Values of the pressure coefficient Cp between +1 and -1 can be measured directly in incompressible flow by comparison with the known pressures on a circular cylinder placed in the tunnel working section. The development of the method and the apparatus required are described. The method gives more consistent and accurate readings than can easily be obtained with normal manometer measurements, particularly when the pressure differences are small and the tunnel speed not very steady. Since the coefficients depend on Reynolds number only, less precise measurement and control of tunnel speed are required, unless, the coefficients to be measured are subject to critical scale effects. Possible ways of extending the range of coefficients which can be measured are suggested.

The theory developed in Part I is applied to a number of problems of aeronautical interest, the most important of which is to the setting of “ streamline “ walls about a symmetrical aerofoil placed in the centre of a channel. It is shown how the position of the streamline wall can be deduced from the (experimentally determined) position of a constant pressure wall. This theory is applicable to symmetrical aerofoils of any given shape, and makes allowance for the presence of the aerofoil's wake. To illustrate the theory, and to test it by an extreme example, the flow is calculated about a circular cylinder, with a diameter about half the tunnel height, for both straight and constant pressure walls. The solid blockage is calculated in each case and compared with the standard first order theory. For this extreme example the standard theory fails badly for straight walls, but is reasonably accurate for constant pressure walls.

A method of estimating the fatigue properties of notched test pieces when cyclic loads are applied in the presence of mean stresses is described. The method takes into account the local yielding which occurs near the base of the notch when the nominal stresses are sufficiently high. The general form of the predicted R/M diagrams closely resembles those obtained experimentally in previously published work.

The possible use of jet thrust as a source of lift, either by deflection of the force from the normal propulsion axis, or by some other means, raises a new stability problem under conditions of hovering flight and flight at speeds for which the aerodynamic damping becomes insignificant. At the same time, despite the small dynamic pressure, the direct air loads cannot be neglected, for, due to the very large positive or negative incidences peculiar to the motion, the associated coefficients are of a compensatingly high order. Consequently, the problem retains an aerodynamic element, but is principally one of automatic stabilisation, amenable to treatment by ordinary mechanical or electrical circuit theory. The investigation has been restricted to the longitudinal-symmetric motion with virtually the only workable form of automatic control, namely, one responsive to the angular displacement and velocity in pitch, but these conditions undoubtedly embrace all the essentials of any practical application, e.g. in take-off and landing by the new technique. The solution to the stability in a gust, or in a succession of disturbances, may then be easily obtained in closed analytical form, but the more general case of unsteady motion, when the displacements are no longer purely oscillatory, necessitates, in part, the use of step-by-step integration. This arises from the added complexity of the aerodynamic terms, due to the appearance of significant changes of incidence, and to the very large and variable values of the resistance derivatives at the angles involved, so that, in the present state of knowledge, the forces determining the motion cannot be expressed functionally. The labour which such calculations entail may be considerably shortened, however, by the application of a procedure based on mean deviations, but it is also found that the conclusions to be drawn from the hovering case remain valid in a number of important respects for the general problem. This feature is demonstrated in the discussion at the end of the paper on a number of examples designed to illustrate the characteristics of the automatic control and the conditions necessary for stability in a variety of circumstances, both when the aircraft is hovering and when its displacement increases continuously with time.