Recent work on the Head-Up Display (HUD) has shown properties of continuous transition, easy learning and accurate use, when certain design principles are followed. Use of HUD in manual landing has suggested application as a monitor for automatic landing and another use is for the directed take-off.

Developments in display techniques have led to a proposal for an electronic flight instrument display (EFID), suitable for head-down, as well as head-up presentation. Economy in presentation area may result from compressing a number of displays into a single format, and from using the same area for a number of displays presented in sequence.

Similar flexible techniques applied to the topographical map display suggest a general-purpose plan position display, complementing the “front elevation” display of flight instruments. These ideas are combined in a proposal for an advanced cockpit layout.

To Describe the development in France of small gas turbines of necessity confines one to the products of the Turbomeca Company. It is therefore not through lack of modesty that I speak of those engines which have been designed and built under my direction.

After the Second World War our aims were quite ambitious. We envisaged the creation of jet engines up to 6000 kg (13200 lb) thrust, as well as the aircraft to suit. We soon realised that such ideas were far beyond the industrial and financial possibilities of the time.

Competition is too keen to permit Management to continue with methods satisfactory five or ten years ago and some typical modern tools of management are reviewed.

The use of Electronic Data processing equipment (EDP) can be overdone but when used wisely it can be of tremendous help in enabling management to fulfil its responsibilities and to make good decisions. Many areas are reviewed where EDP has been used to advantage, including processes used for planning, marketing, maintenance, inventory, finance, personnel and on-line systems such as automatic reservations, teletype switching, etc. Although the examples represent modern airline management techniques they are also usable by many other industries.

The work of the Engineering Department of an airline covers four main functions which are interdependent:

1. 1. The maintenance in service of the airline's fleet in a manner which optimises the economy of the airline and prevents reduction in the inherent design levels of safety and reliability.

2. 2. (a) Develops ideas and specifications for future equipment in consultation with other departments in the airline, or

   (b) Analyses the suitability of available or projected equipment offered by manufacturers, again in consultation with other departments.

3. 3. Purchases the equipment finally selected, together with the backing stores necessary for the planned operation, and creates the necessary maintenance facilities (or contracts with someone else to do the work, where this is more efficient).

4. 4. Integrated with (1) is the task of engineering develop ment of the fleet to correct deficiencies found in service or to improve its performance of the required task.

Although the science of Hovercraft is still in its infancy, sufficient promise is already being shown to indicate a commercial and military future as alternative means of transportation. Since transportation involves power, and power involves noise, it is imperative that even at this early stage, development does not proceed in a direction which involves excessive noise and in so doing builds up the embarrassing situation for itself of the kind now occurring with aircraft at London Airport.

To give an example, one of the major problems in establishing a third airport for London is obtaining a quick method of communication between such an airport and the centre of the city. Unless this can be achieved, the advantages of supersonic travel will be nullified. The roadways and railroads are already full and alternative forms of travel must be found.

There are several ways of judging the efficiency with which a terminal area is organised. Commercial operators are interested in the cost of the deviations or delays which they are subject to when using the principal terminal airports. Other users of the air space are concerned with the restrictions which terminal area procedures impose on their movements; while ATC (Air Traffic Control) authorities are interested in the cost of the ground facilities necessary to move the traffic with safety and expedition. In this paper we shall discuss mainly how delays and deviations may be minimised. Nevertheless, the procedures which result from this survey will lead to benefits for all and to a freer use of the terminal air space by other traffic.

Cheap and short range is a contradiction in terms if one is talking about cost per mile. Fig. 1 is from “American Aviation” for December 1964; it shows cost and revenue of US domestic operations in 1964. Over the average trip of 680 miles there was a margin of about 10 per cent of revenue over cost. At 200 miles, however, there was a deficit of 30 per cent. If the average 10 per cent margin were to be maintained at present fare levels, cost would have to be reduced by 35 per cent—no mean task.

The reasons for relatively high costs on short sectors are well known. Block speed is low; frequent stops consume much time on the ground and so utilisation of aircraft and crews is low; the outcome is that the output in seat miles per annum, and hence the revenue earning ability, is reduced. Landing fees and Station costs are spread over a smaller revenue.

The question, as phrased, suggests there is an optimum method of using graduates; this in turn suggests that all graduates have untapped resources and are ready to learn all that can be put before them.

