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BRIEF news of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Tribology Group visit to China as guests of the Chinese Mechanical Engineers Society (CMES), appeared on the “Comment and opinion” page of our September/October issue last year. It was the first since the initial trip in 1979. We asked for a more detailed account and a report of the 3,500 mile journey through the country of a thousand million people, many anxious to know more about the new industrial technologies, now comes from S.J. Crampton, BSc (Eng), FIMechE, FInst Pet, manager, Projects and Research, IMechE, who was a member of the eight‐man party.

AEROSPACE is a very broad field and in order to deal with sheet metal applications in a little detail it is proposed to limit this article to airframes where the largest usage of sheet metal occurs.

I am pleased to be invited to contribute some reminiscences and observations of the last 50 years in aviation, for AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING'S Golden Jubilee edition, even though 1 cannot quite match its record, having only started in aviation in 1931. However, my father had been in aviation before me since 1908, and we lived just outside Brooklands, said by some to be the cradle of British aviation, all the days of my youth. I was keenly interested in aviation from as early as I can remember, so hope I may claim indulgence for those three “missing” years.

IN 1954 when two Comet 1 aircraft were lost in unusual circumstances, an intensive study of possible causes was made and everything pointed to there having been explosive decompression of the cabins of both aircraft. Research into metal fatigue was given a much higher priority and the official requirements for the design of such cabins were tightened up. It was hoped that there would be no repetition of such disasters.

Why not Aerospace? Because, apart from missiles and perhaps the odd satellite, we in the UK are essentially concerned for our future prosperity with the air—the vehicles that move through it and engines which breathe it and drive them.

This article is written by Mr. Major at the invitation of the publishers of AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING as an introduction to the series that is being published during 1980, (as was said in the Comment in the January issue), on the important subject of Airworthiness. Mr. Major says “My comments are not intended to be an official expression of views of the Society of which I am President, and they are based on experience in civil air transport covering technical development, aircraft maintenance and ground operations and, in the aircraft manufacturing industry, covering structural and detail design, production and after‐sales liaison with military users. This fairly diverse experience and some of the events which have occurred in the course of acquiring it, have led me to the view that many (perhaps most) of the airworthiness shortcomings that occur are due to the ‘gulfs’ which develop between specializations, or to the lack of communication (in the widest sense — and both ways) between the elements contributing to ‘total’ airworthiness.”

Introduction There are many elements in an alloyed combination with iron; some are present as ‘impurities’ and there are those which are added to confer specific properties to the material to improve either the mechanical or corrosion resisting properties, or both.

The Engineering Education and Training National Conference, held on 15th and 16th October 1980, had its attractions but not such as would produce a ‘full house’; for at no time throughout the two days Conference, organised by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, at the excellent facilities provided by the Institution of Civil Engineers, was there any indication of the accommodation being fully occupied. True, the Great Hall was packed to capacity during the formal opening by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales but, on the second day the participants dwindled and the annexe, well provisioned with televised proceedings, housed only a few delegates.

Andrews, by 1887, had already made a significant contribution to the knowledge of corrosion science and at this time, decided to investigate the effect of magnetisation on the relative electrochemical position of a pair of bright iron bars, one magnetised by a coil, the other not magnetised, when simultaneously exposed in circuit to the action of various powerful oxidising agents and saline solutions.

BEFORE BEING SELECTED as the design authority and manufacturer of the Concorde units, Dowty Boulton Paul had obtained considerable experience of electrically signalled control systems on the Tay Viscount aircraft in 1957, this being possibly the first aircraft to be controlled by a fly‐by‐wire system. In addition, multiplex actuator packs controlled by electric signals and operating on a majority voting system were tested in investigating their possibilities for fly‐by‐wire systems. The work on advanced designs of multiplex electro‐hydraulic actuator packs progressed in parallel with the Concorde unit design and at the present moment 15 actuators in three packs are being simultaneously tested in an endurance rig which is scheduled to run for 12,000hr. In addition three quadruplex packs are installed in a Hunter Mk. 12 aircraft at RAE Farnborough for flight trials.