On 22nd October, 1969, a joint meeting was held between The Royal Aeronautical Society and the Institution of Electrical Engineers, at 4 Hamilton Place, London, W.l. The subject under discussion was methods for reducing the large numbers of wires used in present day aircraft.

Mr. Ruy de Barras—Sabena Airline, read a paper on new wiring techniques using flat strip wires. The paper was awe inspiringly entitled “System of Interface Matrix of Parallel Lines” (SIMPL), although the technique proved to be most simple.