Sir Frank Whittle was born in 1907 in Coventry, England. As a young boy he became fascinated with aviation. At age 11 he
entered Leamington College on a scholarship and in 1928 became a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force College (RAF). 
Whittle took part in the RAF's Model Aircraft Society were he gained notice for his engineering abilities. His fellow colleagues thought of him as a mathematics genius. Whittle was quickly elevated to join the RAF's officers and transferred to their training college in Cranwell. Here Whittle began experimenting with jet engines. He was one of the first men to associate the gas turbine with jet propulsion. It only took him until 1930 to receive his first patent on a jet engine. In 1935 Whittle secured financial backing and formed the company Power Jets Ltd. They started constructing a test engine in 1936. But it would not be until May 1941 that the first flight was made. Later that year plans for the engine were brought to the United States where General Electric Co. worked on an American version. The jet engine proved to be a success especially in America where the technology was embraced. This invention earned Whittle a knighthood in 1948.
In 1976 he moved to the United States and began working as a research professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and served as technical advisor to British Overseas Airways. In 1986 he was awarded the Order of Merit.

Whittle (on left).

Whittle's design of the jet engine.

References
http://www.flatoday.com/space/explore/stories/1996b/080996e.htm
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/innovators/fwhittle.html
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bljetengine.htm
http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aerojava/whittle.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0852174.html 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history_figures/whittle_frank.shtml

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