Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
The first Sir Henry Royce Memorial Lecture described the work of a brilliant engineer, who was directly responsible for the design of a long series of great engines. As a contrast, I have been asked to tell you about the work, not of an individual, but of a team. A team, moreover, that has had no responsibility for the final product, but whose task has been that of attempting to clear the ground and make the engine designers’ work less difficult.
The year 1957 has a certain significance in gas turbine history, in that it is the twentieth anniversary of several important early events. It was in March 1937 that the Engine Sub-Committee of the Aeronautical Research Committee discussed the internal combustion turbine and as a result recommended “that the Air Ministry should take up the question of the development of the internal combustion turbine as a matter of urgency and make all possible arrangements for its production at the earliest possible moment …”
The Second Sir Henry Royce Memorial Lecture, given at the Derby Branch of the Society on 4th November 1957.