The A300B, otherwise known as the European Airbus, is an international collaborative project. Hawker Siddeley Aviation are under contract to Airbus Industrie to design and manufacture the wing. Manufacture is now well advanced, the first wing having been delivered to Toulouse in November 1971.

In describing the aerodynamic development of the wing for this aircraft, it is necessary to describe events before the advent of the designation A300B, as the aerodynamic design philosophy was established prior to that date. In particular reference will be made to the preceding paper project the A300 and to a lesser extent to projects being considered before the opening of technical discussions between Sud Aviation, Deutsche Airbus, and Hawker Siddeley Aviation.

There are three practical aspects to the problem of man powered flight: aerodynamics, physiology and engineering. There are many more impracticable aspects to man powered flight, including the philosophical, the fanatical and the sceptical, which unfortunately have not yet been included in the lectures of the Man Powered Aircraft Group but which will no doubt find their places.

The engineering aspects are fortunately fairly clearly defined, although there is likely to be a slight threat of interference with the aerodynamic problems.

There have been numerous attempts to predict the stand—off distance of bow shock waves, ranging from the exact solutions of the inviscid flow equations by Mangier (1959) and Van Dyke (1959) to the semi—empirical treatment of Moeckel (1949) and Love (1957). Sinnott (1959) has recently proposed a single formula Δ/R=K cot θm where K is a numerical constant given as 0·77 for axisymmetric bodies and the symbols are defined in Fig. 1.

Three theories of bending are available to the designer for the determination of bending stresses in curved beams. (1) The Euler-Bernoulli hypothesis (often referred to as the simple theory of bending), which assumes a linear distribution of bending stress, having a zero stress value at the mid-plane, i.e. the centroidal and neutral axes are coincident. (2) The Winkler theory, which predicts a depression of the neutral axis away from the centroidal axis and towards the centre of curvature. This theory produces a hyperbolic distribution of bending stress across the section, having a maximum amplitude at the fibre nearest the centre of curvature. (3) The Golovin theory, which is exact.

Increasingly stringent attitude stabilisation requirements are the current trend in both experimental and commercial satellites as is seen in the current Intelsat, ESRO and UK communication studies. These craft must be lightweight, compact and rugged during the launch phase but after mission capture such requirements no longer apply. The increasingly high power requirements of such craft are met by the use of large flexible solar arrays which are packed away during launch and unfurl when the craft becomes operational. For the three-axis stabilised craft being studied reaction jets are used to achieve the high pointing accuracy required. Such actuators may be hot or cold gas systems or in the future may be electric engines’. The broad spectral content of these actuators will inevitably excite modes of vibration in a wide range of frequencies. The influence of these highly resonant modes on the performance of on-board controllers, needing a relatively high bandwidth of 0-10 Hz, to achieve high pointing accuracy of up to a few seconds of arc may lead to design difficulties.

Tension bolts are widely used in engines, in machinery of various kinds, and in structures. They have unique advantages in their contribution to ease of assembly and dismantling. They also give a comparatively rigid and compact joint, and from the standpoint of static strength are extremely efficient. Unfortunately they have not got a good reputation from the standpoint of fatigue. Some designers go to considerable trouble to avoid them. Others accept their limitations and ensure safety by care in detail design and by adopting conservative figures for design stresses. Where necessary, a limitation is placed on working life, at the expiration of which the nut and bolt are replaced by new ones.

On the basis of well-known literature, an analytical tool named LEAF (linear elastic analysis of fracture) was developed by the authors to predict the damage tolerance (DT) proprieties of aeronautical stiffened panels. The tool is based on the linear elastic fracture mechanics and the displacement compatibility method. By means of LEAF, an extensive parametric analysis of stiffened panels, representative of typical aeronautical constructions, was performed to provide meaningful design guidelines. The effects of riveted, integral and adhesively bonded stringers on the fatigue crack propagation performances of stiffened panels were investigated, as well as the crack retarder contribution using metallic straps (named doublers) bonded in the middle of the stringers bays. The effect of both perfectly bonded and partially debonded doublers was investigated as well. Adhesively bonded stiffeners showed the best DT properties in comparison with riveted and integral ones. A great reduction of the skin crack growth propagation rate can be achieved with the adoption of additional doublers bonded between the stringers.

Ten years ago the aeroplane was a curiosity—a means wherewith, by a tour de force, a man might lift himself from the ground and make a hazardous flight through quiet air—a means to attract curious crowds to fenced-in county fair grounds to witness the marvel of a body heavier than air actually rising from the ground and moving under some measure of control through the air, and returning safely to its starting point.

What the aeroplane has become in this short but poignant decade of the world's history, and what it stands for to-day, this audience knows too well to need specification in detail.

It is perhaps well within the limits of conservatism to say that no achievement of man's inventive and constructive genius has undergone more intensive, more rapid, or more potentially significant development than has that of flying with an apparatus heavier than the air in which it moves.

To improve the ability of avian radar to process bird information, a statistical analysis method for the bird situation around airport is proposed based on avian radar data. By accumulating a large amount of avian radar data, hotspots of the activity area of bird targets can be determined and taken as a reference point to realise lifecycle management of each bird target from initiation to continuation and finally death. In the process of target tracking, combined with the particle filter method, the probability of several possible events is estimated, leading to completion of the data association and real-time statistics for the number of targets. The simulation results reveal that this method is superior to the traditional logic method regarding the timeliness of multi-target initiation. With the application of the proposed method to avian radar data, the bird population and its basic activity rules can be discovered by fixing the bird habitats around the airport.

