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The Relationship of Physics to Aeronautical Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2017

Extract

Aeronautics is a youthful study—a mere Cinderella of the Sciences, distinguished from her sisters by her tender years, by her guileless and impetuous disregard of the pinch of the financial shoe, and by her beauty.

That it is Applied Physics is to me the most inspiring definition of engineering; and if this be true for engineering in general, as I think it is, especially true is it of aeronautics. To illustrate the close association of these new studies with the work of physicists, I shall select a few of the more striking results of recent research.

Aviation is now entering upon a new and intensely interesting phase—one which will call for every scientific resource at our command. The materials of -construction are changing : wood is giving place to metal. The engine proves ito have most unexpected possibilities ahead of it through the increase of intake pressure; whilst the very lifting structure itself promises to change, for some purposes at least, from linear motion to rotary.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1926

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