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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
It was with some trepidation that I accepted the Society's invitation to contribute a Chapter to this Centenary issue. As the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe has it,
Nearly all those mentioned in the following chronicle of British achievements have known me personally; many have been my colleagues. It would be unfortunate if what I have said, or have failed to say, about their work were to disturb hitherto harmonious relations.
page 54 note * For convenience the various bodies will be designated by their present day initials thus ARC (Aeronautical Research Council), NPL (National Physical Laboratory), RAE (Royal Aircraft Establishment). The RAE was of course formerly the Royal Aircraft Factory and the ARC the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Even our own Society was not always Royal. As for the Government Department concerned, this has ranged from the original Admiralty and War Office through Air Board, Ministry of Munitions, Air Ministry, Ministry of Aircraft Production and Ministry of Supply to the present Ministry of Aviation. It will be called simply “the Ministry” thus avoiding the ominous initials MOA, recognisable instantly to cross-word addicts as “An extinct flightless bird”.
page 62 note * This wing itself is of some historical interest. In 1927 Bristols had built and flown the Bagshot, a monoplane of 70 ft span and about 10 lb/sq ft wing loading. The wing had two independent steel spars with corrugated and laminated flanges, the number of laminations increasing towards the root. On the third test flight when the top speed (about 110 mph) was to be checked there was complete reversal of aileron control. Wing torsional stiffness depended solely on differential bending and was quite inadequate. As a possible way of making wings stiffer the firm designed this seven-spar wing. Each spar was designed to have the same flexural deflection and stiffer bracing was provided in the plane of the wing between the spars. This experiment had an important influence on monoplane wing design.
page 63 note * A digression with a moral. This device had a detector head in the nose which triggered off upward or downward movement of both ailerons according as an up or down gust was detected at the nose. It could be cut in or out by the pilot. On the delivery flight to RAE by the firm which did the installation the pilot tried it out and reported on arrival at RAE that it worked well and smoothed out the bumps. The RAE found on examination that the device was in fact connected up the wrong way round and should have made things worse not better. The firm's pilot was, however, absolved from "line-shooting" when the RAE pilots reported the same thing. Under the gust the aircraft both moved vertically and pitched; with the device in reverse the two actions tended to cancel out at the pilot's seat well ahead of the eg. This episode threw useful light on the structure of gusts and the response of aircraft to them.