This paper contains a report on the principal aeronautical research work carried out by the Aeronautical Committee of the Royal Swedish Institute for Scientific Industrial Research.

The Royal Swedish Institute for Scientific Industrial Research in 1925 appointed an Aeronautical Committee with the object of promoting–scientific technical research work and general development work in the field of aeronautics. In the first place work has been concentrated on such problems in aeronautics which are of particular importance with regard to special Swedish conditions.

The Aeronautical Committee has been concerned in establishing an aeronautical chair, combined with an aeronautical laboratory, at the Royal Technical University in Stockholm. The aeronautical professorship is now established by Parliament, and a professor will shortly be appointed. The establishment of the aeronautical laboratory has been postponed for the present, but there is hardly any doubt that the laboratory will be in being within the next few years.

I greatly appreciated the invitation of your Society to give this lecture on recent progress of aeronautical science in France; and if I hesitated a moment to accept it was only because I feared the difficulty of the task.

As a matter of fact, aeronautical science covers such a wide field that it is difficult to give an exact idea of the progress made in the different branches. Many results are obtained by the improvement of various details, and it is not easy to see clearly the influence of every one of them. I shall endeavour to be as clear as possible, and to describe to you the main purposes of. the French engineers and the results they have obtained in the way of their realisation.

The main objectives of French aeronautical progress have been safety in flight, development of commercial aviation, and metal construction. In every part of aeronautical science we shall find progress along those lines. They concern aerodynamics, building of aircraft, flying boats, motors and aerial navigation.

The application of scientific principles to the design of aircraft and aircraft equipment during the post–war years has yielded results which are becoming increasingly apparent. The time interval which elapses between the conception of an idea and its application to production aircraft is necessarily long, but it would seem that we are just commencing to reap the reward of much patient study.

An attempt will be made to present a picture of the progress which has recently been made and to indicate the lines along which further research would appear most profitable. In making this review it is inevitable that attention should be paid particularly to Service aircraft. The more difficult the problem the greater is the ingenuity required to solve it, and the ever increasing demands made upon the designers of Service aircraft have stimulated research to perhaps a greater extent than is the case with civil aircraft, the requirements for which are less complex.

In the development of Italian aeronautics four periods can be distinguished :

A first period, covering the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, in which the first idea of the technical possibility of human flight, both on the heavier and on lighter than air principles, was conceived in Italy and the physico–mechanical conditions of animal flight explained. In thfs period are to be met the names of Leonardo da Vinci, Francesco Lana and Alfonso Borelli working on independent lines.

A second period, in which Italy produced a number of distinguished aeronauts, among whom Vincenzo Lunardi and Francesco Zambeccari became well known in England for having carried out in London the first balloon ascents in 1784-85. In this period, which, starting with the discovery of the brothers Montgolfier, does not go farther than the first decades of the 19th century, Italy did not combine with an interest in practical air navigation any actual scientific contribution to its development.

To understand aviation in Holland well, it is necessary to draw special attention to two points. The first is that Holland is a small country with a small military force and industry; both are also relatively small. The second point is that Holland has always occupied a central position in traffic lines. These two leading factors also rule things in aviation. They explain the following:

The industry exists without any financial aid from the Government and only a small number of military machines are required annually. The air–traffic company (K.L.M.—Royal Dutch Air Lines) has a small amount of Government subsidy, but has, however, the advantage that the interest of our bankers and shipping concerns, in a quite natural way, is directed towards traffic in general and this interest could be won for air traffic in particular. The Government is fully alive to the importance of this new branch of transport.

When we now turn to history the following can be seen.