Air transport, although now one of the world’s largest industries and a fundamental part of the web of commerce and communication, is still almost an infant in years. Some of us in the audience today will have been alive when the industry can have been said to have started, and the majority of us can certainly remember it as a tiny microcosm of the current worldwide system. But it is difficult to think of an industry which is not also a ‘business’ and it is open to question whether air transportation has ever been a ‘business’ in the true sense of the word. Its tools of production have very largely been subsidised (as far as their research and development costs are concerned), if one believes the manufacturers, very few of their programmes have shown satisfactory commercial output and as far as exports are concerned, most Governments have subsidised these at well below commercial rates of interest. When one adds to this a prediliction by the airlines themselves to sell their final product at less than its (unrealistically low) costs, then I believe my mystification on the financial justification for the industry is understandable. What are the real costs?

The Commercial Transport Aircraft Industry, in common with most other industries, is gradually but continually changing its form and methods of operation to match the changing social, economic and technological climates of the world. It must be the concern of those responsible for Airworthiness within the industry to ensure that the present high levels of Airworthiness achieved are maintained and improved despite the changing circumstances.

‘In offering to the public the first instalment of the present work, the author desires to record his conviction that the time is near when the study of Aerial Flight will take its place as one of the foremost of the applied sciences, one of which the underlying principles furnish some of the most beautiful and fascinating problems in the whole domain of practical dynamics.’
F. W. Lanchester — Preface to Aerodynamics (1907).

Frank Lanchester was born in 1863 and died in 1946. He lived through, and contributed significantly to, an astonishing expansion in aerodynamic knowledge and understanding. When he was a very small child, the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain was formed. Arguments about the underlying principles of aerodynamics were abundant, and manned powered flight was some 40 years into the future. When he died aerodynamics was well-established, codified and central to efficient aircraft design. Transonic flight through jet propulsion had almost been achieved.

This corner of England has seen the evolution of some notable aircraft, Canberra, Lightning, Jaguar, Tornado. Mr Yates, in the inaugural lecture of this series last year, gave a brief historical review of the growth of English Electric and of these aircraft, indicating in particular the key part played by Sir Frederick Page in both the build up of the firm and in the design and development of the aircraft. It is most appropriate that we should again honour him here on what I regard as his home ground and in his presence.

But Sir Frederick's contributions to aerospace have been much more than local to Lancashire. He has been at the centre of the gathering together of all the elements of what is now British Aerospace PLC. He is a past President of the Society of British Aerospace Companies and has actively supported the Royal Aeronautical Society, not least as President of this Branch from 1962 to 1967.

May I say that I consider it a great privilege to be asked to give this lecture to honour the memory of such a distinguished leader in the Aviation Industry.

Of the principles of war defined by Clausewitz the element of surprise has probably made the greatest contribution to success. In the military context therefore denial of surprise to a potential aggressor is paramount. Equally, the acquisition of intelligence to ensure surprise is a vital factor in any operational venture. As General Lemnitzer said in 1963, when Supreme Allied Commander Europe, ‘Aerial reconnaissance permits the effective use of valuable resources and forces and can easily spell the difference between the success and failure of any military operation’. These words underline the importance of reconnaissance to the successful conduct of war. This has been true throughout the history of warfare and perhaps never more so than during the Arab/Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973.

Hydrodynamics and aerodynamics start as one science and retain an extensive common base, including, for example, a wealth of fundamental theory and observation of streamline flows, boundary layers and vortical motions, (Plate 1).

But research and design have opened up the two frontiers in different directions, to support and often to lead the evolution and development of the respective fields of application — ships and aeroplanes, or ships and helicopters, or helicopters and other marine structures.

We are reminded of how far the helicopter has become an integral and indispensible part of the maritime scene and of so many maritime operations, and this is one of the best tributes to the great pioneering genius, drive and enthusiasm of Raoul Hafner who is very much in our minds as we consider the possibilities and prospects for cross fertilisation.

Governments support research and development (R&D) largely because there is a national need to support certain fields and types of research and there is a need for government to have their own sources of technical information and advice. In the UK, the fulfilment of these needs is met by several establishments. The First World War taught the Defence Services that if they were to keep ahead, or even abreast, of the fighting forces of other countries, they must maintain in peace time special organisations of a scientific or technical nature. As a result, each of the three Services set up experimental establishments staffed largely by professional scientists and engineers on full time permanent appointments. These establishments worked under severe disadvantages during the 1920s and 1930s because of economic crises (and therefore threat of severe reductions) and anti-defence opinion in academic circles.

In both civilian and military aviation training much reliance is placed upon expensive flight simulators. The decision to resort to a simulator for training instead of the actual equipment is justified by arguments such as:

Greater utilisation of equipment as training will not be interfered with by factors such as unsuitable weather conditions or unserviceable equipment.

Lower purchase and operating costs of simulators in comparison with the actual equipment.

Increased safety and controlled levels of stress when training is undertaken when using a simulator.

Minimal operational and environmental disturbance.