In my view, it can always be said of any industry that it does not make the best use of any specific grade of labour; good managements, of course, make much more effective use of their labour force than the bad ones.

Graduates vary tremendously in previous training, from say, a mathematics graduate straight from school and college, to a specialist aeronautical graduate with works experience in addition.

I Have the great honour to give the Fifth Memorial Lecture in tribute to Juan de la Cierva, a great man and pioneer in rotating wing development, whose work was predominantly done in England.

His fundamental practical achievement, resulting from a deep knowledge of aeronautical science, was the demonstration of the fact that a big airscrew with suitable pitch could serve as a lifting surface without the danger of stall which is inherent in fixed-wing aircraft.

In the past decade many powerplant systems have been proposed for VTOL aircraft. Of these, flight tests have shown the lift jet and vectored thrust engine to be practical and suitable for forming the basis of operational VTOL military strike aircraft. High on the list of proposed VTOL powerplant systems is the lift turbo-fan which has the inherent advantages of better hover fuel consumption, lower efflux velocity and lower jet noise. So far there has been no practical demonstration of this type of powerplant in Europe, and it is useful to look at some of the studies that have been made to compare the characteristics of the lift fan and the lift jet.

The paper compares the Rolls-Royce RB 162 16:1 thrust/weight ratio lift jet and its installation with a range of Rolls-Royce lift fans derived from the RB 162 using the latter as the gas generator.

The comparisons between the basic engines reveal the fan to have worse thrust/volume, thrust/weight and response rates. The installation of these engines in a lift pod is fully described showing the equipment required for complete VTOL powerplant. A comparison of the Installed weight breakdown for the two types of pod is made. Some of the advantage of the fans’ inherently lower fuel consumption is lost in the longer take-off transition time which accrues from the higher momentum drag of the lift fans and higher pod drag.

Looking to the future, the authors suggest fan engines based on more advanced gas generators and having a greater degree of ingenuity to minimise the weight and volume penalties.

For some considerable time, experience has been accumulated on the retardation of military aircraft on landing by means of a brake parachute. A patent for such a device, for example, was granted to Captain, now Colonel, Prospero Freri, in Italy in 1930. The first useful applications were towards the end of the Second World War on gliders and fighter aircraft, but systematic use of this type of decelerator on American aircraft began just before 1950. The first postwar British service aircraft fitted with a brake parachute was the Vulcan, followed closely by the Lightning and the Victor. These three aircraft use brake parachutes to reduce the landing run and also to reduce wear and tear on the aircraft brakes and tyres. The Lightning in particular has been the subject of extensive application of the brake parachute.

I would like to begin by expressing my appreciation to the Society, especially the Test Pilots’ Group, and specifically to Bill Bedford for the invitation. It is a distinct pleasure and certainly an honour for me to be here. My discussion will centre on the X-15 research aeroplane, some of the essential items that we uncovered in our development flying programme and some characteristics of the aeroplane. I would hope I could go into this in sufficient detail. Being away from the programme for some time now, I have lost some of the intimacy that I had in the past but I think not completely so. At least, not enough so it will deny me the opportunity to present you with some information.

In order to trim a supersonic aircraft in the cruise condition it is often most efficient from the viewpoint of economic performance, for which a low drag is necessary, to use a cambered wing. The camber is designed to produce a chosen load distribution, but there is a wide range of suitable distributions. In view of this freedom of choice an investigation of the variation of Cm0 with design load has been made for a particular family of cambered delta wings. The calculations show that from the range of possible design load distributions it should be possible to choose one which results in Cm0 varying approximately in some desired way. Thus In principle It should be possible to choose a load distribution which satisfies the design requirements and results in improved off-design behaviour.

The previous paper in this series described what operational research is and illustrated some of its methods. The succeeding articles are concerned with considering some of the problems in the different branches of the aviation industry and showing how OR may be profitably applied to them.

This paper and the next form a continuous narrative. They differ in that the first concentrates on capital investment programmes and the procurement of aircraft, while the programmes and the procurement of running an airline. In the first, a discussion of cost structure leads on to some detailed models. A further series of models forms the basis of the second.

