The CHAIRMAN, in introducing the Author, said that although it had in the past been the main concern of the Association to discuss the problems of the conventional helicopter, it was now proposed to include systems allied to it, and convertiplanes and other powered lift systems would be considered at this and future meetings of the Association There was now a whole spectrum of proposed direct lift aircraft ranging from the conventional helicopter of a few pounds per sq ft disc loading, to jet lift aircraft of hundreds of pounds per sq ft of jet area Between these two extremes there was a variety of convertiplanes and jet wing systems

The Author had been working on rotorcraft for a long time He had been Chief Aerodynamicist of the Vertol Aircraft Corporation and Director of Aeronautical Research there, he had written many papers relating to the helicopter especially on aerodynamics, and his books on the subject published by the Rotorcraft Publishing Committee had been very widely read, even on this side of the Atlantic