Which country deserves the credit for the invention, development of the Jet Engine? Germany or the U.K.? or a different country?

There IS such a thing as a technology being invented by more than one person at the same time, you know

The British guy named Whittle invented the jet engine.   However his design was pretty much a dead end.   The German design could easily be made bigger and more efficient and every jet engine today is an expansion of the German design.   

There IS such a thing as a technology being invented by more than one person at the same time, you know

Frank Whittle is claimed to be the inventor of the Jet engine and had patented it well before the Germans were working on making a jet engine so I assume the Germans saw the potential before the British military did.  The German jet engines designed during WW2 were higher in performance than the British jet engines but Frank whittle built his engines for reliability and longer life whereas the German jets needed a complete engine replacement after only 10 to 20 hours operation then had to be thrown away.

  Britain was under obligation to share its scientific advances with the USA and Russia during the war so had to give both all its best inventions such as the jet engine and the magnetron which was a brilliant device used in Radar and the inventers received no monies for their inventions.  Britain after the war was the world leader in Jet Technology for at least 10 years but the Russians and the Americans did finally start to catch up in the 1950s

When Frank Whittle submitted his initial paper in 1929 to the Air Ministry it was met with a resounding Ho-Hum.  Whittle, nevertheless, patented his idea in January 1930 and continued working on developing the engine on a shoestring budget, while still flying for the RAF and attending engineering graduate school at Cambridge.  Whittle was so short of funding that he allowed the patent to lapse in January 1935 because he couldn't afford the 5 Pound fee to renew it.  

The lack of financing, no doubt, greatly delayed the development.  It wasn't until 1937 that the Air Ministry kicked in 5,000 Pounds for the development of the flyable version of the reverse flow Power Jets WU engine.

Hans von Ohain patented his design in 1936.  Unlike Whittle, von Ohain's work received considerably more support and funding from the German government and in 1937, just five months after Whittle, von Ohain had a running self-contained turbojet prototype.  The improved, flightworthy version of von Ohain's prototype, the HeS3b was mounted on a bomber for flight tests in the summer of 1938, and the Heinkel He 178, the first jet powered airplane flew for the first on August 27, 1939.  The Gloster E.28/39 powered by Frank Whittle's W.1 flew for the first time on May 15, 1941.

That would be the UK and Whittle.

UK invented it. Whittle DID have a test  flight in '41, Before Nazi Germany. . So, UK. Same with Otto-Cycle engine--just because proto not put in a car and driven means Nothing. Engine was invented and worked on the stand. So, ID care if Nazi Germany actually developed it into a  fighter. . England gets dibs, it's in aircraft engine history. Remember;   England laid ground work for Atom Bomb. The US picked up the ball.

Much harder to Invent than to Improve  Harder to  simplify and still have a reliable design.  I'll bet the Nazis built on Whittle's work? Edison  was often first to US  patent office .

All inventors that publish  get dibs. Roentgen first published on the X Ray even though Crookes and even Franklin inadvertently produced them. Tesla invented radio, he had documents in US patent office long before Marconi, who had actually transmitted a mile in Italy. Wright brothers'  patent on powered flight disputed by Glen Curtis, finally settled in Wrights' favor after all 3 dead in 1947.

Frank Whittle patented the first usable jet engine, with the Germans close behind and the Germans produced the first jet plane. Both had jet aircraft flying albeit in small numbers, in combat during WW2.

After the war , German technology was up for grabs and extensively benefitted both USA and Russia. Meanwhile USA and Britain “collaborated “ on her technology.

In practice , this meant all Britain’s jet technology was given to the USA for little in return.

Pratt & Whitney did what the Americans excelled in during the war, producing unremarkable technology in huge quantities, but they were not jet Pioneers . Rolls Royce were involved with Whittle and their works leading work with supercharging proved highly relevant to gas turbines.

Science has a tendency to be as derivative as it is inspiring. Whittle was the 1st to *PATENT* a jet propelled aircraft, Heinkel was the 1st to create one that flew *ONLY* under jet power. But for the 1st *JET ENGINE* (even if your only thinking about turbine engines) you're going back to about 1600 with This guy from the Ottoman empire (I've to find the book). 

Just leave it split!

Frank Whittle was the first to get a patent.

Ohain was the the first to get it into an aircraft for flight.