It is indeed a privilege to be invited to address this Seventh European Pioneers’ Day conference here in Toulouse. It was suggested that I might say something on Research and Development, (R&D); in approaching this topic I have borne in mind the themes of previous Pioneers’ Day conferences and tried to embody at least something of the approach adopted by the Pioneer I have in mind. I refer to Mr C. C. Walker who, with Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, provided the technical foundation for the outstanding growth of the de Havilland Aircraft Company during the three decades of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. In this partnership Mr Walker’s penchant for engineering science blended effectively with Sir Geoffrey’s flair for design.

This paper is intended to set the scene for the presentations that will follow. It looks at the characteristics of the direct broadcast TV services that were agreed internationally at the 1977 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC) and at the effects of these characteristics on the communications link and thus on the spacecraft that will provide the services.

An extension is made to previous work on spheres in thin jets to cover the cases of high stream turbulence and sphere surface roughness. Limited results for the latter agree with past work by Achenbach. Results for cases of increasing stream turbulence line up not only with other high turbulence data but also with Dryden's long-established results for turbulence levels up to a few percent and thereby present some problems, both in the interpretation of the physical flow processes and in nomenclature for the criticality conditions involved.

Airworthiness cannot be achieved by regulation. Regulation can establish a framework within which all who are concerned with the design, construction and operation of aircraft can work, and can set boundaries of responsible behaviour. Within that framework airworthiness can only be achieved by the actions of constructors, operators and authorities, and it is the management of those actions which is the subject of today’s discussions.

The College of Aeronautics performs an annual group design project as a major part of its Aircraft Design MSc programme. Projects are chosen to be representative of current areas of interest and the programme is carried out in a manner which is as close as possible.to that of aircraft manufacturers.

Vice Admiral Forrest S. Peterson, Commander Naval Air Systems Command, said at the AIAA/NASA-Ames V/STOL Conference in 1977 that:

V/STOL appeared to be the most effective, most economical means of addressing many of our major military needs: dispersal of air assets over a broad geographic range, reducing the present reliance on relatively few ships and large permanent bases and reducing the cost of maintaining an adequate, efficient air arm.

I am most grateful to the Air Transport Group for inviting me to contribute to this Symposium. I shall try to analyse the way in which the airports play their part in the Industry and assess the extent to which they understand the airlines’ financial problems and attempt to contribute to their solution. I shall endeavour to give my answer to a number of relevant questions and will expect you to make your own comments and arrive at your own conclusions.

The need for hard data regarding the contribution made by flight simulators during aircrew training has been widely recognised by many authors, including Caro, Rolfe and Roscoe, and many complementary strategies or experimental paradigms for obtaining such data have been advanced, ranging from the conduct of carefully structured and controlled experimental studies to the collation of data obtained during on-going training programmes.

Within the military context at least two current developments point towards the need for additional data regarding the effectiveness of flight simulators. The first is the increasing potential of complex full mission capable simulators, where developments particularly in the visual area, are extending the ability of simulators to replicate the most demanding segments of fast-jet combat missions including low level tactical manoeuvring and target acquisition and weapon delivery.

This paper describes the first work undertaken to see the flows of oil, kerosene, water or any other hydrogenous fluid within a steel casing. In the specific case described, the performance and movement of the oil in the scavenge system of the Rolls-Royce Gem helicopter gas turbine was clearly seen with the engine operating at a range of test conditions.

The work was conducted using cold neutrons from the DIDO nuclear reactor at AERE, Harwell, England, and this was the first time that such work has been attempted. The experiment was a complete success and provided answers to developmental problems in the oil system.

In the paper, the preliminary work on the ‘Herald’ reactor at AWRE, Aldermaston, leading to this breakthrough in technology is also described.

It is a privilege and a pleasure to have this opportunity to talk to you about progress in vertical and short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft technology. I must admit at the outset to some trepidation in accepting the invitation of the Society to speak on a subject that was successfully pioneered in the United Kingdom and brought to its current operational state largely because of the enduring faith of the Harrier team. However, I hope that the more modest progress that has been made on a variety of STOL and VTOL concepts will also be of interest to you; at the very least, this talk will identify some of the blind alleys to be avoided and, with a little luck, point out some new directions for future research. I will confine myself largely to the V/STOL technology with which I have been involved over the 1970–1980 period at Ames Research Center.

Typical performance characteristics are presented for a cascade of two-dimensional bluff aerofoils employing circulation control from a tangential blowing jet. The cascade was tested in various configurations at a freestream Mach number of 0·3 and Reynolds number of approximately 1·5 x 105. Lift and drag coefficients and stream deflection are related to the blowing jet momentum coefficient. The expressions employed for lift and drag eliminate the direct effect of the blowing jet on measured performance, which was found to be influenced strongly by vortex shedding at low jet blowing rates.

For the configurations employed, tests showed that the economical application of circulation control on an uncambered blade could produce flow turning angles up to 20°.

We are at the beginning of a decade of extraordinary change in telecommunications. Computers and information are joining together in a way which demands new techniques and capability in the field. Evolving demand and attitudes towards television, epitomised by the attention being given to direct broadcasting, are influencing national policy to many countries.

Today it is possible to ‘hook up’ video games and video recording equipment to the domestic television set. Data services are available to the viewer and small home computers can be connected. Direct-to-homes TV broadcasting is an addition to these facilities, extending the range of what is becoming a complete home entertainment and information service.