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Finer Tools

Finer Tools Aircraft Engineering TH E MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VO L XXVII No 316 JUNE 1955 Catching Up T was, we believe, M R MCKINNON WOOD who many years ago None the less, the reverberations of the controversy took a long coined the picturesque phrase 'the finer tools of research' for wind- time to die down and it was partly due to this—and not only shortage Itunnels. In one sense the expression nowadays seems singularly of available funds—that led Great Britain for many years to fall so inappropriate in view of the vast structures which they and their lamentably behind other countries, notably the United States and, accessories have become, but on the other hand, of course, all these at one time, Germany, in research equipment of this type. We would developments have taken place in order to make them more and more not say that even now British facilities in relation to the size of the instruments of precision and they are in consequence infinitely 'finer' industry are equal to those in America but at least they are no tools than they were twenty or so years ago. longer almost contemptible, as they at one time appeared. A striking feature is the variety of tunnel that is now necessary to The Complete Picture provide all, or at any rate as much as possible, of the information required on the manifold phenomena of subsonic, transonic and In this issue we publish a very full description by D R A. E. KNOWLER, supersonic, or even hypersonic, flight. The amount of money that of Farnborough, of the 18-inch tunnel at the R.A.E. known as No . 19 has been expended on this type of equipment alone is quite beyond Supersonic. This article had been commissioned by us more than a computation and we feel that the greatest credit is due to those year ago when we learnt that it was permissible to publish details of intrepid spirits in, presumably, the Ministry of Supply who have what was then a new tunnel. Publication was, however, held up fought the battles that must have been necessary to extract the money pending a general release of information to the Press on all the from a reluctant Treasury and series of reluctant Chancellors of the transonic and supersonic tunnels installed at the Royal Aircraft Exchequer. The R.A.E. has quite outstripped the N.P.L., which was Establishment and the National Aeronautical Establishment at of course the doyen of wind-tunnel providers years ago, and now the Bedford during recent years. A Press visit to the two establishments new National Autonautic Establishment at Bedford, of which little was arranged in February and attended by our Deputy Editor who, has yet been heard, seems destined to outdo its parent in its turn. as a result, wrote the account of National Aerodynamic Research Facilities in England which appeared in our April issue. This sequence of events was probably a good thing rather than otherwise since it A Development Area enabled us to proceed from the general to the particular and show how the No. 19 tunnel fits into the general organization of research faci­ Bedford and its neighbourhood is gradually becoming the centre lities and also allowed DR KNOWLER to include in his description of much Government aeronautical activity. The old airship station various up-to-date improvements which had been incorporated as at Cardington still exists as a kite balloon experimental depot. Not a result of a year or more's experience in running the tunnel. very far away is the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield, with the N.A.E. on the other side of Bedford. Only a very few miles from this The Old Days the A.D.A. wind-tunnel is being built as a co-operative effort by certain firms in the Industry who have founded the Aeronautical There was a time when a school of aeronautical engineers who prided themselves on being, before all else, 'practical' were bitterly Development Association. opposed to wind-tunnels, arguing that the data obtained therefrom The latter activity raises an interesting point. We found on looking was so unrelated to the facts of flight and the factors necessary to back that one of the suggestions put forward at the 1935 Conference, convert them to full scale so arbitrary and unreal that they were quite which received practically unanimous backing, was that an Aircraft useless, and indeed misleading, to the aeroplane designer. It may be Industry Research Association should be founded. We have never remembered by some readers that the controversy became at one been able to understand why nothing was ever done about this as it time so acute that in July 1935 a conference was called 'to review the seemed such an obviously desirable development to be made at a present position of research in aeronautics in relation to the needs of time when the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was industry', the proceedings at which were summarized in AIRCRAFT actively fostering the formation of such bodies. Actually, the aircraft ENGINEERING the following month. No doubt there was at the time industry must now be one of the very few industries without its own considerable truth in the argument that results obtained in wind- research association. We cannot help wondering why this should tunnel investigations were unreliable but this has long since ceased be so. It may be because more than any other industry the Govern­ to be true, the best evidence of which is the most impressive array ment provides research facilities for it; but even so we should of up-to-date tunnels which have been set up by the Ministry of have thought there would be economic advantages in a Research Supply, as described in our April issue. Association. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

