fighter, the Javelin, which was the last plane the Company made before it closed.
The documentary tracks Sir Franks’s legacy through to Concorde and her last flight into Bristol in 2003 and then looks forward to a new age of combined jet and rocket flight which would allow regular and accessible flights into space. The Space Tourist would be born.
The documentary is soon to be released on video and is available under licence.
Presented by Adam Hart-Davis
Edited by Andy Netley
Produced and Directed by Martin Head and Chris Corden
© Big Umbrella Media/Apogee Productions
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