I am greatly honoured to be here and to follow the distinguished men who have given this lecture in honour of the Wright Brothers in previous years. All of my famous predecessors have spoken on the subject of aeronautics. I will deal with aeronautics but only to describe its role in the development of manned space flight.

In their development of the aeroplane, the Wright Brothers recognised that there were many factors that they needed to master for successful flight. For example, they foresaw the need to train themselves to fly, showing truly remarkable foresight. They built and used their own wind tunnel. They combined the rare ability to recognise problems and to devise methods for their solution, all within the modest resources of their time. I have been very fortunate to live at a time where I could participate in so many phases of manned flight. As a boy, the Wright Brothers were a legend in my home. Later I was privileged to know Orville Wright when I was a young engineer at Langley Field and he was a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).