Editing Frank Whittle (section)

==After the war==
[[File:whittle.1946.arp.600pix.jpg|thumb|Frank Whittle speaking to employees of the Flight Propulsion Research Laboratory (Now known as the [[Glenn Research Center|NASA Glenn Research Center]]), USA, in 1946]]

In 1946, Whittle accepted a post as Technical Advisor on Engine Design and Production to Controller of Supplies (Air); was made a Commander of the US [[Legion of Merit]]; and was appointed a [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]] in 1947. During May 1948 Whittle received an [[Ex gratia|ex-gratia]] award of £100,000 from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors in recognition of his work on the jet engine, and two months later he was made a [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]].<ref name=tele/><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38311 |date=4 June 1948 |page=3372}}</ref>

During a lecture tour in the US, Whittle again broke down and retired from the RAF on medical grounds on 26 August 1948, leaving with the rank of [[air commodore]].<ref name=tele/><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38397 |date=3 September 1948 |supp=y |page=4860}}</ref> He joined [[British Overseas Airways Corporation|BOAC]] as a technical advisor on aircraft gas turbines and travelled extensively over the next few years, viewing jet engine developments in the United States, Canada, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He left BOAC in 1952 and spent the next year working on a biography, ''Jet: The Story of a Pioneer''.<ref name="RAF4"/> He was awarded the [[Royal Society of Arts]]' [[Albert Medal (RSA)|Albert Medal]] that year.

Returning to work in 1953, he accepted a position as a Mechanical Engineering Specialist with [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]], where he developed a new type of self-powered drill<ref name="RAF4"/> driven by a turbine running on the lubricating mud that is pumped into the borehole during drilling. Normally, a well is drilled by attaching rigid sections of pipe together and powering the cutting head by spinning the pipe from the surface, but Whittle's design removed the need for a strong mechanical connection between the drill and the head frame, allowing for much lighter piping to be used. He gave the [[Royal Institution Christmas Lectures]] in 1954 on ''The Story of Petroleum''.

Turbine drilling is best used for drilling hard rocks at high-bit RPM with diamond-impregnated bits and can be used with an angled drive shaft for directional drilling and horizontal drilling. It competes, though, with Moyno motors and increasingly with rotary steerable systems and is again out of favour.

Whittle left Shell in 1957 to work for [[Bristol Aeroplane Company|Bristol Aero Engines]], who picked up the project in 1961,<ref name="RAF4"/> setting up "Bristol Siddeley Whittle Tools" to further develop the concept. In 1966 Rolls-Royce purchased Bristol Siddeley, but the financial pressures and eventual bankruptcy because of cost overruns of the [[Rolls-Royce RB211|RB211]] project led to the slow wind-down and eventual disappearance of Whittle's "turbo-drill". The concept eventually re-appeared in the West in the late 1980s, imported from Russian designs. (Russia needed the technology because it lacked high strength [[drill pipe]].)

As part of his [[socialist]] ideals, he proposed that Power Jets be nationalised, in part because he saw that private companies would profit from the technology freely given during the war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.frankwhittle.co.uk/content.php?act=viewDoc&docId=3&docFatherId=1&level=sub|title=Welcome to the Frank Whittle Website|access-date=16 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202242/http://www.frankwhittle.co.uk/content.php?act=viewDoc&docId=3&docFatherId=1&level=sub|archive-date=3 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> By 1964, he had deserted his previously socialist beliefs, going so far as to launch a fierce attack on the Labour candidate in Smethwick.<ref>[[David Edgerton|Edgerton, David]], ''Warfare State'', Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. 227, {{ISBN|978-0-521-85636-2}}</ref>

In 1960, he was awarded an honorary degree, doctor techn. honoris causa, at the [[Norwegian Institute of Technology]], later part of [[Norwegian University of Science and Technology]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntnu.edu/phd/honorary-doctors|title=Honorary doctors at NTNU|publisher=Norwegian University of Science and Technology}}</ref>

In 1967, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the [[University of Bath]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bath.ac.uk/corporate-information/?meta_label_and=graduation&f.Type%7CY=Factsheet|title=Corporate Information|website=www.bath.ac.uk|access-date=20 April 2020}}</ref> That year, he was inducted into the [[International Air & Space Hall of Fame]].<ref>Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. ''These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame''. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. {{ISBN|978-1-57864-397-4}}.</ref>

In 1987, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Technology) by [[Loughborough University]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/degree_days/hon_grads_80to89.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120908222100/http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/degree_days/hon_grads_80to89.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 September 2012|title=Loughborough University – Honorary Graduates & University Medallists|website=www.lboro.ac.uk|access-date=20 April 2020}}</ref>

In 2017, he was inducted into the [[National Aviation Hall of Fame]] in Dayton, Ohio.<ref>{{cite web |title=Enshrinee Sir Frank Whittle |url=https://nationalaviation.org/enshrinee/sir-frank-whittle/ |website=nationalaviation.org |publisher=National Aviation Hall of Fame |access-date=28 February 2023}}</ref>