The main runway on the aerodrome at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, Hampshire, occupies land that at the turn of the century was always known as Laffan's Plain.

From this plain in 1908, S. F. Cody had made the first aeroplane flight in the British Isles. Four years later two subalterns of the Royal Flying Corps, a Corps that had been fathered by the Corps of Royal Engineers, were walking across this same land. As they walked, the officers discussed the choice of a motto for the Royal Flying Corps, for its Commanding Officer had sent out a general call for proposals. One of the subalterns, J. S. Yule, proposed a Latin tag that had been used by Sir Rider Haggard in his book People of the Mist. That proposal was, ‘Per Ardua ad Astra’, the motto of the Royal Flying Corps and later of the Royal Air Force. It has a supreme advantage among mottoes that all Latinists seem to agree that it cannot be translated! But at least most interpret it as ‘Through struggles to the stars’; and that is the theme of this paper.

It is possible, and even probable, that the next generation of defensive missiles will use modern methods of optimal control of the interception trajectory. Miniaturised computing is becoming so readily available that it becomes feasible to compute the optimal trajectory to the interception point.

Consider a ground site, defended by a surface-to-air missile, which is being attacked by a low-level intruder aircraft. As soon as the intruder is attacked, by launching the defensive missile, the intruder attempts to avoid interception by using evasive tactics; the intruder becomes the evader and the defensive missile the pursuer. When both the pursuer and evader use optimal tactics, the one to achieve interception and the other to avoid it, the result becomes the outcome of a game of pursuit and evasion, as described by Isaacs in Reference 1.

The serious mathematical complications of the kinetics of the aeroplane spin have given birth to methods of explanation based on assumptions and simplifications, the application of which, not unfrequently, has led to confusion and misunderstanding on the part of the student, let alone error on the part of the initiator of the method.

One of the problems, is the selection of the geometric parameters that have to be introduced as opposed to those which may be left out of the picture. Obviously, in such complex movement as the spin, the most obscure parameters are the angles of the motion. Unfortunately, there is a minimum number of such angles which is necessary and if one, hopefully, begins with a lesser number, one soon finds that the rest have to be put in place, even tardily, if the puzzle is to be completed.

In the current issue of Jane's All the World's Aircraft, J. W. R. Taylor states that ‘It would be pleasing to see in the development of programmes like Airbus and Tornado the seeds of increasingly successful European collaboration in the aerospace business … ‘

The Management Studies Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society have, for many years, been concerned with improving the effectiveness of the aerospace industry, and saw in European collaboration great opportunities as well as problems to be overcome. It was felt that the time was right for a review which could indicate the way forward, and identify the best growing conditions for the seeds of successful European collaboration.

This paper was commissioned by the Management Studies Group to review published papers for quantitative data in order to help set the scene for the talks and discussion to follow.

I find that there are three clearly defined themes appropriate to this occasion, so rather than pick just one I decided, at the risk of being rather superficial, to attempt to cover them in one lecture.

Obviously I must start with a short historical review of Warton Division from 1945 to the present date. During which time a major part was played by Sir Frederick Page in the development of the Division. This period starts when he was the technical guiding light of the newly formed English Electric team, through the vital middle period when he was managing the steadily growing complex now called Warton Division to more recent times when he still acted as a sure guiding light despite his much wider responsibilities.