Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
Sir George Cayley was a great man, many years in advance of his time and with a grasp of fundamentals which must be the envy of many people, even today. Consider the mental prowess of a man who in the technical environment of 170 years ago, where a 12 hp engine was as shown in Fig. 1, could make the statement that, “The whole problem is confined within these limits, namely, to make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air”; it is truly remarkable. It seems to me that the phrase I have extracted from that statement as a title to this lecture epitomises both the man and the subject.