In delivering the 1968 British Commonwealth Lecture I am conscious of the honour bestowed upon me by the Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society and mindful of the responsibilities attached to addressing such an eminent body as are assembled here tonight.

My subject—The Development and Future of Air Cargo—is, I believe, worthy of our attention at this particular time, not only because it is in itself an interesting special aspect of the general history of civil and military aviation, but because we have reached a critical point in that development at the very moment when air cargo service is beginning to show its potential contribution to the expansion of World Trade, including the badly needed expansion of Britain's own export trade. As we proceed, we shall see that the big expansion in air cargo has only recently begun. The formative years of aviation were more concerned with development of the vehicle, in creating public acceptability of this new form of transport and in fostering the growth of the more immediately profitable passenger traffic.