MY paper concerns the Management of the UK Polaris Project. Only Admiral Sir Hugh MacKenzie, leader of the UK Polaris Team, with his complete knowledge of the story, could do justice to this subject. However, as a member of the Polaris Management Team from January 1963 to December 1968 I was in a position to know most of the story.

Before describing the management organisation, it is necessary to outline the job to be done. Major features of the UK Polaris Programme were:—

• (a) The design and building in the UK of four 8000 ton nuclear propelled submarines, craft twice as big as the Valiant class.

• (b) The procurement from the USA of Polaris A3 weapon systems for the submarines.

• (c) The design and manufacture in the UK of nuclear war-heads for the missiles.

The world's aircraft industries have devoted substantial effort in the past decade towards the realisation of aircraft which can take-off and land vertically. Such aircraft have many potential applications for both military and civil use. Two dominating operational factors have emerged: noise and downwash. In the author's opinion, jet lift and fan lift aircraft with their high disc loadings will prove too noisy for city-centre use and produce too violent a down-wash flow to operate from unprepared sites. These difficulties, added to the inherently higher power requirements of high disc loading, have swung attention more and more towards large lifting rotors, varying from large dual-purpose propellers to more conventional helicopter rotors.