We have heard that the SST project is the largest and most expensive project ever undertaken. It is fairly large and it is expensive. When making comparisons, however, it is important to remember that major developments in aviation have rarely been cheap. For some civil projects the subsidy has been indirect. For example, the present generation of successful American long range air liners, notably the Boeing 707, has succeeded to a large family of military progenitors and thereby enjoyed its massive inheritance. Even so, funds spent on the 707 development must have been substantial, for many hundreds of aircraft needed to be sold before the break-even point was reached. Those firms in the USA, lacking the advantage of a military ancestor, must have seen the prospect of profitability in the civil field, in straight competition with those better placed, as an illusive difference between two very large sums—launching expenditure and prospective income.

Now, and in the future, all civil projects everywhere must fight for existence without benefit of feed-back from a related defence project.

The question is whether to fight at all in this remorseless arena. Presumably nearly all at a meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society would not agree that this country should reject the challenge.