Royal Aeronautical Society Research Articles

The First Lanchester Memorial Lecture

I Consider it a great honour to be invited to deliver the First Lanchester Memorial Lecture, which, according to the instruction received from the Secretary of the Royal Aeronautical Society, should deal with Lanchester's personality and achievements. It is also a great pleasure for me to recall my personal contacts with this great man. On the other hand, I am not quite sure whether the decision of the Council, choosing me as the first Lanchester Lecturer, was really a wise one, since I am not in the best position to present a full biographical sketch of Lanchester. Somebody more familiar with Lanchester's automobile work, as, for example, Sir Harry Ricardo, would be more able to present a full picture of Lanchester's achievements. I must, therefore, restrict myself essentially to the treatment of Lanchester's contributions to the sciences of Aerodynamics, Flight Mechanics and Operational Analysis.

Advanced Education and Academic Research in Aeronautics

The Forty-Fifth Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture, “Advanced Education and Academic Research in Aeronautics” was given before the Society by Dr. Clark B. Millikan, Hon.F.I.A.S., F.R.Ae.S., on 13th September 1957, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George St., London, before a large and distinguished audience which included H.R.H. The Prince of the Netherlands and a number of the Americans who had attended the Sixth Anglo-American Aeronautical Conference. Sir George Edwards, C.B.E., B.Sc, F.R.Ae.S., President of the Society, presided. As has now become customary the principal awards of the Society awarded by the Council for the year were presented before the lecture (see July and October 1957 Journals). This year they included Honorary Fellowship of the Society which was accepted by His Royal Highness, The Prince of the Netherlands.Introducing the Lecturer, Sir George Edwards said:–Dr. Millikan was born in Chicago in 1903, he graduated from Yale University in 1924 with the degree of Ph.B. and received a Ph.D. degree in physics and mathematics at the California Institute of Technology in 1928. In that year he was appointed Assistant Professor at the California Institute, in 1934 he became Assistant Professor, and since 1940 he has been a full Professor in the Aeronautics Department. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute from 1945 to 1947 and was appointed Director of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory in 1949. He has been Director of Wind Tunnel Testing at the California Institute since 1935, and Director of the Southern California Cooperative Wind Tunnel since it began operations in 1945. He is Chairman of the C.I.T. Trustees Jet Propulsion Laboratory Committee.A Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, of which he was President in 1937, he is also a member of a number of other Societies. In 1948 the British Government awarded him the King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom, and in 1949 he received the United States Medal for Merit.Dr. Millikan is currently serving as Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the U.S. Secretary of Defense and as Chairman of the Aircraft and Guided Missiles Panel of the U.S.A.F. Scientific Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Army's Ballistic Research Laboratories' Scientific Advisory Committee, Chairman of the Sub- Committee on Fluid Mechanics and a member of the Aerodynamics Committee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.

Aircraft Hydraulics. Vol. II—Component Design. Edited by H. G. Conway. Chapman and Hall, London, 1957. The second of a series of text books published under the authority of the Royal Aeronautical Society. 198 pp. Diagrams. Tables. 45s.

Aircraft Hydraulics. Vol. II—Component Design. Edited by H. G. Conway. Chapman and Hall, London, 1957. The second of a series of text books published under the authority of the Royal Aeronautical Society. 198 pp. Diagrams. Tables. 45s. - Volume 61 Issue 562

Summarized proceedings of a conference on stress analysis - Cranfield, September 1956

The Tenth Annual Conference of the Stress Analysis Group of The Institute of Physics was held at the College of Aeronautics on 19, 20 and 21 September, 1956, in conjunction with the Royal Aeronautical Society. Papers were read which could be divided into four main subjects: kinetic heating, extensometry and instrumentation, jet efflux and crack propagation, and the proceedings are summarized in this report. A review of recent improvements in methods of experimental stress analysis in the U.S.A. and Canada was given by Mr. A. F. C. Brown.

