Memorial for jet engine pioneer

[The Stig]

A memorial to the inventor of the jet engine is being unveiled in his home city.

The bronze statue of Sir Frank Whittle, by sculptor Faith Winter, will be unveiled by his son Ian in Coventry, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

A Gloster Meteor, one of the Royal Air Force's first jet planes, is performing a flight past at the ceremony.

Sir Frank went to school in Earlsdon and worked in Rugby, Warwickshire, prior to World War II.

The Whittle engine was tested for the first time at the Gloster Aircraft Company's plant in Brockworth, Gloucester, in April 1941.

It was a high speed taxi-ing test, but lifted the aircraft off the ground for several hundred yards.

A month later, a full test flight was carried out at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

Sir Frank died in the USA in 1996, aged 89. His memorial stands in the city's Millennium Place.

Explore the life of the Coventry inventor of the jet engine, Sir Frank Whittle, in our unique online documentary that brings together archive footage, original interviews, rare photographs and early recordings of the inventor.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/articles/2007/05/31/video_frank_whittle_feature.shtml