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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 0651.PDF
MARCH IITH, 1943 FLIGHT 2(53 Training the Aircraft Engineer Technical Education and the Aircraft Industry : Endowment and Control of Aeronautical Training By CAPTAIN J. LAURENCE PR1TCHARD, Hon. F.R.Ae.S. OF all the controversial subjects for discussion com-mend me to that of education. At the best anj'system of education is a compromise. At the worst it is a chaotic mess. Because it is a compromise I want to say at the very outset that I am writing this article purely in my private capacity and not as secretary of the R.Ae.S., and that any views I put forward do not represent those of the Royal Aeronautical Society or any member of it. I have, two main lines of thought about educa- tion. The first is that everyone should receive a general education up to a certain age, and the second is that when that age is reached he or she should receive that education which will fit them for the in- dustry or profession they intend to enter. The tricky points to decide are when the first stage ends and the second one begins, and what kind of education should be given. The age will vary to some extent with different industries and professions, with the manual_ worker as against the brain worker and so on. But whether a boy is going in for farming, commercial pilot- ing, collecting dust for the local borough council, or even (God forbid) politics, his education should be guided by the industries or professions concerned when his general education is finished. Relation of Industry and Teachers I look, difren, upon the relation of the industry to the teacher in exactly the same way as the architect towards the builder. A good builder carries out the schemes of the architect, and a good teacher for the professions will inculcate in his pupils the wants of the industry as directed by the industry. We are only concerned here with aeronautical train- ing, and in particular the training of the aircraft engineer in all the possible meanings of that much-abused pair of words. For argument's sake I would fix the general education limit at sixteen. The first step I should like to see is for the aircraft industry to endow and take control of all aeronautical education, after the general education is finished, of all those who intend to enter the aeronautical profession. Advantage could be taken of existing educational estab- lishments, firms' own training schemes, technical schools and other sciiools, and the universities to carry out the wishes of the industry, and to carry them out uniformly throughout the country. This would involve an aircraft engineering ladder up which everyone who entered the industry could climb according to his ability. There would, of course, be a number of ladders which might be manual and practical IN this controversial article Captain Pritchard suggests that the aircraft industry should endow and take control of all aeronautical education. He wants to take advantage of all existing educational establishments, but thinks they should carry out the wishes of the aircraft industry in the matter of training, and carry them out uniformly throughout the country. The task of drawing up the syllabus would be no easy one, and the author does not state which body would represent "the industry " in this particular matter. Would it be the Society of British Aircraft Con- structors, the Royal Aeronautical Society, or a committee appointed by these two societies for the purpose? Captain Pritchard, who is Secretary of the Royal Aeronautical Society, is careful to point out that he is expressing his own personal views and not those of the R.Ae.S. Neverthe/ess, he has for many years taken the keenest interest in the subject of technical training, and has helped a great number of young men with advice when they were about to embark on their careers. He knows, better than most, that there is plenty of room for improvement in our training of aircraft engineers, so that his argu- ments will be read with respect, even if they do not find ready agreement. ones, or theoretical or research, but each would give a 37outh the opportunity to climb to the highest rung in his own particular branch. The less able would reach a certain height and then stop. Take a boy who wishes to be a designer, for example. He would be trained in all workshop processes and methods concurrently with being taught the funda- mental theory of engineering. On the highest rung he will have gone to the university and would get his B.Sc. engineering degree. During the whole of his training he would have theory and practice side by side. At the univer- sity, for example, I see no reason why practical construction, design and research, as put forward by the in- dustry, should not be carried out on behalf of the industry as a whole. During the whole of his training to be an air- craft engineer the trainee would live in the atmosphere of his future job. The importance of this will be appreciated. In this connection I would like to quote from a speech delivered by Colonel Devereux on January 31st, 1943, to the Association of Scientific Workers, in which he said : The young scientist entering industry after several yearsof the sheltered academic atmosphere of his University will find many things which will shock him at first. He willlearn, for instance, that most of the processes used are a compromise between that which is technically desirable andthat which is economically possible, and that of the two the emphasis is probably laid on the economic point of view.. . . He will have to develop a time-factor sense, an appre- ciation of the close study of cause and effect in existingpractice, and a toleration of the other man's point of view, especially if that is based on experience. If the industry took charge of its own education Colonel Devereux' cogent point would be met in the training. For every industry and profession to take into its own hands the practical and theoretical training of its own future employees is, I suppose, a somewhat revolu- tionary idea. But evolution doesn't come without a certain amount of revolution. Time to Start The profession of aircraft engineering is, I am con- vinced, going to be the most powerful engineering profession in the world in due course. Now is the time to start right; to avoid the drifting into the profession of those who have not been specially trained for it; to raise it, as it should be raised, to a higher status than any other engineering profession ; for aeronautical engi- neering demands more skill, more attention to the best possible use of materials than any other. It may, and probably will, be argued that no boy of
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