When one is asked to present a paper in a series honouring a particular person from the past, it is always fascinating to review what is available in the way of background of his life and work. As have other Lawrence Hargrave lecturers before me, I have followed this course.

Hargrave's aeronautical work and the papers describing it show clearly the patience and logical thinking which motivated him in all he did. He was a prodigious recorder of data and kept all of this until the untimely death of his son during the first world war. Although of course the concept of airworthiness was unheard of when he was carrying out his experiments at Stanmore, airworthiness control today, some three quarters of a century later, depends almost entirely on the same processes—the proper and logical use of vast amounts of recorded data gathered from all parts of the world.