FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0652.PDF
REPORT ON THE ROYAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY. WE have the honour to submit our report on inquine made by us into the affairs of the Koyal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough, in compliance with the terms of reference con- d in your letters of March 30th and extended in that of April 18th, which are as follows :— " To inquire and report whether, within the resources placed l»v DM War Office at the disposal of the Royal Aircraft Factory and the limits imposed by War Office orders, the organisation and management of the Factory are efficient, and to give the Army Council the benefit of their suggestions on any points of the interior administration of the factory which seem to them capable of improvement." We have received all assistance desired by us from Lieut.- Oeneral Sir David Henderson and the Staff of the Military Nrron.mtKs Directorate; Lieut-Col. M. O'Gorman, Super intendent. Major Heckstall Smith, Assistant Superintendent, and the staff of the Royal Aircraft Factory also afforded us every facility for the fulfilment of the duties imposed upon us in our terms of reference. We desire to express our thanks in -ill these gentlemen. We found the organisation and administration of the Royal Aircraft Factory to be as shown on the table attached, marked Appendix " A." The functions of the Royal Aircraft Factory we understand to include original designs of aeroplanes and engines, improve ment of existing designs, manufacture of experimental aero planes, engines and their parts, and aeronautical devices ; study of and experimental work in all material used in an aeroplane ; preparation of drawings and specifications for I < infractors, and, in certain cases, supervision of madjfacture ; repair of aeroplanes and engines, and provision of aeroplane •ltd engine spare parts for maintenance , production of aero planes in limited quantity ; and emergency work of all kinds to assist contractors or to make good the failure of con tractors. From which it is apparent that the War Office has laid it down that the Royal Aircraft Factory should be devoted to experimental rather than manufacturing purposes. The Royal Aircraft Factory cannot therefore be regarded as an establishment working on strictly commercial lines ; it is rather a very large experimental laboratory, probably the largest in the United Kingdom, where experiments are 1.uried out to full scale, therefore expenses must necessarily be high. Experiments upon models to reduced scale are conducted by the National Physical Laboratory as and when required by the Aeronautical Committee or it may be by the Roy&l Aircraft Factory. The only manufacturing work done since the war began seems to have been an output of about 50 non-experimental machines and the manufacture of spare parts to meet urgent II CM lands. The orders for spare parts are very numerous, but mostly for small quantities ; they, however, aggregate a fair total and their production is an important function of the Royal Aircraft Factory. It is therefore essential that their ^Manufacture and despatch should be economic and expedi tious. The Royal Aircraft Factory has produced * new machines in all since the commencement of the war, while the trade supplies have exceeded * machines. The approximate value of orders placed by Military Aero nautics Directorate from August 1st, 1914, to March 31st, 1016, for aeroplanes, engines and spares of Royal Aircraft Factory design is *, and of private design about half this amount. The strength of the Royal Aircraft Factory on March 26th, loH), was stated by Capt. Douglas to be *. Wages for the week ended March 26th, IQI6, amounted to *, excluding the salaries of eight chief officials totalling * per month, and together would, if maintained, show a total of * for a year. Wo were informed that the total expenditure on the Royal Aircraft Factory account for the year ended March 31st, 1916, was : I For wages, salaries and expenses .. .. * For materials .. .. .. .. .. * These figures include sums, not at present precisely known, for increases in capital account; a rough estimate being men- ti6ned as between .£60,000 and £70,000. W7e have been supplied with a copy of the balance-sheet for 1914-11;, but the conditions of working during that period were so different to the present, that we have not been able to make any very pertinent use of the figures therein con tained. Major Heckstall Smith supplied us with diagrams from which we have endeavoured to work out the present per centages of the total absorbed by the various classes of work carried out in the Royal Aircraft Factory. Col. M. O'Gorman has checked these figures, which are as follows :— Per cent. (a) For experimental work, including a sum of about £5,000 on indirect expenditure .. 22 (b) Construction of aeroplanes .. (c) Repairs to aeroplanes and manufacture of spare parts (d) Repairs to engines and manufactures of spare parts 35 33 10 * Iti> not considered ,!c4rat>ie in the public interest to publish the exact The second item, (b) construction of aeroplanes, will appa rently include not only the manufacture of the new aeroplanes in supply already referred to, but the experimental aeroplanes made in proof of designs prepared on paper. As far as we are able to analyse these figures, it would appear that miscellaneous items amounting to about 17 per cent, are spread over (b), (c) and (77). We were informed that the preparation of a complete design of a new aeroplane occupies from six to nine months before any practical building in quantities can commence. During this period it is understood that the full-size experimental machines are being produced in the shops concurrently with the preparation of the working drawings. We were further informed that it does not infrequently happen that the exigen cies of war pressure have made it necessary to place orders with the trade for complete machines before the governing designs are completed in all particulars. It is almost in evitable that up to the time the design is actually finished and proved by the experimental machine, alterations in dimensions of parts will be liable to occur. When orders have been placed with the trade before such a condition of affairs has been arrived at, contractors must be called upon to alter, it may be even to scrap and reproduce parts affected. Pay ment is, we understand, made in compensation for such variations. The whole administrative system appears to us to be extremely elaborate, both as regards the records of all par ticulars of material used in the manufacture of each part of an aeroplane, or engine, but also as regards the course through which the components pass in the various stages from the raw material to the finished article. During the course of our inquiries, it was brought somewhat prominently to notice that a considerable amount of criticism adverse to the Royal Aircraft Factory administration has been voiced by the Press and apparently also by the aero nautical trade generally. It is possible that it may be due to the occurrence of very numerous alterations made after the issue of manufacturing drawings not the fault of the Royal Aircraft Factory and also to absolute errors in drawings the fault of which must wholly rest with the Royal Aircraft Factory. Our attention has been drawn to several cases of errors in drawings issued to the trade, which with proper organisation ought not to have been passed. Conclusions. From the inquiries we have made and the data afforded to us we are led to the following conclusions :— We are of the opinion that such an experimentaL establish ment as the Royal Aircraft Factory should be in existence. That on its present wages cost the Factory efficiency could be enhanced as an experimental place and a substantially increased volume of finished work produced provided a sharp line of demarcation be drawn between experimentation and commercial productivity, and the factory be reorganised and 650
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