Royal Aeronautical Society: Officers

Royal Aeronautical Society: Officers

Vibration Problems associated with the Helicopter

The Chairman, in introducing the Author, said that the occasion was a very auspicious one, in that a paper was being presented by one of the founder members of the Association at a Joint Meeting with the Royal Aeronautical Society, with which the Association maintained the closest of links On behalf of the Association he welcomed the fact that a joint meeting was being held, and he welcomed those members of the Society who were present to hear a paper and discussion on a specialised helicopter subject In particular he welcomed the President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Mr E T Jones

Aeronautical Research in the Netherlands

It is a great honour to be invited to present a survey of the aeronautical research in the Netherlands to this distinguished audience and I wish to express my thanks to the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society for giving me the opportunity to deliver this lecture. The more I appreciate it in view of the friendship between our two countries, between the Society and its Dutch counterpart and the personal friendship with so many present on this occasion.It is my intention to give a survey of some of the work performed in the Netherlands in the post-war period and to describe briefly the main installations which are now available or under construction. I hope that I will be able to give you an impression of the scope and the nature of the aeronautical research activities in the Netherlands. These activities are being directed in the first place by the immediate needs of the industry and the aircraft operators; and in the second place by the desire to contribute to the general development of the art, thereby also supporting the exchange of results on an international basis, even more essential than before, considering the rapidly growing importance of aviation in its broadest sense.Before entering into more technical matters it may be worthwhile to give very briefly an outline of the present organisation of aeronautical research and development in the Netherlands.

The Packaging of Electronic Equipment

SummaryThe problems involved in the packaging of Service radar equipment are reviewed. Information on shock testing techniques, instrumentation and a design procedure for cushioning are given, together with some examples of current packaging methods used by the Ministry of Supply's Radar Research Establishment, Malvern, Worcs. The paper is based on a lecture given to the Royal Aeronautical Society, Gloucester and Cheltenham Branch in December 1954. Received October 1956.

Rocket Engines

The 1,000th Lecture to be given before the Society and the 27th Main Lecture to be held at a Branch of the Society was held under the auspices of the Henlow Branch. The lecture, “Rocket Engines,” was given by Mr. S. Allen, F.R.Ae.S., on 11th October 1956. Professor A. J. Murphy, A.F.R.Ae.S., President of the Henlow Branch, opened the meeting, and Mr. E. T. Jones, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., President of the Society, presided for the rest of the meeting.Professor A. J. Murphy: Tonight they had the great honour of welcoming to Henlow for the first time the parent body of the Royal Aeronautical Society for a Main Society Lecture. On behalf of the Branch he welcomed the President, Mr. E. T. Jones, several Members of Council and other members of the Royal Aeronautical Society.He had been asked to introduce Mr. Jones, and of all the redundant things that he had been called upon to do, that was the most unnecessary. All of them were aware of Mr. Jones' distinguished career in aeronautics and would forgive him, as he knew Mr. Jones would, if he did not enlarge on that aspect. However, there were a large number of people both from the Royal Air Force and the Ministry of Supply present and it seemed appropriate to recall that Mr. Jones served as a pilot and flying instructor in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force until 1919. Thereafter he joined the Aerodynamics Department of the R.A.E. at Farnborough and since then, as they knew well, he had played an increasingly distinguished part in the experimental establishments connected with the Aircraft Industry and the Royal Air Force and in the field of Aircraft Research and Development. This year, in addition to being elected President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Mr. Jones became the Director-General of Technical Development (Air) in the Ministry of Supply.Mr. E. T. Jones: This was the first Main Lecture of the Society to be held at the Henlow Branch and in that respect the evening was an historical one.The practice of holding Main Lectures of the Society at Branches was started in 1948 and the underlying idea was to take the Society to the Branches.In all, some two dozen Main Lectures had now been given at one or other of the twenty-four Branches of the Society and it gave him much pleasure to see such a large attendance.This was but the second Main Lecture of the season and curiously enough it was the second to be held at a Branch, This fact caused him to look more closely at the lecture programme and he found that four Main Lectures out of a total of nine this season would be held at the Branches. Thus the Council was doing its best to bring the Society more and more into contact with the Branches and this must surely be a good thing for all those who were interested in aeronautics.He hoped, too. that it would encourage more of the aeronautically minded to attend those of the Main Lectures which were to be held in London.Now it was his pleasant duty to introduce the lecturer.Mr. Sidney Allen was a Fellow of the Society and had had thirty years' continuous experience in the design, research and development of all forms of internal combustion engines for aircraft. For twenty years he had been with Armstrong Siddeley Motors and over the past seven years he had been Chief Engineer of their Rocket Engine Division.He thought he would be right in saying that few people could have more experience in the United Kingdom of rocket engines and he had much pleasure in calling on Mr. Sidney Allen to give his paper.