Finer Tools

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 27 (6): 1 – Jun 1, 1955
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb032560
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Abstract

Aircraft Engineering TH E MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VO L XXVII No 316 JUNE 1955 Catching Up T was, we believe, M R MCKINNON WOOD who many years ago None the less, the reverberations of the controversy took a long coined the picturesque phrase 'the finer tools of research' for wind- time to die down and it was partly due to this—and not only shortage Itunnels. In one sense the expression nowadays seems singularly of available funds—that led Great Britain for many years to fall so inappropriate in view of the vast structures which they and their lamentably behind other countries, notably the United States and, accessories have become, but on the other hand, of course, all these at one time, Germany, in research equipment of this type. We would developments have taken place in order to make them more and more not say that even now British facilities in relation to the size of the instruments of precision and they are in consequence infinitely 'finer' industry are equal to those in America but at least they are no tools than they were twenty or so years ago. longer almost contemptible, as they at one time appeared. A striking feature is the variety of tunnel that is now necessary to The Complete Picture provide all, or at any rate as much as possible, of the information required on the manifold phenomena of subsonic, transonic and In this issue we publish a very full description by D R A. E. KNOWLER, supersonic, or even hypersonic, flight. The amount of money that of Farnborough, of the 18-inch tunnel at the R.A.E. known as No . 19 has been expended on this type of equipment alone is quite beyond Supersonic. This article had been commissioned by us more than a computation and we feel that the greatest credit is due to those year ago when we learnt that it was permissible to publish details of intrepid spirits in, presumably, the Ministry of Supply who have what was then a new tunnel. Publication was, however, held up fought the battles that must have been necessary to extract the money pending a general release of information to the Press on all the from a reluctant Treasury and series of reluctant Chancellors of the transonic and supersonic tunnels installed at the Royal Aircraft Exchequer. The R.A.E. has quite outstripped the N.P.L., which was Establishment and the National Aeronautical Establishment at of course the doyen of wind-tunnel providers years ago, and now the Bedford during recent years. A Press visit to the two establishments new National Autonautic Establishment at Bedford, of which little was arranged in February and attended by our Deputy Editor who, has yet been heard, seems destined to outdo its parent in its turn. as a result, wrote the account of National Aerodynamic Research Facilities in England which appeared in our April issue. This sequence of events was probably a good thing rather than otherwise since it A Development Area enabled us to proceed from the general to the particular and show how the No. 19 tunnel fits into the general organization of research faci­ Bedford and its neighbourhood is gradually becoming the centre lities and also allowed DR KNOWLER to include in his description of much Government aeronautical activity. The old airship station various up-to-date improvements which had been incorporated as at Cardington still exists as a kite balloon experimental depot. Not a result of a year or more's experience in running the tunnel. very far away is the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield, with the N.A.E. on the other side of Bedford. Only a very few miles from this The Old Days the A.D.A. wind-tunnel is being built as a co-operative effort by certain firms in the Industry who have founded the Aeronautical There was a time when a school of aeronautical engineers who prided themselves on being, before all else, 'practical' were bitterly Development Association. opposed to wind-tunnels, arguing that the data obtained therefrom The latter activity raises an interesting point. We found on looking was so unrelated to the facts of flight and the factors necessary to back that one of the suggestions put forward at the 1935 Conference, convert them to full scale so arbitrary and unreal that they were quite which received practically unanimous backing, was that an Aircraft useless, and indeed misleading, to the aeroplane designer. It may be Industry Research Association should be founded. We have never remembered by some readers that the controversy became at one been able to understand why nothing was ever done about this as it time so acute that in July 1935 a conference was called 'to review the seemed such an obviously desirable development to be made at a present position of research in aeronautics in relation to the needs of time when the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was industry', the proceedings at which were summarized in AIRCRAFT actively fostering the formation of such bodies. Actually, the aircraft ENGINEERING the following month. No doubt there was at the time industry must now be one of the very few industries without its own considerable truth in the argument that results obtained in wind- research association. We cannot help wondering why this should tunnel investigations were unreliable but this has long since ceased be so. It may be because more than any other industry the Govern­ to be true, the best evidence of which is the most impressive array ment provides research facilities for it; but even so we should of up-to-date tunnels which have been set up by the Ministry of have thought there would be economic advantages in a Research Supply, as described in our April issue. Association.

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jun 1, 1955

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