The First Handley Page Memorial Lecture, organised jointly by the Cranfield Society and the Royal Aeronautical Society, was given by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, K.G., at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, on 21st May 1963 before an audience of some 1500. The Chair was taken by Sir Harold Roxbee Cox, Ph.D., D.I.C., D.Sc, B.Sc.(Eng.), F.R.Ae.S., F.A.I.A.A, M.I.Mech.E., Chairman of the Board of Governors of the College of Aeronautics, and a Past President of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Sir Harold Roxbee Cox said that the late Sir Frederick Handley Page was one of the greatest figures in British aviation. His was the unique achievement of creating his company in 1909 and leading it for over half a century until he died in 1962. Although always in touch with every phase of his company's work, he found time to serve the country in many other ways. They particularly remembered two of them that day. He was a Past President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and he was Chairman of the Governing Body of the College of Aeronautics. Both the Society, and the Cranfield Society of old students of the College, wished to honour his memory by the creation of the Handley Page Memorial Lecture, and they decided to do so in partnership. In the hope of starting the series with the maximum distinction they asked His Royal Highness if he would give the first Memorial Lecture. It was difficult adequately to express thanks to him for agreeing to do so, and it was with the feeling that they were all honoured to be present on this great occasion that he asked His Royal Highness now to deliver the first Handley Page Memorial Lecture.

The Sixteenth Louis Bleriot Lecture, “The Aeronautical Industry in the Europe of Tomorrow,” was given in London in the Society's Lecture Theatre by Captain R. M. Bloch, F.N., F.R.Ae.S., A.F.A.I.A.A. Mr. B. S. Shenstone, M.A.Sc, F.R.Ae.S., F.A.I.A.A., F.C.A.S.I., President of the Society, was in the chair.

Introducing the Lecturer, the President reminded the audience that the Bleriot Lectures were given alternately in Paris and London. This year was London's turn and their lecturer was a Frenchman, Captain Rene Bloch. Captain Bloch had many duties: he was Assistant Director of Aeronautics for International Affairs in the French Ministry of Defence, he was the French Representative of the NATO Maritime Patrol Aircraft Steering Committee and Permanent Chairman of the Technical Sub-Committee. He was also French Co-Chairman of the Anglo-French Naval Aviation Committee. Captain Bloch had a number of degrees, including the diploma of the Ecole Polytechnique and he was an M.A. of Harvard. He was a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, a Combatant Volontaire de la Resistance and he held the Medaille de la France Libre and the Medialle de l'Aeronautique. He was a member of A.F.I.T.A.E., an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, New York and he had recently been elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. They would appreciate that Captain Bloch's background and experience was certainly wide enough for him to speak with authority on his subject—“The Aeronautical Industry in the Europe of Tomorrow.”

The Fifty-First Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture, “Man in Military Space”, was given by Professor C. D. Perkins, Chairman of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at Princeton University, on 23rd May 1963. Professor A. R. Collar, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.Ae.S., F.A.I.A.A., F.C.A.S.I., President of the Society, was in the Chair. Professor Collar presented the Lawrence Hargrave Memorial Lecture Medallion to Professor A. V. Stephens on behalf of the Melbourne Branch of the Australian Division. He explained that Professor Stephens had delivered the first Lawrence Hargrave Memorial Lecture in 1956 when he was the Lawrence Hargrave Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at Sydney University, but the Australian Division had not then had the Medallion struck. Professor Stephens was now Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at Queen's University, Belfast.

The Sixth Lanchester Memorial Lecture, “Trends in Unsteady Aerodynamics,” was given by Dr. W. P. Jones, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.Ae.S., F.A.I.A.A., of the National Physical Laboratory, on 22nd November 1962. Professor A. R. Collar, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.Ae.S., F.A.I.A.A., F.C.A.S.I., President-Elect, took the Chair for the President who was visiting the overseas Divisions.

Before the lecture, Professor Collar introduced Dr. William Greulick, Scientific Attaché U.S. Embassy, who presented the John Scott Award to Mr. J. W. Sparke, R.A.E., for his invention of the Visual Glide Path Indicator, in use at most major airports of the world and adopted as the U.S. Standard. Dr. Greulick gave a short history of the Award, which was founded by John Scott, a chemist from Edinburgh, in 1816 and given to the City of Philadelphia. Its premiums were for distribution among “ingenious men and women who made useful inventions” and the award was of a truly international character. It was now of the value of $1,000, with a copper medal and a scroll.

Professor Collar, introducing the Lecturer, said that Lanchester had been a great scientist, a musician, a poet and an engineer of distinction in a great number of fields. It was to him a pleasure and a privilege to preside on this occasion, especially as he himself had delivered the second Lanchester Lecture. He was delighted that Professor Schlichting and Professor Young, two other Lecturers in the series, were present. Dr. von Kantian and Monsieur Legendre, the two other Lanchester lecturers, regretted that they could not be present.

