It is a very great honour to be the 41st person elected as President of the oldest aeronautical society in the world. I am very grateful to those who have thus shown their confidence in me for this elevated position and to my company, Westland Aircraft Ltd, for its full support in so many ways to the Society, and in particular to me during this Presidential year.

Our Society's view of Presidential Addresses is a thoroughly democratic one in that they are not a fixed custom, as in many other professional institutions in the UK. Whether to have one or not is entirely up to the President of the day.