Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with pleasure that I introduce to you today MR MCCLEMENTS, who is going to talk to us on the subject of “Helicopter Rotors”

MR McCLEMENTS is a relatively newcomer to the rotary wing industry and only claims a modest two years or so of direct connection, first with the Ministry of Supply and now as experimental engineer to the Helicopter Development Unit of British European Airways Corporation Apart from this, it is quite obvious that he has given a great deal of thought and work to the subject of his lecture

Speaking from personal experience, I can assure you that he was invaluable to all those in the industry during his time at the Ministry of Supply and will, I am sure, be equally so in his present appointment

On behalf of the Association, may I welcome our guests and trust you will be well rewarded for coming along

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my privilege this evening to introduce to you MR IVOR SIKORSKY, the eminent engineer responsible for the design and development of the helicopters bearing his name He is going to talk to us about the recent developments of these aircraft

I think it is correct to say that MR SIKORSKY IS the earliest pioneer of helicopters alive today, having been engaged upon experimental work with this type of aircraft as far back as 1910, and he also has the distinction of being the first to produce the helicopter as a realistic and practical aircraft

We have to thank two of our Council Members—Dr Bennett and Wing-Cdr Brie—for suggesting to MR SIKORSKY that he should give us this talk and we all very much appreciate MR SIKORSKY’s gesture in consenting to do so

On behalf of the Association may I extend a very cordial welcome to all our guests

It gives me very great pleasure to introduce our lecturer this afternoon, Mr. R. A. C. BRIE. I do feel that an introduction is unnecessary as most of you will either know him personally or most certainly have heard of his doings from time to time.

Mr. BRIE has been one of the foremost exponents of rotary wing flight since 1930 during which time he has never lost an opportunity of spreading the gospel of rotary wing aircraft both by word and deed and has a number of very interesting and successful flights to his credit.

He is a Founder Member of our Association and if I had my way would have been its first Chairman. He is also a Founder Member of the American Helicopter Society and of a peculiar tribe known as the “Twirley Birds,” also of America.

It was my good fortune to work very closely with Mr. BRIE for some years before the war and there is no one better fitted to talk to us on the subject he has chosen.

Members who were fortunate enough to be able to attend the Association’s Meeting on January 24th were rewarded by a most illuminating lecture on American Helicopter Development, delivered by MAJOR J C SILTANEN of the U S A A F

MAJOR SILTANEN is here in the capacity of Air Technical Liaison Officer to the U S Military Attache in London, in America he was engaged on work with the Rotary-wing Branch at Wright Field, being closely concerned with the military development of Sikorsky Helicopters

The lecture took the form of an informal discourse illustrated by many interesting slides, most of which have since been published in the Aeronautical Press, receiving due credit In token of the esteem in which we hold MAJOR SILTANEN, the Council have elected him an Honorary Member during his term of office in this country

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my privilege to introduce to you today MR FITZWILLIAMS, whose subject is “Some work with Rotating Wing Aircraft”

MR FITZWILLIAMS is a founder member of the Helicopter Association and a member of our Council and has been engaged on various aspects of rotating wing development over the past nine years, first with Mr PULLIN at Messrs G & J Weir Ltd, and later with Mr HAFNER at the Ministry of Supply He is now Helicopter Engineer of the Westland Aircraft Company

During the latter part of his time with the Ministry he was in charge of the rotating wing section of the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment at Beaulieu I understand that this period supplies the bulk of the material for his talk and I feel sure we shall find it both interesting and entertaining

On behalf of the Association I extend a cordial welcome to our guests

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As most of you know this is the Fourth and last lecture of our present session, the other three having been given by Gp/Capt. LIPTROT, Mr. C. G. PULLIN and Mr. R. A. C. BRIE, covering an historical survey, design and operation of helicopters, etc., and to-day our lecturer is discussing “Limitations in Helicopter Design.”

It gives me very great pleasure to introduce Dr. BENNETT to you, for I have known him personally for fifteen years or more, during the whole of which time he has been intimately associated with rotary wing and helicopter design.

For some years prior to the war, Dr. BENNETT was with Messrs. G. & J. Weir and the Cierva Autogiro Co.; and during the war was C.T.O. at the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment and spent two years in the U.S.A. where he latterly was attached to Wright Field as project engineer on helicopter research.

I have accepted with pleasure the Chairman’s request to introduce our lecturer this afternoon It is twelve years ago since MR SQUIRE proved himself to be a worthy successor to the late MR H GLAUERT at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in analysing the basic aerodynamic problems of the helicopter The work of GLAUERT had been confined to vertical flight and to horizontal flight with the rotor axis vertical (like that of the Gyrodyne) MR SQUIRE extended the analysis to the flight of a helicopter in which the propulsive force for horizontal flight was obtained by a forward inclination of the rotor axis The classic report by MR SQUIRE on this subject was studied closely by the Sikorsky organisation and was put into practical effect a few years later in the well-known Sikorsky designs

MR SQUIRE is recognised as the leading aerodynamicist on helicopters in this country and is Chairman of the Helicopter Committee of the Aeronautical Research Council We are all looking forward to hearing from him this afternoon on certain aerodynamic problems of the helicopter which have remained a mystery to most of us until now