Aircraft Hydraulics. Vol. I—Hydraulic Systems Edited by H. G. Conway. Chapman and Hall, London, 1957. The first of a series of text books published under the authority of the Royal Aeronautical Society. 146 pp. Diagrams, tables, charts. 35s.

Aircraft Hydraulics. Vol. I—Hydraulic Systems Edited by H. G. Conway. Chapman and Hall, London, 1957. The first of a series of text books published under the authority of the Royal Aeronautical Society. 146 pp. Diagrams, tables, charts. 35s. - Volume 61 Issue 555

Aeronautical Development in Australia and its Potential Contributions to the British Commonwealth

The Twelfth British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture “ Aeronautical Development in Australia and its Potential Contributions to the British Commonwealth ” was given by Mr. L. P. Coombes, D.F.C., B.Sc, F.C.G.I., F.I.A.S., F.R.Ae.S., Chief Superintendent, Aeronautical Research Laboratories, Melbourne, before the Society on 22nd November 1956 at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Mr. E. T. Jones, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., President of the Society, presided and introduced the LecturerMR. E. T. Jones: The British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture was given annually and normally alternated yearly between a resident of the United Kingdom and a resident of a member country of the Commonwealth. This year the lecture was to be given by a resident of Australia and it was his great pleasure to introduce Mr. Coombes. Mr. Coombes had long been a friend and colleague of many of them but as they had a fair number of the younger generation present he would introduce Mr. Coombes properly.Mr. Coombes had served the profession of aeronautics since 1917 when he started as a pilot in the First World War. For ithese services he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was a Fellow of the Society and a Fellow of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences. He was also a Fellow of the City and Guilds Institute. Mr. Coombes was elected Chairman of the Melbourne Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1953 and in 1956 he was elected President of the Australian Division of the Society. He was also a most active and enthusiastic member, or delegate rather, of the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council, a body to which he referred in the paper and which came into existence in 1946.Mr. Coombes joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment in the Aero Department in 1924 and a year after transferred to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe. He was recalled to Farnborough in 1930 to take charge there of the seaplane testing tank which had just been erected and many would remember that Mr. Coombes and the late Mr. W. G. A. Perring worked side by side on that tank for many years. He thought it was about 1938 when he and his family left England when there were no facilities at all in Australia for aeronautical research. Indeed there was no organisation in Australia for aeronautical research and he thought that there was no need personally or professionally for Mr. Coombes to go to Australia because he had already assured for himself an eminent aeronautical career in the British Air Ministry. Mr. Coombes therefore was just as much a pioneer, aeronautically speaking, as those men of sail who set out from England two centuries before him. Mr. Coombes was both architect and designer of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne and was now the leader there of a strong team of scientists and engineers who had made quite a reputation in the aeronautical sciences for the high quality of their work.He would like now to read a message from Australia from Mr. Isbister, the honorary secretary of the Australian Division, which said: “ Please convey to our President, Mr. L. P. Coombes, best wishes for a successful British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture. From Council and members of the Australian Division.”

The Importance of Time in Aircraft Manufacture

The 999th Lecture to be given before the Royal Aeronautical Society “ The Importance of Time in Aircraft Manufacture ” by Air Commodore F. R. Banks, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S. was given on 17th October 1956 at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Great George St., London, S.W.I. Mr. E. T. Jones, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., President of the Society, was in the Chair. Opening the meeting, Mr. Jones said:—This evening marked the opening of the Society's 1956-57 Lecture season in so far as the London district was concerned. Actually, two Main Lectures had already been given at Branches; the first at Derby and the second at Henlow and at both there was a large and appreciative audience. It was gratifying that these early Main Lectures at the Branches had been received so well. He mentioned this because out of nine Main Lectures this session four were planned to take place at Branches, and that was quite an innovation. It was, he thought in 1948 that Council thought it would be a good thing if a few of the Main Lectures each session were held at the Branches and, so to speak, take the Society now and again to the Branches. He was sure they would agree that that was a good thing to do. There might be some present from the Branches and he had no doubt there would be reciprocal response in the Branches' members coming to lectures in London.Now it was his pleasant duty to introduce their Lecturer. Actually of course he did not require any introduction. Air Commodore Banks, as they well knew, was a Lecturer of some importance. He had lectured many times to this Society and, indeed, to other Societies in other countries. He was a Fellow of their Society, a Companion of the Bath, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and, what was a little more unusual in their Lecturers, he was a Commander of the French Legion d'Honneur and a Commander of the United States Legion of Merit. He had a particular distinction in respect of the subject he was speaking on tonight. He started life as an engineer. He then became an aviation fuels specialist. Then he became Director-General of Engine Production in the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and later changed from Production to Development and became Director of Engine Development in the same Ministry. He then went back to his first love, fuels, and returned again for sixteen months to the post of Principal Director of Engine Research and Development at the Ministry of Supply, when at that point of time this Ministry was rather hard put to get the right man in the right job. He was now a Director of The Bristol Aeroplane Company and was also on the Boards of Bristol Aero Engines Ltd. and Bristol Aircraft Ltd.

