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The Second Century Papers: Looking Ahead in Aeronautics—21

A US View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

Ronald Smelt
Ronald Smelt*
Affiliation:
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
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Extract

I would first like to pay tribute to the inspiration which suggested the series of papers on The Next Hundred Years, the second century of the RAeS. John E. Allen's introductory paper in the January, 1968 issue of the Journal set the stage for a remarkable series of individual papers in which technology, philosophy and sociology have combined to give a vision of a challenging future, often exciting but occasionally sobering. Coming at the conclusion of this series, I have interpreted my task to be that of looking at this future through the eyes of a technical man in the aerospace industry of the United States. Before settling down to this task, it seems appropriate to make a few remarks on the general nature of technological prophesies; in doing so, I am following a pattern which has been set by a number of my predecessors in this series. Occasionally these general remarks have taken the form of a reminder of the uncertainty of the process of technical forecasting.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 73 , Issue 704 , August 1969 , pp. 625 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1969 

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