THE FUTURE OF FLYING^ 



By H. E. WiMPEEis, C. B., C. B. E., Hon. D. Eng. (Melb.), Past President 

 Royal Aeronautical Society 



President of the Engineering Section, British Association for the Advancement 



of Science 



The presidential address to the Engineering Section of the British 

 Association provides each year an opportunity for a survey of some 

 aspect of engineering science which happens to be of especial im- 

 portance at the time it is given, and often one which the experience 

 of the president of the hour may chance to render especially appro- 

 priate. My subject today is "The Future of Flying." Of its im- 

 portance at the present time there can assuredly be no doubt. 

 Aviation is surveyed by the public with a tempered pride — pride, it is 

 true, in man's achievement, but apprehension, it is equally true, as to 

 the use which is being made of it. 



The aspiration toward winged flight was expressed, I submit, with 

 great wisdom when, more than 2,000 years ago, the Psalmist avowed 

 his longing for "wings like a dove !" How wise a discrimination is 

 revealed by the poet's askmg not merely for the power of flight but 

 that his wings shall be "dovelike." For the space of a generation 

 mankind has possessed the power of flight — a marvelous scientific 

 and technical triumph but, alas, incomplete. Brilliant as was the 

 work of the brothers Wright, the crown of achievement will not be 

 truly won until a grateful mankind sees that the wings gained are 

 the wings of a dove and not those of a bird of prey. 



This is the challenge to our age. One generation has solved the 

 mechanical problem, leaving it to the next to solve the moral one. 



Ever since man inhabited the earth he has lived not by his physical 

 powers, which are slight, but by the exercise of his wits. Every new 

 invention he has made has had its warlike use as well as its peaceful 

 purpose, and each has challenged his wits to ensure that good rather 

 than harm shall result from the new discovery. To bend the newest 

 invention of all, the conquest of the air, to the service of mankind 

 is now his great task. In it, success is essential lest we presently 



1 Address to section G, Engineering, of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, Dundee Meeting, 1939. Reprinted by permission of the Asssoclation, from The 

 Advancement of Science, new quarterly series No. 1, October 1939. 



489 