Matrix Analysis of the Circular Conical Fuselage

METHOD for the stress analysis of the circular conical fuselage with flexible frames, subjected to a fairly general type of load distribution, was recently developed by the present writer in a paper published in the Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society. This paper did not, however, make any attempt to deal with the question of cut‐outs, and for the reason given below it later transpired that certain modifications of the basic theory were required before this problem could be solved.

Problems Associated with the Production and Use of Wrought Aluminium Alloys

The 988th Lecture to be given before the Society and the 25th Main Lecture to be held at a Branch of the Society, “ Problems Associated with the Production and Use of Wrought Aluminium Alloys,” by G. Forrest, B.SC, A.M.I.Mech.E., A.F.R.Ae.S., and K. Gunn, B.Sc, A.R.S.M., was held under the auspices of the Belfast Branch on 5th April 1956. Mr. D. Keith-Lucas, F.R.Ae.S., Chairman of the Belfast Branch, opened the proceedings, and Mr. E. T. Jones, C.B., O.B.E, M.Eng., F.R.Ae.S., presided for the rest of the meeting.Mr. Keith-Lucas (Branch Chairman): This was a great occasion for the Belfast Branch because for the third time they were honoured to be the hosts of the parent Society, the Royal Aeronautical Society. It was with great pleasure that he welcomed their guests. First of all, Mr. E. T. Jones, the President-elect of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Dr. Ballantyne, the Secretary, and Mr. Dunsby and Mr. Simmons, both of the Technical Department, of the Society. The President, Mr. N. E. Rowe, and the Chairman of the Branches Committee, Mr. Handel Davies, had both sent their sincere apologies that they were unable to be present.He would also like to extend a special welcome to three members of the Preston Branch, Mr. Turner, Mr. Swales and Mr. Dyson. They were rather “ out on a limb” in Belfast, rather far from other Branches and they did appreciate this neighbourly gesture from the Preston Branch. He would also like to welcome their own President of the Belfast Branch, Sir Matthew Slattery, and their Vice-President, Mr. C. P. T. Lipscomb.But this was essentially a Royal Aeronautical Society function and not a Belfast Branch function. Therefore he would invite Mr. E. T. Jones, the President-elect of the Royal Aeronautical Society, to take the Chair and to conduct the meeting.Mr. E. T. Jones: It was a great pleasure and honour to be in Belfast that evening deputising for Mr. Rowe. They had already heard from Mr. Keith-Lucas that Mr. Rowe was unable to be present and he had asked him also to express his regrets.People working in aeronautics were sometimes liable to overlook the fact that materials had played a tremendous part in the advancement that they had achieved. They knew that the aerodynamicist, the structural engineer, the propulsion engineer, had all made their mark on the progress of aviation but they must not forget that materials had forged a very great key towards the progress which had been made. Indeed he recollected that Sir Harry Garner, in his Wilbur Wright Lecture in 1952, made the statement that he doubted whether the Aircraft Industry today could make a much more forward aeroplane than the Wright Brothers did in 1903 if they were confined to the use of the same materials and to the same stalling speed. He thought that statement would have been a very profound one even if stalling speed had been left out. If one considered the materials that people in those days had to work on it was wonderful that they flew at all. Thus he thought it was fitting that they should have a lecture of the kind Mr. Forrest and Mr. Gunn were to give.He had a pleasant duty to introduce the lecturers. Mr. Forrest was educated at London University and joined the National Physical Laboratory in 1925, or thereabouts, in the Engineering Division. In 1936 he joined the Northern Aluminium Company and he later transferred to the Aluminium Laboratories Ltd. He was now an Associate Director of Research in the Aluminium Laboratories Ltd. at Banbury. Mr. Forrest had impressed upon him that he should make a point of saying Banbury because there were three Laboratories of the firm. Mr. Gunn was educated at the Royal School of Mines. He joined the Northern Aluminium Company in 1944 and he too transferred to the Aluminium Laboratories in 1946. He did not know quite how they proposed to deal with the Lecture, but he thought that Mr. Forrest would read it and both would be available to reply to the questions.