A method based on the shedding and convecting of discrete vortices has been developed to calculate the transient loading on an aerofoil-spoiler configuration when the spoiler is suddenly deployed to a particular angle. An innovation in the method is the introduction of Kutta conditions at the separation points.

Although the variation of CL with time is highly irregular, qualitative trends can be deduced. For a range of aerofoil angle of incidence and spoiler angle deployment adverse lift effects (ie, when the lift initially increases) have been obtained, similar adverse lift effects have been measured in experiments.

It is my privilege to present to the Royal Aeronautical Society a brief summary of the work done and the results achieved in developing the autogiro in the last few years. Many fundamental improvements have been the product of that work, but of still greater importance is the considerable progress in the knowledge of the aerodynamics, dynamics and engineering requirements of the new aircraft. The improvements in the formula have been made possible or practical only because of the painfully acquired technique, which, as is the case in all new arts, is a compound of theoretical developments and empiricism.

For centuries man has watched with envy the easy flight of birds and has tried to simulate their basic form, structural principles and methods of control. Often too much enthusiasm and too little technical knowledge has ended in disaster, and the most successful people were those who relied upon models for their initial data.

The Wright Brothers were among the first to apply an engineering approach to the problems concerning the magnitude of loads occurring on wing and control surfaces. To this end they constructed a wind tunnel as long ago as 1901 and succeeded in measuring actual forces on model aeroplanes, and in comparing them with systematic glider experiments. They continued to develop their research along these lines to achieve the first power flight in December 1903.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the structure of the DLR integrated rotorcraft design process. The complexity of rotorcraft design requires the development of the tools directly by the specialists of the respective institutes, where the tools are continuously refined and published to authorised users. The integration of the tools into a suitable software framework by means of distributed computation and the harmonisation of the tools among each other are presented. This framework delivers a high level of modularity making the layout and testing of the process very flexible. This design environment covers the conceptual and preliminary design phases. Not only conventional main/tail rotor configurations can be designed, but also some other configurations with more than one main rotor. The fundamental concept behind the layout of the tools is demonstrated, especially the use of scaling and optimisation loops in connection with the different levels of fidelity and the different phases of design.

The importance of healthy relations between the sporting and the scientific sides of gliding is very great; and the fact increases the responsibility of my task this evening as well as the honour that the Council of the Aeronautical Society have done me in asking me to undertake it. The history of gliding on the continent shows that at times when financial or other difficulties have given cause for anxiety, some development suggested on the scientific side has rekindled enthusiasm and given the movement a new vitality. Change is as essentially connected with a healthy sport as with a living organism. Nobody can visit the Wasserkuppe without being impressed by the zeal which prevails there; it is almost religious in its fervour, and although some of the neophytes of the hierarchy may be mere gymnasts fired with the team spirit, its bishops and its missionaries are inspired by their determination to advance knowledge.

The lateral buckling of thin deep beams when subjected to a transverse loading system inducing bending initially in the plane of maximum flexural stiffness has been analysed on the assumption that the direction of application of the loads remains unchanged during small deformations of the beam (see, for example, treatments in Refs. 1 and 2). A typical case of a beam so loaded is illustrated in Fig. 1.

In common with other pneumatic and electronic cabin pressure control installations the two new pneumatic systems discussed in this paper have been designed to control cabin pressure automatically by throttling the out-flow of the cabin conditioning air. For those unfamiliar with the subject Fig. 1 shows diagrammatically a typical modern military aircraft installation. Both the systems discussed should however be of particular technical interest warranting general description, as for the first time with this type of equipment low cost and robust integrated fluidic circuits have been extensively used in their design. Patents covering these have now been granted in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries.

Although the Hatfield tunnel has been doing some useful testing for just over eighteen months, the experience so far obtained is still limited as each new model brings its own special problems. It is perhaps still too early to give an account of the experience obtained, but because of the interest in this tunnel it was thought that an account, even incomplete, would be useful.

Almost every facet of experience so far obtained is related to some of the special design features of the tunnel and I propose to review some of the problems encountered during the design stages of the tunnel dealing with these design features, before reviewing the actual model testing experience.

In view of the recent notes in this Journal by Professors Jacobs and Duncan, it may be of interest to give some additional references to investigations of the flexural centre of beams, which otherwise might be overlooked, and to add some remarks which seem to have escaped the attention of previous writers.

Although the earliest investigation seems to have been published by Griffith and Taylor (Ref. 4 of Duncan's paper), Eggenschwyler gave an independent discussion of the problem for narrow beams. Considerable progress was made by Weber in two papers, published in 1924 and 1926. Similar results were obtained by Schwalbe, who was apparently unaware of Weber's previous investigations.

The NGTE Engine Test Facility has five test cells in current use and between them they can test aircraft powerplants over a wide range of operation at the precise conditions encountered in flight. Two basic testing techniques are employed—“connected testing”, in which air is piped directly to the engine compressor at the pressure and temperature conditions provided in flight by the intake, and “free-jet testing”.