The first paper read at the 1876 meeting was by D. S. Brown, his fifth paper to the Society, entitled “ The Advantages of employing power for aerial propulsion in an intermittent manner, and on the soaring of birds.”

Brown was silent on the advantages of intermittent application of power for flight, and was not much impressed by Sir George Cayley's ideas about birds soaring in upward currents of air reflected from cliffs, hills, and so on. But he spoke with obvious knowledge of the effects of increased size on a weight-strength ratio in the light of the cube/square law.

James Armour, whose paper, “ Wings for Men,” filled fifty pages of small type in the 1873 Annual Report, presented a further paper on the subject, read this time by Brearey in the absence of the author, entitled “ Air Compression under Wingplanes.” James Armour was a good engineer, and had to confess that though he argued on general principles about the supporting forces of an aeroplane in full flight, there were many unknown parameters.