The Society's All-Day Discussion on Aircraft Design Philosophy was extremely well supported and at one stage there were more than 350 members and visitors present. As is inevitable on these occasions there was insufficient time available for all those who wished to make a contribution to do so, even though the four lecturers had reduced their contributions to a bare minimum by presenting summarised versions of their papers.

With such an all-embracing title as Aircraft Design Philosophy it was obvious that some main channel of exploration would have to be chosen; that which evolved during the planning of this event was structural safety, as will be apparent from the discussion. The preparation of a summary of discussions presents a number of problems.