An investigation of design procedures in high technology engineering organisations is being undertaken by the Divi-sion of Industrial Systems Engineering at University College of Swansea. To ensure comparable levels of en-gineering sophistication the study has been confined mainly to the aircraft component industry.

Initial work in this study has revealed some interesting facts about the prediction of design and development costs. Detailed information about design and development expenditures, estimated and actual, has been collected from one company and less precise data indicating similar trends has been gathered from three other companies.

The subject of this discussion is not one which readily lends itself to division into separate compartments but, for the purpose of presenting our respective papers, Mr. White and I have agreed to divide the subject between us on the basis that he will deal with the legal aspects of international co-operation as between the participants in the project and third parties, while I propose to discuss some of the legal aspects arising out of the relationship between the companies engaged in such projects. As I have implied, such a division of the subject must of necessity be an arbitrary one, and it is evident that there will be many areas where the two sides overlap, so that they cannot in practice be treated in isolation, and Mr. White and I have felt free to include in our respective papers, matters arising from our own experiences which in some cases may be more appropriate to the other's half of the programme.

Aircraft have been used for survey and pest control for over 50 years, the business expanding from the early days of mostly converted military training aircraft to the present when agricultural aircraft are accepted as specialised aircraft designed for their specific jobs in their own right.

A Large part of industrial engineering effort is devoted to “work study”. This term is put in quotes since the activity as practiced is more than just “measuring” the time associated with some particular work activity. In practice, the engineer also selects certain elements of an operation where possible to improve the method and procedure. In other words, “work study” really means a complete study and description of the operation. When referring to the “program” one must also consider a control system of daily, weekly or monthly reports whereby countable output can be related to time input.

Mr. Jenkins has described to you the matters between the collaborating parties. My task is to describe the problems between them and outsiders.

Because hardly any major European aerospace project lacks some form of collaboration, perhaps I may just make a few points from my own experience of this sort of business.

International collaboration has daunted many people, for rather the same reason that a lawyer like myself feels incapable of imagining how the process of a design office can ever achieve anything!

A lot of what occurs in the design office is summed up in the phrase “know-how”—I have often thought that there is no less a “know-how of collaboration”, particularly international collaboration.

It is with some trepidation that I face an audience with so large a combined technical knowledge and experience of agricultural aviation. When one considers the relationship between the agricultural contractor using aircraft for his work and the farmer, it is clear to me, that we, as the end users, play a relatively small part, all be it a vital one, in the total operation. An operation which clearly requires a high degree of technical skill, exacting safety standards and a high degree of accuracy; backed by high capital investment, sound salesmanship and strict management control.

Nothing in the Concorde could be more conventional in this day and age than its navigational equipment installation. Triple inertial systems, dual VOR/DME, dual ILS and even dual ADF are fitted to the basic aircraft. About the only thing we do not have is a navigator.

This is really where the story starts, about 12 years or more ago, with a three man crew which did not include a navigator. His absence was only loosely related to being supersonic. Admittedly, the flight deck of any faster aircraft is very likely to get cramped, particularly in its width, and space for crew members costs money but it is economic pressures which apply to all aircraft which have gradually displaced the specialist crew member. The skill of the equipment designer has made this possible by providing simple controls capable of being operated by the pilot without distracting him from his main task. The specialist radio operator has gone and we are how entering an era in which the navigator will also disappear.

The Report of the Commission on the Third London Airport tells the story of an interesting exercise in airport location. It includes what is possibly the most extensive cost benefit analysis ever undertaken for a civil project and it tells of an experiment in decision taking in a democratic society. At the time of writing this paper the report has been published for a little over three months but the Government has not yet announced its decision. After publication of the report there was an immediate popular outcry against the recommendation of an inland site and it now looks likely that the Government will not accept the recommendation.

When I first became interested in the field of agricultural aviation, I thought I had better find someone who had a thorough knowledge, backed up by a great amount of practical experience; so I sought the help of Ron Amsden, who, I am sure, most of you will have heard of. This was about four years ago.

Sometime during last summer, I was asked by Ron Amsden if I would be interested in attending a get-together of interested people on the subject of agricultural aviation and its problems. I had little idea then, that I should be called upon to give my views to such a distinguished gathering of experts. However, in my short experience of agricultural flying, I have gained some useful experience as a pilot and also a good understanding of the problems that arise out of this work.