Just over two years ago, on the occasion of the inaugural de Havilland lecture, Richard Clarkson gave one of the finest accounts of an aviation pioneer and his work that I have ever heard. When I was asked to give this second lecture, I felt more than a little conscious of the standard set by my predecessor and by the quality of the man thee lectures commemorate.

On the 1st November 1944 the delegates of 52 States met at Chicago at the invitation of the United States Government, and, on the 7th December, the Convention on International Civil Aviation (the Chicago Convention) was signed. It came into force on 4th April 1947. Today, there are 117 States parties to the Convention, albeit representing, in the main, the same territories.

To mark the achievement of 25 years of international co-operation through ICAO, I had personally hoped that it might be possible to get the President of the Council, Mr. Walter Binaghi, to give an up-to-date account of ICAO’s work. This not being possible, I have been asked to take his place, and I must make it clear that I cannot attempt to do the same thing. This is not a history of ICAO. I speak only from the point of view of my experience in the first 10 years. I hope to show the origin of some ideas and actions and trace certain changes in thinking and attitudes. I must apologise in advance if, in doing so, I seem to give undue attention to matters in which I have taken part and to ignore so much else that has been done. How much that is was impressively borne in on me, when I recently received the ICAO Bulletin for September 1969. For an authoritative and complete (though summarised) account of what ICAO is and what it has done, I commend this admirable review, and I wish to pay my tribute to those who have contributed so much to what there is recorded.

John Richard Morgan was born at Barry on the 13th July 1904, and received his initial education at Barry Boys’ County School. In 1920 he began an indentured apprenticeship with the Barry Graving Dock and Engineering Co Ltd, and in 1923 was awarded a Glamorgan County Scholarship to the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire where he read for an Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering under Professor A. J. Sutton Pippard. He was permitted by his firm to attend the University from September 1923 provided he spent all the vacation time at the works, so that he can justly claim to have been an even earlier example of a “sandwich student” than a previous recent President.

In the first 30 years of its existence, the helicopter has grown four times in speed and 75 times in gross weight. A comparable period in fixed-wing operation showed a speed growth of eight and 40 times in gross weight. The US aerospace industry (total 1.3 million persons) is currently employing 48 000 (3%) of its total force to build helicopters. However, this 3% is delivering over half of the manned aircraft being procured. US military inventory of helicopters has grown from 7317 helicopters in fiscal 1966 to 12 486 in fiscal 1969, thus comprising 35% of US manned aircraft. Military pilot training has already swung in favour of helicopters in the US, with 6000 fixed wing pilots trained annually compared with 7500 helicopter pilots annually. A similar trend is expected to take place in Europe and Asia.

The helicopter is beginning to stabilise in several fairly clear families or classes.

With the continuing advances in aerospace technology, the “spin-off” benefits increase, too. Although man has now set foot upon the moon, sent unmanned probes to Mars and Venus and placed a series of satellites into earth orbit, we have only touched upon the fringe of celestial and interplanetary venture. Yet from these early and what will one day seem to be clumsy attempts, we have, as individuals, gained many assets which affect our daily lives.

It is indeed regrettable that the enumerable persons who denounce the space-programmes as “a waste of money” “an absolute waste of time”, “unfortunate in that the money could be used to improve the living standards of so many people”, etc., do not give a little more thought to the space programme as a whole, including the “spin-off” benefits.

It is an honour and a privilege to commemorate the memory of Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith. It is 41 years since he linked by air the United States and Australian nations. Those 41 years have been years of phenomenal progress and growth from the infant industry of that time to the monumental industry of today.

Forty-one years ago the flying time from San Francisco to Australia was 83½ hours and the elapsed time was 10 days.

The Space Division of the North American Rockwell Corporation has developed a comprehensive computer-based heat transfer and thermal analysis capability especially for design support of the Apollo command module. The heat transfer analysis primarily centres about the solution of the diffusion equation using finite difference approximations. Since most problems encountered are non-linear in nature this approach has proved highly effective in producing accurate results economically. Recent studies, however, indicate that heat transfer problems are most successfully analysed by the finite element method. On the other hand, the finite element method in this field of application was not yet established when North American initiated this work. Lack of time does not allow a deserved discussion of this topic.

It is a signal honour to be invited to give this particular lecture; for me personally, it is especially significant, since for a brief period, 12 months in 1937/38, I held at A&AEE, then based at Martlesham Heath, the equivalent of the post originally held by Tizard in 1916/17, when A&AEE was first formed. At an earlier period, 1926/29, I had been on the staff of A&AEE as a Technical Officer, one of the most enjoyable and fruitful periods of my career. Hence it gives me special pleasure to be here this evening, and a great sense of fulfilment.

Sir Henry Tizard was not only a great man, a great man of science, an inspired leader; he was also a great patriot. He spent himself in the service of the country he loved. His anxiety, always, was to see this country forge ahead, to realise her leadership in research and so stride ahead in industry.

It is to be noted that this Annual Report covers the Calendar Year and not the year between Annual General Meetings, and consequently the rnonths from January to April 1970 will be included in the Report for next year.

The activities of the Society do not lessen, but rather do they increase imperceptibly from year to year. The Air Transport Group has now become operational, and should, in the future, make an increasing contribution to aviation. During the year a second Air Transport Course was held at Bournemouth; this was the result of popular demand, for the Course during Easter was very heavily oversubscribed. This would indicate that Air Transport is looming larger and larger in the aviation picture, and receiving more and more attention.

To be asked to give the Lanchester Lecture, on the topic of helicopters, is a great honour and just now a wonderful chance. We all know of Lanchester's basic contributions to our knowledge of the way in which lift is generated by the creation of a vortex system. For fixed wings the flow patterns are now known and the theories are in the third stage of refinement. But on helicopters, although it has been the topic of intensive research for fifteen years or more, the subject is much farther back. The results obtained are fascinating technically and pictorially and I would cheerfully discuss them for hours. But our understanding is far from complete and I have regretfully decided to throw away a wonderful chance and leave the topic to a less formal occasion.