The Sixth Lecturer, Dr. W. P. Jones, was Superintendent of the Aerodynamics Division of the National Physical Laboratory. He had been educated at St. David's College, Lampeter, and at The Quee's College, Oxford. He had joined the N.P.L. staff in 1935, where Professor Collar was himself working at the time, and had been at Teddington since then, except for a year (1960-61) when he was the Jerome C. Hunsaker Visiting Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Jones had written a large number of scientific papers on aerodynamic problems related to flutter and aeroelasticity and was the Editor of the AGARD “Manual on Aeroelasticity,” a volume of great substance and interest.

A most important aspect of space technology is the development of methods for atmospheric re-entry. In this phase of flight very severe structural and material requirements exist. The origin of the problem lies in the intense aerodynamic heating which occurs as the body enters the denser regions of the atmosphere. High stagnation temperatures at the nose, shear effects in the boundary layer, radiation from the hot gas in the shock wave, and heat liberated by the recombination of dissociated and ionised gases give rise to conditions which will result in the destruction of the body unless some form of heat protection is provided.

The wind tunnel has been the main instrument for experimental research in aeronautics since the turn of the century and its history is as brief as powered flight itself. It has always played a leading rdle in aeronautics right from the time of the Wright Brothers to the present day.

The early form of wind tunnels as developed at the National Physical Laboratory and other research establishments have been replaced over the years by larger and more elaborate facilities, each having a particular speed range and specific role in aeronautical research and development. Modern wind tunnels having continuous operation of the type installed at the Royal Aircraft Establishment involve powers of up to 100 000 h.p. and cost in the neighbourhood of £10 000 000. In spite of this cost it is a sobering thought that, if anything, the overall cost of each data point is less today than it was in the early days of aeronautics. Such tunnels are highly complex instruments for research and development and although they play a rôle similar in many respects to that of a computer, they have the advantage of always dealing with a real fluid. Indeed no known computer could cope with the range of problems that can be solved in a wind tunnel, ranging from such complex problems as the structure of turbulent flow to the pressures in separated flow regimes, to quote just two examples. This fact must always be kept in perspective when arguments are presented for more and more work on digital computers to solve basic fluid motion problems. Of course we cannot overlook the problems of interpretation of wind tunnel data and the difficulties encountered in extrapolating these data to flight conditions.

The development of theories for such problems together with answers is of ever increasing importance, especially as the problems in aeronautics are becoming more and more complex. These solutions have the important function not only of high-lighting certain aspects of the flow, but of pin-pointing the important parameters in a problem together with providing better than order of magnitude results. However, theories must be based on physical facts and these can only be determined in the final analysis from experiments.

The wind tunnel has three highly significant roles in modern aeronautics:

• (i) Experimental research as a forerunner to future theoretical research.

• (ii) Experimental research as a confirmation and extension of theory.

• (iii) Current research and development work on a given aircraft.

The current trend in bringing strong theoretical and experimental groups together, plus the employment of rapid measurement techniques in wind tunnels, promises the greatest possible productive utilisation of these highly important and expensive facilities. In most cases today they are playing a strong, if not the leading, role in aeronautical development.

This paper describes the design and development of the Thiokol XLR99-RM-1 rocket engine for the North American X-15 research aircraft. The engine is a turbopump-driven unit of 58,000 lb. thrust at vacuum conditions utilising liquid oxygen as the oxidiser and anhydrous liquid ammonia as the fuel. The design is notable for a number of features incorporated into a rocket engine of this size, in that it is primarily an aircraft engine with all of the control and safety attributes pertaining to conventional manned flight.

The general development of the engine is reviewed on a component basis with brief digressions into the historical and political background.

In 1962 the passenger fatal accident rate was less than one passenger fatality per 100 million passenger miles. This is a figure which can be used to demonstrate the safety of flying relative to other forms of transport.

I am not going to discuss the merits of the criterion of “passenger miles.” Whatever one says about it the rate achieved last year does demonstrate a notable improvement on the pioneer days of aviation when the airline passenger achieved a reputation of daring by accepting the risks then present.

The usefulness of boundary-layer control (B.L.C.) at the knee of a trailing-edge flap, over the wing nose close to the leading-edge or at the knee of a leading-edge flap is first noted. Various methods of providing B.L.C. are outlined, comprising slot blowing, slot suction, area suction, inclined air-jets, and specially-designed aerofoil shapes. The aerodynamic aspects of slot blowing over trailing-edge flaps and the wing nose are then examined in detail and both slot suction and area suction are also considered. The associated practical design features required for good performance are discussed and some flight-handling implications are mentioned.

The Materials Engineer should provide materials of proven integrity with the highest possible strength to weight ratio. This paper discusses the potentialities with the basic materials used for airframes. Attention is directed mainly to materials for subsonic aircraft.

It will be helpful to consider the distribution of materials in present day aircraft, and Fig. 1 shows clearly that the basic airframe materials at present are aluminium alloys and steels.

