HISTORY OF FLIGHT—LOENING 359 
Right under our noses, today, are wrong trends, unrealized, and 
right trends, unappreciated, because we do not think things through 
enough. 
The turbojet engine (except perhaps for a few metallurgical ele- 
ments) could have been built and used 30 years ago. And why did 
this not come about? Because at that time we were thinking in terms 
of 100-mile-per-hour aircraft, and any designer would have known 
that the fuel consumption was prohibitive. None of us realized then 
that jet engines immediately meant 600 miles per hour. And so we 
missed it. We could quite quickly have learned how to handle high- 
speed flutters and drags. 
Are we too complacent in believing that engines and airframes are 
separate entities? Reviews of aircraft design clearly show how much 
time and cost were consumed in trying to fit existing engines into air- 
frames that were never designed for such engines. The two are, after 
all, a unit and, with the advent now of vertical flying, airflow require- 
ments around a wing from the jet engine gas generator source make 
the wing construction an intimate part of the powerplant. 
A breakthrough on lighter radiation shielding is now imminent, 
and this means nuclear powerplants. So let us start our thinking on 
this new type at once in terms of wing flow and low noise level. 
As to research, our history shows that we may, at times, overdo it. 
Scientists find the hardware-in-use stage less pleasant and are there- 
fore reluctant to reach it too soon. This type of block needs a fine 
judgment and considerable prodding from the user-to-be. Also, 
occasionally we have been too slow in realizing that wind tunnels are 
not always the final answer to research. In supersonic aerodynamics, 
in particular, many correct results can only be found in the open air, 
free of restrictions, giving the correct ambient flow, accelerations, etc. 
In only 50 years of air transport we will progress from the remark- 
able Sikorsky pioneer 4-motor cabin plane of 1913, to the coming 
supersonic VTOL transport of 1963. World history seems to show 
that anything man can clearly imagine eventually materializes into 
reality. Our air age has only just started, for in our traveling and 
transportation of goods by air, we are about to obsolete the wheel, 
just as the wheel and axle invention obsoleted the skid some 10,000 
years ago. 
In Russia, the aircraft builder reaches for success because he does 
not want to be sent to Siberia. In America, the aircraft designer used 
to burst with ambition, not only for fame, but for wealth rightfully 
earned. History shows that our greatest air progress was in those 
years when governmental restrictions were at a minimum and profit- 
able free private enterprise at its maximum. Let us not wander from 
this too far, for we face a bitter rivalry. 