Starting with atmospheric motions on a global scale, different categories of atmospheric turbulence are discussed. It is pointed out that the turbulence within the earth’s boundary layer is comparatively better understood than any other type of turbulence, due to a concerted effort by meteorologists and by aircraft engineers. Clear air turbulence, turbulence in clouds and storms are subjects of active research, but we are still at the beginning of the understanding of these phenomena.

The influence of atmospheric turbulence on some aspects of aircraft engineering is mentioned and the problem of the calculation or turbulence-induced loads is discussed in some detail. It is pointed out that the estimation of turbulence loads is a transposition of experience gained on one aircraft to another. The most simple technique of doing so is to assume that the atmospheric turbulence can be represented by a collection of single, isolated gusts and by making very simplifying assumptions about the dynamics of aircraft response. This technique, the discrete gust approach, in spite of serious theoretical reservations, has worked admirably well, but it appears that in many applications the limits of usefulness of the discrete gust approach have been reached. The alternative way of dealing with gusts is to treat them as a basically continuous phenomenon using the comparatively recently developed spectral technique. This technique not only permits the aircraft dynamics to be properly accounted for, but also describes the atmospheric turbulence in more realistic fashion, understandable not only to aircraft engineers but also to meteorologists and students of fluid dynamics.

To have been chosen to deliver the 53rd Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture is an honour of which I am very conscious and deeply appreciative.

Upon such an occasion I think it is appropriate that we pause to consider the truly great contributions made to aviation by Wilbur Wright, his brother Orville and the many pioneers who followed them, and to consider the effects of their contributions upon our lives.

I doubt very much if the Wright brothers in their most optimistic dreams could have imagined the tremendous progress aviation would make following their first powered flight 61 years ago.

The ATC system must ensure the safe and expeditious movement of traffic through the TMA and down to and along the surface of the airport. There must be a plan which defines the path to be followed by each aircraft, taking account of all other proposed movements. There must also be a means of implementing this plan with adequate accuracy, or for revising it should later events make this necessary. The plan must take account of the finite accuracy with which an aircraft can navigate (using “navigation” in the broad sense of “the progress of the craft about its ways in space and time“). We will therefore discuss first the tools required for implementing any chosen plan, before discussing the planning function itself.

To write a paper on the work of the Royal Aircraft Establishment is a formidable task. To summarise the programme of work of the Establishment would either provide material for a series of lectures or, if compressed to a single lecture, would lead to a cursory and superficial treatment. I make no apologies, therefore, for not attempting any sort of complete survey. Within the scope of this lecture all I intend to do is to give a brief description of the RAE, what it is, what it does and how it is organised and then to consider a few items drawn from three of the RAE's research programmes, which have been selected to show some of the characteristics of the RAE and the kind of work which goes on there.

The first series of items to be presented fall in the field of the slender wing. The great potentiality of the slender wing for a wide range of applications was apparent from the time the concept was first considered. What I want to stress is the enormous range of detailed researches which are required before such a concept can be used in practical designs.

Is there a danger of trying to over-simplify the manner in which costs can be reduced? Has the colour grey been deleted from our dictionary, and is everything really black or white? It would seem to me there is a tendency for the technical man to over-rule completely the practical man or vice versa, and maybe there is room for the colour grey to return and be high-lighted in our dictionaries.

A number of subjects come readily to mind where, in my opinion, neither the purely theoretical nor the purely practical approach can achieve the best results, and the only efficient way is a combination of both. Job control and time standards is, I consider, a subject which comes into this category.

For a number of years it has been the practice at Rolls-Royce to determine the basic aerodynamic characteristics of the turbines of our engines by tests of model turbines. The first model of the single-stage Derwent I turbine was tested In 1945 and a design point efficiency of 75 per cent was measured. Since then over 600 different turbine configurations have been tested and many of the more recent turbines have achieved efficiencies appreciably better than 90 per cent. Typical of modern turbines is the Spey two-shaft turbine in which the four stages reach a design point efficiency of a little over 92 per cent. This paper presents a description of the test techniques which are used in this work and also a simple method of correlation which relates the efficiency of some 70 turbine stages to the velocity triangles and enables the efficiency of those turbines, which fall within the scope of the correlation, to be predicted with an accuracy better than ± 2 per cent. The measured value of turbine efficiency can be markedly influenced by the measurement technique, so the way in which the turbines are manufactured and tested is described in some detail.