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MUCH thought about the automatic control of machine tools has been confused by an imperfect understanding of what can be done, and of what the advantages of the various systems arc. Why is it desirable to use automatic control? The answer to this question depends on the production quantities involved. Where really large scale production is possible automatic control, combined with automatic transfer equipment, reduces the need for repetitive handling and machine control operations to be done by men, can greatly speed up production, and reduce the need for skilled and unskilled labour. This is not the type of work for which man is best suited, and he may be liable to make mistakes because of fatigue or boredom. In this type of automatic production line the operation can best be controlled mechanically by systems incorporating trips, limit switches, interlocks and the like, specially designed for the sequence of operations concerned. Such mechanical systems have been developed over the years, and many plants, such as those used by large steel works for the production of repetition forgings, show considerable ingenuity in their design. However, such plants are not applicable to a wide range of component designs made in comparatively small numbers, the normal state of affairs in the aircraft industry. Greater flexibility is obtained by the use of electronic control, and the computer which then has to be brought into the system can also carry out some of the more laborious drawing office processes, such as interpolation between ordinates.

THE fourth of the Aircraft Production Conferences organized by the Southern Section of the Institution of Production Engineers was again held at Southampton University. The theme this year was ‘Speeding Aircraft Production’. At this conference the inaugural Lord Sempill Paper was given by Sir Roy Fedden. This, and the other papers are summarized below, together with a fairly full report of the discussion on each paper.

Based on a lecture prepared as part of the celebration of Cranfield University's 50th anniversary. After briefly reviewing the early years, including Cranfield University's entry into this technology, discusses the nature of this industry, Some of the technology drivers, including environmental concerns, are examined to provide a background against which the development and the future of the industry can be considered. This is followed by a brief survey of some of the possible new civil aero gas turbine applications over the next 50 years, both the very likely and some curiosities. Finally, the changes that are likely to occur within the industry as a result of wider economic and political trends are considered, as well as the implications for those working within the industry. The development of the civil aero gas turbine has contributed, in large measure, to today's, US$ 300 billion civil aviation industry and is rightly seen as one of mankind's major engineering achievements. A single paper cannot do justice to this industry.

THE conference opened with the paper by Mr Woodward‐Nutt, which, together with the other papers, is summarized below. After the first session the conference luncheon was held, and the principal speakers were the Mayor of Southampton, Alderman R. E. Edmunds, who welcomed the conference to Southampton, and Sir Edward Boyle, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply, who referred to current concern about delays in fighter deliveries. He said that there had in the last year been setbacks, but the delays were due to difficulties of development rather than of production. The comparison which was often made of deliveries during the last war was not fair, because the aircraft in question had then been developed. The Spitfire took five years to develop, and this did not compare so unfavourably with the development of the Hunter, when the increase in complexity and the aerodynamic difficulties of the transonic region were considered. Flight trials were the only indication of many of these troubles, and modifications were necessary after the tests. It was for this reason that the Ministry had adopted the policy of ordering up to twenty development aircraft, with the intention that by the time the last one had been built it would be in a form suitable for the production version.

THE fifth of these annual conferences was held on 8 and 9 January at Southampton University. As usual the conference opened with a luncheon, at which the then Minister of Supply, the Rt. Hon. Reginald Maudling, was a speaker. The Minister pointed out that the aircraft industry was the object both of immoderate praise and intemperate criticism; in order to make a fair assessment of the industry's achievements it was necessary to compare them with those of other countries, which in practice meant the U.S.A. since no other country about which information was available had an industry of comparable size. Continental countries, although they had made outstanding technical advances, were able to export only a small fraction of the aircraft and equipment which the British industry has sent abroad in recent years.

This prestigious conference attracted some most eminent speakers and an international attendance of some 300.