Up to the present most of the methods used to calculate the flow over delta wings with leading edge separations have been based on slender wing theory. In this paper one of the simplest of these methods is carried over to linear theory and the overall lift calculated. In general the results are in agreement with experiment, in particular both show a fall in nonlinear lift as the leading edges of the wing approach the free stream Mach angles. The discrepancies which exist appear to arise mainly from the use of linear theory rather than from the mathematical model introduced to treat the separated flow.

The objective of Structural Design is to provide the structure that will permit the aircraft, whether military or civil, to do its job most effectively, that is with the least total effort, spread over the whole life of the aircraft from initial design until the aircraft is thrown on the scrap heap. There is thus no all-embracing simple criterion by which the success of the structural design can be judged. It is not sufficient to believe that percentage structure weight is of itself an adequate measure of effective design, either of the complete vehicle or of the structure itself; a well-known example is the provision of increased aspect ratio at the expense of structure weight, which may give increased fuel economy in the cruise and reduction in the total aircraft weight. Nevertheless, percentage structure weight is a useful measure, provided its limitations are recognised.

The take-off manoeuvre is described in outline and the safety requirements applicable to this phase of flight are briefly reviewed.

A more detailed inspection of the take-off manoeuvre reveals some of the difficulties which confront the pilot and indicates the type of additional information with which he should be provided.

Means of providing such information and the problem of measuring the necessary quantities are discussed and this leads to a description of the range of equipment currently being developed and under consideration by Smiths Aviation Division.

This includes: —

• (i) A ground run indicator

• (ii) A ground run predictor

• (iii) A pitch rate indicator

• (iv) A take-off director.

Finally, some thoughts are presented on the subject of instrument displays and the problem of incorporating the required additional information into existing flight systems.

An analysis is made of the stresses and strains in a loaded two-bar tie when one of the bars is subjected to heating. The material of the bars is assumed to possess linear work hardening characteristics, i.e. a constant tangent modulus in the plastic range, and these characteristics are assumed to be independent of temperature. The following cycles of loading and heating are considered: load-heat-cool-unload, load-heat-unload-cool, heat-load-unload-cool, heat-load-cool-unload, and it is shown how, and when, these cycles produce differing stresses and strains and, in particular, differing residual stresses and strains. The effect of repeated applications of these cycles, when incremental shake-down may occur, is also considered.

The idea of sweeping the wings of an aeroplane in order to delay or reduce the transonic drag rise is of course an old one, dating from at least 20 years ago. At subsonic speeds the art of swept wing design is now highly developed, largely due to research at the RAE under Küchemann on the three-dimensional aspects of the subject, and at the NPL, notably by Pearcey and Holder, on two-dimensional section design. It was soon realised that, at least in principle, the same ideas could be carried over some way into the supersonic speed range—how far still remains to be seen.

The Nonweiler method of designing delta wings (caret wings) to have plane shocks on the lower surface is extended to the design of upper surfaces. Cambered and shock-free surfaces are also deduced, and methods of design for complete configurations suggested.

An important point is that all surfaces are of single curvature.

The Seventh Sir Henry Royce Memorial Lecture of the Derby Branch of the Society —"NATO's Firstborn: The Atlantic" by Captain R. Bloch, F.N., F.R.Ae.S., A.F.A.I.A.A., given on 5th November 1962—was also the 53rd Main Lecture of the Society to be given at a Branch Centre. Mr. A. A. Rubbra, F.R.Ae.S., Chairman of the Derby Branch opened the proceedings by welcoming the members of Council who were present, the visitors from other Branches and, especially, their distinguished visitors from Belgium, France and Germany. He expressed the regrets of the Branch that the President was unable to be present because of his absence overseas, but welcomed the President-elect, Professor A. R. Collar, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.Ae.S., F.A.I.A.A., F.C.A.S.I., Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at Bristol University, who would preside for the rest of the evening.

Professor Collar said how delighted he was to be at Derby again on such an occasion; it was also the first time he had presided at a Main Lecture of the Society. Introducing Captain Bloch, Professor Collar said that although he was not yet 40 years of age he had had a distinguished career. He had achieved distinction at the Ecole Polytechnique, and at the Licencié es-Sciences and was also an M.A. of Harvard University. Captain Bloch was an Ingénieur du Génie Maritime and Ingénieur de l'Aéronautique and held the Diploma du Centre de Perfectionnement dans l'Administration des Affairs. He was a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and a Combatant Volontaire de la Resistance and held the Médaille de la France Libre and the Médaille de l'Aéronautique. From 1952 to 1961 Captain Bloch had been head of Research and Development for French Naval Aviation and since 1961 had been Assistant Director of Aeronautics for International Affairs in the French Defence Ministry. He was also the French Representative of the NATO Maritime Patrol Aircraft Steering Committee and Permanent Chairman of the Technical SubCommittee; since 1957 he had been French Co-Chairman of the Anglo-French Naval Aviation Committee. He was an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a member of the American Institute of Radio Engineers, a member of AFITAE and a Fellow of the Society.