Editing Frank Whittle (section)

==Later life==
Whittle received the ''[[Tony Jannus Award]]'' in 1969 for his distinguished contributions to commercial aviation.

In 1976, his marriage to Dorothy was dissolved and he married American Hazel S. Hall. He emigrated to the US and the following year accepted the position of NAVAIR Research Professor at the [[United States Naval Academy]] ([[Annapolis, Maryland]]).<ref name="RAF4">{{cite web |url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/whittle4.html |title=Sir Frank Whittle – After the RAF |access-date=19 July 2008 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713020730/http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/whittle4.html |archive-date=13 July 2007 }}, RAF history website</ref> His research concentrated on the [[boundary layer]] before his professorship became part-time from 1978 to 1979. The part-time post enabled him to write a textbook entitled ''Gas turbine aero-thermodynamics: with special reference to aircraft propulsion'', published in 1981.<ref name=tele/>

Having first met [[Hans von Ohain]] in 1966, Whittle again met him at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]] in 1978 while von Ohain was working there as the Aero Propulsion Laboratory's Chief Scientist. Initially upset because he had believed von Ohain's engine had been developed after seeing Whittle's patent, he eventually became convinced that von Ohain's work was, in fact, independent.<ref>[http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/encounter/encounter.HTM Verbatim transcript of a two-day conference, ''An Encounter Between the Jet Engine Inventors'', held at Wright-Patterson Air Base 3–4 May 1978] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071220010412/http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/encounter/encounter.htm |date=20 December 2007 }} Retrieved: 19 July 2008</ref> The two became good friends and often toured the US giving talks together.

In a conversation with Whittle after the war, von Ohain stated:  "If you had been given the money you would have been six years ahead of us. If Hitler or Goering had heard that there is a man in England who flies 500&nbsp;mph in a small experimental plane and that it is coming into development, it is likely that World War II would not have come into being."<ref>Margaret Conner, ''Hans von Ohain: Elegance in Flight'' (Reston, Virginia: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 2001)</ref>

In 1986, Whittle was appointed a member of the [[Order of Merit]] (Commonwealth). He was made a [[Royal Society|Fellow of the Royal Society]], and of the [[Royal Aeronautical Society]],<ref name=tele/> and in 1991 he and von Ohain were awarded the [[Charles Stark Draper Prize]] for their work on turbojet engines.

Whittle became an atheist by degrees.<ref>{{cite book|title=Jet: Frank Whittle and the Invention of the Jet Engine|first=John |last=Golley|publisher=Eloy Gutierrez|year=2010|isbn=978-1907472008|page=34|quote=Although he had occasionally cut Church Parade, he had once held very strong religious beliefs, but these had eroded to such an extent that he had come to regard himself as an atheist. "By degrees", he said, "I was forced to the conclusion that my beliefs were inconsistent with scientific teaching. Once the seeds of doubt were sown the whole structure of my former religious beliefs rapidly collapsed, and I swung to the other extreme.}}<!--|access-date=30 May 2012--></ref>

Whittle died of lung cancer on 9 August 1996, at his home in [[Columbia, Maryland]]. He was cremated in America and his ashes were flown to England where they were placed in a memorial in a church in [[Cranwell]].<ref name ="Whittle quantal DVD"/> Hazel Whittle died on 30 July 2007 aged 91.