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IN the two years since the last Farnborough Air Show was held by the Society of British Aerospace Companies the aircraft industry has achieved an almost complete metamorphosis from the body blows in the form of major programme cancellations that almost felled it in 1965 to the very healthy position that it holds today.

Smiths Industries is to supply the head‐up display system for the Sea Harrier. The company will design, develop and make the electronic head‐up display and weapon aiming computer system for the latest version of the HS Harrier which will operate from Royal Navy ships.

NOT perhaps the most vintage of Farnboroughs from the point of view of new aircraft and new technology, but undoubtedly one of the most successful in relation to the business done. Some fifteen major orders worth over £32½ million were announced, bringing the total order book for the industry this year to more than £782 million already. This exceeds by a handsome margin the new business won by the industry in any nine‐month period in the past, and it is expected that by the end of the year orders worth well over £800 million will have been received. Highlights of the new British hardware on show were the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod and production Harriers on the military side; the B.A.C. One‐Eleven 500, the Handley Page Jetstream, the Garrett‐engined Short Skyvan, and the Beagle Pups showed the resurgence of the industry's civil interests. The number of foreign aircraft that appeared, sponsored in the main by Rolls‐Royce, bore witness to the strength of Britain's aero engine and aircraft equipment industry, and further evidence of this was found in the exhibition proper with many examples of major items of equipment having been adopted for overseas markets. The overall impression at Farnborough was a new‐found confidence in the future of the industry exemplified by a more aggressive and effective export sales policy that has already proved our ability to deliver the goods. It is not possible to cover all the exhibits shown at Farnborough, but the report following describes many of the interesting items.

AS A RESULT of a co‐operative effort under the leadership of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, an economic fire‐resistant hydraulic water‐in‐oil fluid for coal mine equipment is claimed to have been evolved. Water‐in‐oil emulsions are relatively new. In this instance, a globule of water is forced into a globule of oil. Being on the outside, the oil furnishes a certain amount of the lubricity required to keep the hydraulic pumps operating properly and economically, because the pumps ordinarily depend for self‐lubrication on the hydraulic fluid being pumped. While such a fluid has been used in industrial machinery with good results, as far as is known, no tests have previously been made under actual coal‐mine operating conditions.

RICHARDSON, writing in Scientific Lubrication recently, stressed the need for strict attention to the cleanliness of the fluids used in hydraulically operated automatic transmissions with special reference to storage conditions, cleaning materials and the care of filters. In the same number of the journal Chisholm briefly described methods of oil filtration in general when discussing the maintenance of industrial hydraulic systems. It will be found too that the majority of articles and booklets dealing with hydraulic fluids and systems—industrial, automotive and aeronautic—pay attention to the potential effect of impurities, their exclusion and removal, in greater or lesser detail. Similarly diagrams of typical hydraulic circuits will usually show permanent wire mesh screens or strainers in the oil reservoir on the suction side of the pump and sometimes below the filler plug while by‐pass filters are generally located at some point in the circuit after the pump. (By‐pass filters owe their popularity to the fact that should the element become completely clogged the flow of hydraulic oil is not thereby interrupted).

THE Deutsche Luftfahrtschau, or as it is more generally known, the Hanover Air Show, held every two years by the Bundesverband der Deutschen Luft‐ und Raumfahrtindustrie e.V. (Federal Association of the German Air and Spacecraft Industries). This year's Show will be held from April 26 to May 5 at the Hanover Langenhagen Airport and will be held at the same time as the famous Hanover Fair.

Previous parts in this series have dealt respectively with the Transmission (November) and Ground Drive and Chassis (December).

HYDRAULIC POWER and control is being applied more and more widely in industry and is finding both general and specialised uses. Generally, hydraulics could be just another item in the designer's toolchest—another way of applying power and of exercising control. In the specialist fields hydraulics is being used as the force transmitting element in complex closed loop control systems and where the very nature of a fluid medium is to be used with advantage.

A series of articles dealing, in as simple a way as possible, with the basic facts of lubrication, lubricants, their selection and prescription, specification, application, and testing. This series is primarily intended for students, engineering personnel who may be unfamiliar with certain aspects and others who, one way or another, are interested in this important subject.