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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1367.PDF
FLIGHT From SIR GEOFFREY DE HAVILLAND, C.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., Hon. F.I.A.S., director, The de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd. is with the wannest feelings that I write this message of felicitation to the Royal Aero Club at the mark of its '-century, and my colleagues in the de Havilland companies enthusiastically join me in wishing the Club a inuance of its record of service and goodwill in the world of aviation. difficult it is to believe that 50 years have gone by since those days when, as youngsters taking our engineering „, we tried to convince our elders that the motor car was something more than a passing craze! In the opening jOf the century the possibilities of flying in a heavier-than-air machine, with an internal combustion engine, made a call that to several of us was irresistible—a call to which we responded with only the vaguest notions of where it was going to lead us. Wars and the fear of them have forced the pace of our progress, albeit at a cost, and have given aviation a form that we never envisaged in those early days. What sort of races and records will the Royal Aero Club be timing in the year 2001,1 wonder, and will personal venture then yield a reward for merit ? I do indeed wish the Aero Club all success in the years ahead, and I pray that men may learn to direct aeronautics and all science to constructive purposes. ng, From Sir ROY DOBSON, C.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., J.P., managing director, A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd. IT is a good thing to celebrate anniversaries, for they provide an excuse to look back over the years—and memories should be the most treasured things anyone can possess. I therefore particularly welcome this special issue of Flight devoted to the Jubilee of the Royal Aero Club—although I cannot remember right back to 50 years ago, for I was then only a small boy. My first clear recollection is of Louis Paulhan landing in 1910 at Burnage, near Manchester, when he won the £10,000 Daily Mail prize for the first London-Manchester flight. At the time I was an engineering apprentice, but my imagination was so fired that I decided to "get into aviation" at the earliest possible moment. I at once became a fervent reader of every word printed in Flight, and as soon as my apprenticeship was finished I joined Avro's. In those early days few people thought that aviation could be regarded as a serious matter, but for the last 37 years I have somehow or other managed to earn a living in it by developing, making, flying and selling whatever was produced. There is a wonderful story in the way that, from this "sport of the rich and mad," the present staid and respectable aircraft industry has grown. Like most sports, aviation has today become so commercialized that it is no longer a sport but a business. And that is a great pity. The sporting side of aviation is not always concerned with flying. I remember that one evening after I had dined at the Royal Aero Club with John Lord and one or two other people we thought it would be a good idea to smuggle- out the Schneider Trophy. As those of you who have seen the Trophy will realize, this wasn't exactly an easy thing to do. But we succeeded—although I am not going to tell you how!—and I don't think I have ever seen anyone quite so furious as was dear old Harold Perrin. He was quite right, too! I think the best things the Club has ever done were the Light Aeroplane Trials at Lympne, run by Harold Perrin and Francis McCkaa (now Sir Francis). These meetings were simply wonderful and did a power of good to the aircraft industry—at a time when it was badly needed. Another grand thing is the way the Club has brought together so many people with but one idea in mind—the furtherance of aviation. Just to walk through its doors brings flooding back memories of the wonderful pilots and designers, backbone of the whole movement, whom I knew as regular habitues. There is only one unfortunate fact about such well-organized and eminently useful associations as the Club and its official organ, Flight. It is that, like many other good things in life, one tends to take them far too much for granted. Let us, then, salute them both in this Jubilee Year. From A. G. ELLIOTT, C.B.E., M.I.Mech.E., F.R.Ae.S., M.S.A.E., joint managing director,Rolls-Royce, Ltd. IN looking back over the last 50 years it is interesting to reflect that although the force of gravity was the first motive power invoked in the original efforts to fly, the advancement of flying has always waited on the development of the prime mover employed to supply propulsive force. The early aircraft engines owed their genesis largely to the motor car and it can be said that the technical effort which was put into racing car engines made a particular contribution. The extent to which the motor car was handmaiden to the aircraft was, moreover, not limited to motive power, but covered other important component developments. However, aircraft development has long since gained an impetus and reached a status which has completely outgrown its youthful associations. Latterly, it has even acquired a new form of prime mover in its own right: it is now in process of passing from the era of the piston engine to the long-foreshadowed epoch of the turbine. Reciprocating motion is in this way giving place to continuous motion, which is along the line of true evolutior. The prime mover, the source of propulsion, is becoming almost as aerodynamic in character as the aircraft and the two begin to merge into a more cohesive whole. Heat release from combustion, as exemplified in piston engines, turbines, rocket motors, etc., is the basic source of power for flight today and will continue to be for some time to come, but new sources of energy are becoming apparent which may in the course of time be utilized. There are no known limits to development, and as we proceed from one stage to another, we are always standing on some new threshold.
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