Aircraft Engines and the Future

Abstract

THE Wilbur Wright Lecture this year is certainly one of the most thought‐provoking that has been delivered. Read in conjunction with the James Forrest Lecture, printed in our last issue, it gives a very complete picture of where we stand in aircraft and engines to‐day. This general survey comes very appropriately in time to appear in this number, which is devoted almost entirely to engines, and gives an opportunity that does not often occur of reading precept and practice simultaneously. Mr. Ricardo represents perhaps the most expert opinion obtainable in England on the general aspects of internal‐combustion engine design, and it is interesting to turn from his views to the other articles dealing with practice as exemplified in an American, a German, a British, and a French‐designed engine respectively: the wide field of which incidentally emphasises the attitude adopted in this paper from the beginning of endeavouring to maintain an international outlook. From another point of view they have a no less wide appeal, covering as they do almost the whole range of sizes in modern engines, from the 50 h.p. light aeroplane unit, through the 220 h.p. so‐called “Diesel” and the latest 300 h.p. interceptor fighter engine, to the largest 500‐h.p. air‐cooled radial.

Citation

(1930), "Aircraft Engines and the Future", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 2 No. 7, pp. 161-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb029284