The stress distribution in rotating circular discs containing a central hole and a symmetrical array of non-central holes is determined by numerical solution of the equations of generalised plane stress. Particular attention is given to an annulus containing the holes and of width approximately eight hole diameters, in which the full two-dimensional equations are solved. The region outside this annulus is treated as radially symmetric and the stresses there are determined from a simpler one-dimensional model. Stress distributions are reported for uniform discs of fixed geometry containing 10, 20 and 45 holes. Results are also obtained for 20-hole discs of non-uniform thickness comprising a uniformly tapered disc, a disc with a thickened annulus containing the holes, and a uniform disc with each hole surrounded by thickened bosses. As a check on the numerical method, calculations have been carried out on a disc of identical geometry to one examined photoelastically bv Leist and Weber with good agreement. The effect of changing Poisson's ratio for this particular disc is also examined.

Jet flap theory for thin aerofoils has been extended to include the effect of jet entrainment on the external flow when the jet is blown over the upper surface of the aerofoil. The effective camber of the aerofoil is increased by the sink effect due to entrainment and the increase of lift at zero incidence is proportional to the square root of the jet momentum coefficient. Formulae and charts are presented to facilitate the determination of the increments of lift and pitching moment due to this effect. The theory is shown to be in first-order agreement with the exact solution for a circular-arc aerofoil of small camber with distributed sinks on the upper surface.

The new theory is compared with four old sets and one new set of experimental data. It greatly improves the accuracy of prediction for cases where the incidence and flap angle are small. The new theory substantiates the usefulness of a small flap in applications of the jet flap principle.

Donnell type stability equations for thin circular orthotropic conical shells are presented and solved for external pressure loading. The solution is likewise applied to stiffened conical shells by consideration of equivalent orthotropic shells. Typical cases are computed and compared with corresponding isotropic shells. Correlation with equivalent cylindrical shells then yields a simple approximate stability analysis for orthotropic or ring-stiffened conical shells under hydrostatic pressure.

A study has been made of the deformation of skew slabs using a pure resistance electrical analogue with a square mesh. The three commonly occurring boundary conditions of simply-supported, clamped, or free edges have been represented on the analogue, and the results of typical problems with these edge conditions are given.

The paper deals with the behaviour of three shock waves meeting at a point in a perfect gas. It is shown that the equations of motion can be reduced to a single polynomial equation of degree 10. The real roots of this equation are studied to determine their physical significance. In addition, the appearance of degenerate shock systems is shown to be associated with the formation of certain multiple roots of the polynomial equation.

The paper provides relationships between the buckling resistance of simply-supported transversely stiffened plates and the flexural rigidity of the stiffeners for various values of the ratio of torsional rigidity to nexural rigidity. Results are presented for four different stiffener spacings.