Civil aircraft design for fuel reduction

Abstract

With drastic increases in oil prices fresh in our memories, with a world recession in full swing, and with two Middle-East countries at war, this is not an auspicious time to speak about the future of civil aviation. But I am following an excellent precedent. In 1940, in circumstances of unrelieved gloom, Dr. Roxbee Cox, now Lord Kings Norton, addressed this Society on ‘Looking Forward’. His lecture was a message of confidence in the long term future of civil aviation, fully justified by later events. Though the energy threat is barely comparable with the state of affairs in 1940, its potential is very serious.I am wholly confident that aviation can once again rise to the occasion. But this by itself is a small part of a big picture. We need to be satisfied that the world will cope sufficiently well with the energy situation that our future way of life will not be so impoverished that flying becomes an unjustifiable luxury.