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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1036.PDF
538 FLIGHT MAY I 8TH, 1044 RESEARCH WING LOADING LB/5Q FI leel I should have paid more attention—namely, the organisa tion and management of the work on the scale that the scope and complexity of the problems demand. In what I said earlier I have emphasised my belief in the value of the in dependent small team of workers, who necessarily work on a small scale with relatively small equipment, and on one, or at most a few problems. But we must recognise, perhaps reluctantly, that we have problems to solve which cannot be bandied successfully in that way. It is not merely the large size and complexity of the equip ment, required which forces us to face the task of managing large research undertak ings. It is rather that the many problems we must attack are interdependent, and that success in dealing with them depends on assembling and co-ordinating the efforts not only of a team but of many teams of workers. As in any large undertaking we have to break the work down into parts. Each part is the primary responsibility of a group of specialists under a leader. But the parts must be welded into a whole, and in this welding lies the problem of manage ment. I believe that the problem is "best approached not from the top but from the bottom—from the point of view of the indi vidual member of a team. What does he need in order that he may do the best that is in him? In my experience, he needs the following: (1) A clear, unambiguous statement of the ultimate objective. This must be more than a statement of the specific problem. It must relate it to the general picture of which it is a part. Thus he will know why the work is being done. (2) An opportunity to give his own views on the value of the underlying ideas. The basic plan must be, in part, his own. Thus he will start with a sound conviction that the plan is a good cne. * (3) An immediate leader in whom he has confidence, who will inspire him, help him, and keep him up to date in all the relevant parallel work on related problems. Thus he will retain his original good spirits. (4) Sufficient resource? to enable his work to progress at what is, in his judgment, a speed commensurate with the importance of the objective. Thus he will feel that the value of his work is recognised in the only way that means anything to him. This formula can, in my experience, be applied to groups of workers under a central management or to separate estab lishments under a central direction. And the difficulties that one meets in applying it arise not from its shortcomings but from conscious or unconscious neglect of its essentials. Looked at in this way, such questions as the ideal size of 20 30 40 HEIGHT, THOUSANDS OF FEET. Fig. 8. Critical wing loading vs. height. True level speed 450 m.p.h. Flow laminar up to 60 per cent of cord. Aerofoil thickness 15 and 16 per cent. research establishments cease to be of any great significance. Just as a team must have a leader who knows all about work being done by its members, so a group of teams must have a leader who is recognised by them to know enough about their work for him to be able to guide it to its common objec tive. The limit oi economical size of a complete unit is set not by some arbitrary formula but by the simple fact that no one man can know enough about work in more than a few fields to be a^ile to inspire real confidence in his team leaders or their teams. The control of large equipment, the manage ment of numbers of skilled industrials, and the commonplace daily problems of facilities are matters of consequence, but they are not the real determining factors. I would summarise my views on this question as follows. There is no single or simple formula by which to determine the best method of handling research. But I believe there are a few simple principles in the light of which each particular situation may be viewed and a good solution found. Conclusion You will see that my experience has led me to the view that the record of science and engineering in aeronautics is a creditable one. It justifies us in demanding the means of extending our efforts into those new fields that we can now clearly see. The task of organising and managing the work, of de- ^go vising and constructing the equipment, and,'' above all, of leading those upon whose efforts success will in the end depend is one of absorbing interest. What the world will make of our efforts is a matter on which I regard it as unprofit able to speculate, at any rate here and at this time. I am an engineer in a world where good engineering, skilfully used, means survival and bad engineering means the end of what I believe to be a good way of living. So I am content for the time being to confine my efforts to the work in hand and to leave philosophic speculations on its value, on some absolute scale which I confess eludes me, to those who can find time or inclination for it. For this reason I have confined my attention primarily to research for aeronautics as used in war. There is another reason—I have spent the best part of my life on work with this as its first aim in the conviction that it had to be done. But I am an incurable optimist. I believe^, that we shall succeed in onr present effort— in which the share of research is to provide information bv which aircraft and their equipment can be steadily improved and used to greater effect. When we have achieved our imme diate aim, I do not doubt that much of our work will be put to uses that are more to my taste and to yours. In the end, however, it is with the scientific and technical advances in the means of flight that we are here concerned. So far we have had a mere 40 years in which to show what we can do. It has been my purpose to point, in the light of my experience, to what we must do now to discharge the responsi bility that is laid on us so that those who will follow us may find a fair field in which to explore the endless vista of oppor tunity which will lie before them SHANNON AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT SPEAKING of an increase in the vote for Public WoAs his recent Budget sn«ech the Ejre.Ministertfqr jjnance (Mr. Sean T. O'Kelly) slid that tlwytfcVeg^pd^fedvp* was almost entirely due to wlrks at theJS^iMjftri Airport'. \t was clear, he added, that theVomj**!«^v(dopment of the airport, on which much mAie'y'eJSfrl jfreadv been spent, would be exfcremelylcostJ^ bfoijrmust be realised that tire airport had to P^esfJ^is4sP--ana equipped on modern lines if it was to attain, afrer- the wa^> the importance as a centre of inter- natiVnal civil aviat/mif or which they hoped. According to the Eire Public Service Estimates for the current financial year, a sum of £1,792,000; of which £27,240 is a revote, is required for the provisional estimate for works at the Shannon Airport. A sum of £148,000 (provisional esti mate), of which £34,000 is a revote, is required for the Foynes flying-boat anchorage, and there is a provisional estimate of •£389,000 for the Dublin Airport, the full suHKin this case being a revote. The total estimated expenditures on these three projects up to March 31st last was as follows:—Shannon air port, £588,000; Foynes flying-boat anchorage, £24<<4?>o; Dublin airport, -£361,500. Amounts required to be voted for 1944-45 are £400,000, £108,000 and £2,500 respectively. A.T.C. EXHIBITION ON TOUR NEARLY 750,000 people have now seen the Air Training Corps exhibition—"A.T.C. Calling"—which is now at Preston, Lanes. Opened at Harrods last December by Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air, "A.T.C. Call ing" has since visited Hammersmith, Doncaster, Leeds and Edinburgh. After Preston the exhibition will be seen in Black burn, Morecambe and Northampton. Thousands of budding aircrews have been given "flights" in the Link Trainer, and a specially wired-up Lancaster bomber fuselage. New exhibits include modern Rolls-Roy^ and Bristol engines. i^ n
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