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Aeronautical Research Committee; For the Year 1933-34 Vol I; Aerodynamics

We, the Aeronautical Research Committee, have the honour to
submit our report for the year 1933—34.
During the year we have met thirteen times. We have held two
formal meetings with representatives of the Society of British
Aircraft Constructors, and two informal meetings, one at the Royal
Aircraft Establishment and the other at the National Physical
Laboratory. We also paid visits during the year to the Royal
Aircraft Establishment, the National Physical Laboratory, the
Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, and the
Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment. We take this oppor-
tunity to record our thanks to the individuals concerned for the
admirable arrangements they made to enable us to see and to
discuss the various researches in progress.
We also held a special meeting last autumn to discuss technical
problems of aircraft transport with representatives of Imperial
Airways. This meeting proved very useful, and we propose in future
to hold a similar meeting every year, so as to maintain direct contact
with operating companies. In View of this decision, our Air Trans-
port Sub~Committee has been dissolved.
Research Equijbment.—~Considerable progress has been made with
the construction of the new 24 ft. open jet wind tunnel at the Royal
Aircraft Establishment (see frontispiece, Fig. 1). The main building
is now complete, and the balances and other requisite apparatus are
in an advanced stage of construction. The new high speed open jet
tunnel at the National Physical Laboratory has been completed,
and tests have shown it to be satisfactory in every respect. A second
similar tunnel is now under construction. One of the existing 7 ft.
tunnels at the Royal Aircraft Establishment is to be converted to an
open jet tunnel of larger size and higher wind speed. The Compressed
Air Tunnel at the National Physical Laboratory has been in opera—
tion throughout the year, and several reports on the work are now
before us. The R.A.E. Seaplane Testing Tank has already fully
proved its value for the investigation of important problems of
seaplane design. Although the tank is only 9ft. in width, it has
been shown that the effect of side wall interference is negligible if
the model under test is not more than 9 ft. in length.