The Men who could best lay claim to the title of “Aeronautical Engineer” were the early pioneers like Wilbur and Orville Wright. They were their own research workers, their own designers, their own draughtsmen, their own constructors, their own test pilots and, later on, their own salesmen. The Wright brothers carved and steamed the bamboo ribs and struts of their aeroplane themselves, brazed and spliced the wires and cables, while their sister Kathleen stitched the flimsy fabric. But the day of the craftsman-designer is gone.

This paper is concerned with the present-day professional aeronautical engineer in industry and in particular, with the aircraft designer. A distinction must be drawn between the aeronautical engineer and the aircraft technician; both may be intimately concerned with the design of an aeroplane, but the technician—the stressman, the aerodynamicist, the draughtsman—is at the most an embryo aeronautical engineer.