When, in the course of his visit to Paris in May 1948, Dr. Roxbee Cox invited me to lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society on our work in the field of turbopropeller and turbo-reaction engines, I was torn between two sentiments; the great honour which was done to me, and the seeming temerity for a French engineer to discourse on aircraft turbines before some of the people who had been responsible for the W2 700, the Nene, Ghost, F2, Theseus, Mamba, and other engines. The first of these sentiments however carried the day, as it could hardly fail to do in view of Dr. Roxbee Cox's extreme kindness.

Therefore I ask for the indulgence of my audience in listening to this, the first account to be given of the modest work done since 1941 by a team of French technicians, who were specialists in steam and industrial gas turbines, who had foreseen the possible development of the latter for aircraft, and who, completely cut off from the engineering world during the Occupation, at first worked literally in complete isolation, unaware even of the existence of the British and German achievements.