FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1147.PDF
andAIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor - -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.c (VV/NG CDR., R.A.F.V.R.) Art Editor . . JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL V&EKLY IN 'THE WORLD .- FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. COVENTRY: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry, Telephone: Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM, 2: KING EDWARD HOUSE. NEW STREET. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 7191 (7 lines). HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (SO line..) MANCHESTER, 3: 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW, C2: 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. No. 1955. Vol. XLIX. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year, £3 I 0. « month., • Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper June 13th, 1946 c7//e Outlook £1 10 6. Thursdays, One Shilling. A Great TruthT OWARDS the end of his Wilbur Wright Lecture, the concluding instalment of which we publish this week, Mr. Relf pleaded urgently for increased research facilities. No one who has even a glimmering of the almost unlimited possibilities of future progress can fail to agree wholeheartedly with that plea. During the war there was no time for what Mr. Relf called the '' leisurely but very hard thinking which con- stitutes the research method," and, as he said, we have been left with a surfeit of ideas that could not be thought out in detail, and the implication of which will involve a lot of work by a lot of men. The lecture made it very clear in which particular directions new equipment is needed if this country is to take a worthy position in aeronautical science. Not only do we badly want new and larger high-speed wind tunnels, but an extension of free-flight testing methods with supersonic models, not to mention the most difficult of all: full-scale flight. This latter cannot be under- taken with safety until a number of problems have been1 ucidated by the use of tunnel and free-flight models. \ After every war there is always a cry for cutting down expenditure. The slogan of the politicians is usually "retrenchment and reform." After the first world war the " Geddes Axe " got to work. This time the picture is very different, but the difficulties with which the nation is faced are greater in many ways than they were in 1919 and onwards. In the air world uncertainty reigns. No one can fore- see just how things are going to shape. Consequently we cannot plan for large-scale production of any particu- lar type of aircraft or engine. But we can and must devote every penny that can be spared to the develop- ment of new ideas. Not only must Government research ' stablishments be well supported so that their equipment may be of the best, but the firms in the aircraft industry must be helped to contribute their share. As Mr. Relf said, there will have to be a lot of work by a lot of men, and British aircraft firms have many " back-room boys" who should be given the opportunity to contri- bute their ideas and thoughts to the common fund. In short, the one thing on which the nation cannot afford to be niggardly is aeronautical research, using the word in its widest sense. During the inter-war years, quality rather than quan- tity had to be our watchword. In a somewhat different way the same must apply now. No one can be sure of what the future holds in the way of war or peace. The only way in which we can be prepared for whatever may come is to be in the very forefront of the world's aeronautical science. Can Flying be made Simpler ?T HIS week's issue, as it happens, deals with two aspects of flying which are just about as far apart as could be imagined. Mr. Relf discusses the problems of how fast man can fly, and at the other end of the scale we have an American designer and our own "Indicator" pondering the possibilities of simpli- fied flying for the private owner who will, presumably, be flying very slow types of aircraft. Some weeks ago we commented on some remarks by '' Kibitzer'' about the need for making flying easier. He wanted, as so many have done, to make the piloting of an aircraft as simple as the driving of a car. We, on the other hand, do not believe that to be possible, at least with any type of aircraft in sight at present—includ- ing the helicopter. But we do believe that something can be done to make the flying-control movements more instinctive than those which have become universally accepted. Readers will observe that "Indicator" is somewhat lukewarm about the possibilities, while Mr. Gwinn is, to our way of thinking, asking a little too much. But then "Indicator" has had very long experience with
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