The Estimation of the Lift due to Full and Part Span Controls

This note describes an investigation of experimental and theoretical data on the lift increment due to the deflection of full and part span controls. For full span controls, existing Data Sheets in the Royal Aeronautical Society Aerodynamics series are found to be inadequate for some of the plan forms currently in use, but the investigation shows that with one additional set of curves the sheets may be applied to almost any plan form. For part span conversion factors, a revision also is proposed.

A Review of Some Combustion Problems Associated with the Aero Gas Turbine

The 23rd Main Lecture to be given before a Branch of the Society was held under the auspices of the Merthyr Tydfil Branch on 10th November 1955. The Lecture, entitled “A Review of Some Combustion Problems Associated with the Aero Gas Turbine,” was given by Dr. J. S. Clarke, O.B.E., M.I.Mech.E., F.R.Ae.S. Mr. C. S. Gardner, Past President of the Merthyr Tydfil Branch, opened the proceedings by welcoming the guests. He was deputising for Mr. W. R. Morgan, the Branch President, who had unfortunately had to go into a nursing home for treatment for an old war injury. He apologised also for the absence of Mr. McGibbon who arrived back from America only that day and was unable to be present. He then introduced Mr. N. E. Rowe, President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, whom they were very honoured indeed to have with them. When they thought of the journeyings that his presence involved he thought they should be all the more grateful that he could come and support them in their Branch. He would ask Mr. Rowe to take the Chair.

Structural Fundamentals

TOO late for a report to be included in this issue the Royal Aeronautical Society held a Section Lecture, or rather group of lectures, on Aircraft Design Philosophy. This was in fact primarily concerned with the fundamentals of structural design. A paper by MR R. H. SANDIFER examined the ways in which loads are applied to an aircraft. Safety factors were the subject of a paper by MR J. K. WILLIAMS, and MR H. GIDDINGS and DR P. B. WALKER dealt respectively with Fatigue, and Structural Strength Testing.

Aeronautical Research in Sweden

I wish first to express my deep appreciation for having been invited by the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society to present a lecture on aeronautical research in Sweden. As the subject is a very broad one, it was necessary for me to consider rather thoroughly what would be expected from this paper and thus, which limitations in its scope should preferably be made.Before the 1939-45 War it was possible to design new, successful aeroplanes mainly on the basis of experience from previous types in combination with generally available design information, such as aerofoil data. The success was, in fact, often more dependent on the skill of the designer than on the amount of research and detailed aerodynamic and structural testing done. After the advent of jet propulsion and transonic and supersonic speeds this situation changed radically. Nowadays a substantial amount of basic and applied research, as well as scientifically performed development work, is a necessity for any country, regardless of size, attempting to produce its own designs of efficient and safe aircraft.

Safety First?

TWO lectures have been delivered recently which to some extent impinge on the same aspect of, more particularly, commercial aviation, though from very different points of view. The two papers to which we refer are that on ‘Structural Safety’ delivered by Professor Pugsley before the Preston Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Brancker Memorial Lecture on ‘The Influence on Civil Aviation of Some Current Researches’ by SIR ARNOLD HALL to the Institute of Transport.

Massbalancing of Aircraft Control Surfaces. H. Templeton. Volume IV of a Series of Aeronautical Monographs published under the authority of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Chapman & Hall, London, 1954. 241 pp. 39 figures. 35s.

Massbalancing of Aircraft Control Surfaces. H. Templeton. Volume IV of a Series of Aeronautical Monographs published under the authority of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Chapman & Hall, London, 1954. 241 pp. 39 figures. 35s. - Volume 59 Issue 530