Before entering upon the subject of my lecture I beg to express my feelings of gratitude for the honour and appreciation of my efforts, implied in the invitation to speak on metal aeroplane construction before so eminent and learned a body as the Royal Aeronautical Society.

In consideration of the general political situation I deem myself entitled to attribute to this invitation the deeper meaning of a token of amiable disposition given apart and beyond my person, from nation to nation, and to see in it an effort of renewing the ties of a genuine humanity, which is well aware of the unavoidableness of conflict and fight, but does not know hatred, and desires to extinguish the sad traces of a devastating war by hoisting the flag of peaceful competition.

The motives prompting the desirability of human flight from the legendary period to the present time have been very numerous. For the last two hundred years, apart from the war period, we may reasonably assume that the predominant factor has been the rapid transport of personnel or material from one point to another. With this aspect of aviation, aerial navigation is intimately concerned. I want you at the outset to distinguish clearly between the problem of aerial navigation over comparatively short routes—such as from London to Paris— and what is surely the true realm of aircraft, the long distance flights from England to America, India and Australia. In favourable weather the European routes require no more of the pilot than that he should be able to read a map with what, for want of a better term, I will call aeronautical intelligence.