Whiting was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on July 22, 1881, but moved to Larchmont, New York, at an early age.

After graduating from the Naval Academy on January 30, 1905,[5] he reported aboard the armored cruiser USS West Virginia.

After serving the requisite sea duty, he was commissioned as an ensign on either January 31, 1907[6] or February 25, 1908, according to different sources.

[7] In June 1907, Whiting detached from West Virginia and transferred to the gunboat USS Concord in the United States Asiatic Fleet.

After Porpoise leveled off in Manila Bay at a depth of 20 feet (6.1 meters), Whiting informed his crew that he was convinced that a man could escape from a submarine through a torpedo tube and that he intended to test the idea on himself.

When the crew opened the outer door and seawater rushed in, Whiting hung onto the crossbar, which drew his elbows out of the tube's mouth, and then muscled his way out using his hands and arms.

Reluctant to speak about the incident in public – in Porpoise's log that day, Whiting simply commented, "Whiting went through the torpedo tube, boat lying in water in normal condition, as an experiment..." – he nevertheless informed his flotilla commander, Lieutenant Guy W. S. Castle, who submitted a report on how the feat had been accomplished.

[14] On June 29, 1914, however, Whiting finally began his career in naval aviation, the field in which he was to make his name as a true pioneer, when he reported to the Wright Company at Dayton, Ohio, to learn to fly.

[19] Whiting would later become a member of the Early Birds of Aviation, an organization founded in 1928 and dedicated to the history of pilots who learned to fly before December 17, 1916.

The unit's seven officers and 122 enlisted men crossed the Atlantic Ocean to France aboard Neptune and the collier USS Jupiter to become the first American military unit to debark in Europe for combat, with Jupiter arriving at Pauillac on June 5, 1917, and Neptune at St. Nazaire on June 8, 1917.

[20][21][22] With only vague guidance and, at first, no aircraft, Whiting set about establishing a European presence for U.S. Navy aviation.

On July 11, 1919, the United States Congress authorized Jupiter's conversion into the carrier, which later would be named USS Langley (CV-1).

In January 1922, he said, "The Langley when commissioned will provide our Navy with an experimental ' carrier' which, while not ideal, will be sufficiently serviceable to conduct any experiment required for the design of future 'carriers' and for the development of naval aerial tactics, and for the development of the various types of aircraft...for these last are also lacking in our Navy, due to concentrating on anti-submarine work during the War [i.e., World War I].

[42] Langley was far too slow to keep up with the battle fleet,[43] and her main purpose was to serve as a laboratory for the exploration of the new naval warfare discipline of aircraft carrier operations, with her personnel and those of her embarked air squadrons experimenting to discover what practices worked best.

[48] Whiting was credited with establishing many basic tenets of carrier aviation, largely worked out during his first Langley tour.

[53] where he was visible to pilots in critical touchdown attitudes when the nose of the aircraft might obscure their view straight ahead as they approached the ship to land.

[54] Whiting also was influential in the U.S. Navy's decision to make pilot qualification a requirement for command of an aircraft carrier.

[62] After the United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, Whiting continued his general inspector duties until February 19, 1943, when he took command of Naval Air Station New York in Brooklyn, New York, serving also as District Aviation Officer, Third Naval District.

[63] Whiting was suffering from pneumonia and hospitalized at the National Naval Medical Center[64] in Bethesda, Maryland, when he died of a heart attack on April 24, 1943.

[65] In accordance with Whiting's wishes, his ashes were buried at sea off the Execution Rocks[66] in the deepest part of Long Island Sound.