March 4, 1920] 



NATURE 



15 



the nature of the estabUshments where it is at 

 present undertaken. These places are the Royal Air- 

 craft Estabhshment (Farnborough) ; the National 

 Physical Laboratory (controlled by the D.S.I.R.); 

 Martlesham Heath, Biggin Hill, Pulham, Grain, 

 Felixstowe, and possibly other Government aero- 

 dromes. All of these, except the R.A.E. and the 

 N.P.L., are controlled by the Director of Research 

 at the Air Ministry on behalf of the Air Council, 

 which is responsible for these centres and pays 

 for them. The Committee does not attempt to 

 pursue the allocation of responsibilities further, 

 but such allocation need not be expected to lead 

 to difficulty, since much of the work from these 

 centres found its way in the past to the old 

 Advisory Committee, and will doubtless in the 

 future find its way to its successor. 



As regards the educational side, the Committee 

 mentions an estimate that before the war the total 

 yearly number of honours graduates in engineer- 

 ing, including civil, mechanical, and electrical, and 

 in naval architecture, etc., from all the universities 

 in the United Kingdom averaged only about two 

 hundred, and that of these it rightly considers 

 only a fraction of the future number are likely to 

 devote themselves entirely to aeronautics. It 

 certainly seems probable that the number will be 

 quite small ; the Governrnent has its own Air 

 Service establishments, and these will naturally 

 take a proportion of the possible entrants each 

 year. Moreover, the most promising career for 

 aeronautical engineering work at present is the 

 Government service, since it is the Government 

 which controls nearly all the research and no 

 small proportion of the full-scale design, to say 

 nothing of the ordinary Service work and its 

 attraction to the adventurous. The only factor 

 which would seem capable under present condi- 

 tions of adding materially to the numbers of 

 students taking an aeronautical engineering course 

 at the Imperial College or elsewhere would be if 

 the Government used this means for the training 

 of its own future technical staff. 



The course, once formed, is to consist of twelve 

 months' specialised teaching, coming after the 

 usual degree or diploma course in engineering 

 already provided at the universities and great 

 technical schools. The subjects selected for this 

 course are : Aerodynamics ; aero-engines ; general 

 design ; instruments, meteorology, and navigation. 

 The proposed staff includes a general director, who 

 would be the Zaharoff professor of aviation, two 

 other professors, and a number of lecturers. This 

 staff should, the Committee suggests, act as a 

 clearing-house for the study of the results of 

 experimental work, whether full-scale or in the 

 laboratory, and for the dissemination of con- 

 clusions based thereon as forming the right 

 foundation for further design. As the Committee 

 naturally adds, no school for providing this 

 education can be successful unless the students 

 are brought into direct touch with practical prob- 

 lems during their tuition, and unless those en- 

 gaged in teaching are also occupied in, or direct- 

 ing, scientific research or experimental design. 

 NO. 262;, VOL. 105] 



Some extracts from the Committee's report are 

 subjoined. 



Introduction.' 



The Government has now decided how provision 

 is to be made for research in aeronautics. We 

 desire at the outset to emphasise the necessity for 

 that research. The Department of Scientific and 

 Industrial Research is to continue the provision for 

 fundamental research at the National Physical Labora- 

 tory, and to assist the aeronautical industry in the 

 same manner as other industries by taking part, 

 when desired, in the formation of a research associa- 

 tion. In our view, at the start of a new industry 

 something more is required. At the present moment 

 the industry is passing through a crisis; Govern- 

 ment support is necessary if it is to emerge satisfac- 

 torily. The time is critical and the development of 

 civil aviation is beset by numerous difficulties, and 

 calls for the fullest consideration. It is urgently 

 necessary that the policy adopted should command 

 the support of all who desire to maintain the 

 superiority in the air gained during the past eventful 

 years, and that ample funds should be provided for 

 carrying it into effect. 



A difficulty which arises in the case of a new 

 industry of this kind lies in the fact that the scope 

 of the work is inadequate to maintain automatically 

 a sufficient number of experts in design and produc- 

 tion. A research organisation may elucidate problems 

 and provide general information and specific facts, but 

 before these can bear fruit of industrial value they 

 must be interpreted and applied by a suitable technical 

 staff, closely associated with the works organisation. 

 At the end of the war most of the works had collected 

 a team of technical experts of marked ability ; many 

 of these teams have now been disbanded, and further 

 disintegration is in progress. We see no possibility 

 of achieving the desired result except by such Govern- 

 ment action as will secure the retention of adequate 

 technical staffs. 



During the war this country obtained the lead in 

 aeronautical research ; it would be lamentable to see 

 the fruits of the work pass from a paralysed industry 

 to better-supported foreign competitors. In the later 

 sections of our report we recommend the establish- 

 ment of an organisation for aeronautical research to 

 assist the .Air Council, and, in our view, it is im- 

 portant that the work of that oreranisation should be 

 available in great measure for the assistance of the 

 industry and for the advance of civil aviation, as well 

 as for the Services. Should an industrial research 

 association be formed, it should be linked up with the 

 organisation we recommend. 



Education and research are clearly very closely inter- 

 related. The education with which we have chiefly 

 concerned ourselves is that suitable for aeronautical 

 engineers and constructors — that is to say, post- 

 graduate work for which the students \vill be fitted 

 by a previous undergraduate course of either mechani- 

 cal or general engineering training at one of the 

 universities or technical colleges. We have not dealt 

 with the training of oilpts or of mechanics. The course 

 we contemplate will comprise a special study of the 

 following matters :— Aerodynamics, the laws of 

 motion of bodies moving in the air, illustrated by 

 exoeriments and researches in wind-channels ; the 

 principles of design and construction ; engines and 

 the methods of propulsion of aircraft; and the inves- 



1 Abridjjed from the Report of the Committee on Education and Research 

 in Aeronnutics (Cmd. 554. price a</. net) to Mr. Winston S. Churchill, Secre- 

 tary of State for Air. The members of the Committee were : Sir R. T. 

 Glaiebrook, K.C.R (Ch irman\ Sir Alfred Keogh, G.C.B., Sir H. Frank 

 Heath, K <:.B., Sir Fnncis G. Ogilvie, M'. F. Handley Page, Mr. G Holt 

 Thomas, Pro"". J. F.. Petavel, and I.t.-Col. H. T. Tlz'ird. 



