impossible in this connection to pass over without mention the great loss which the factory (and the country, it may be said), has suffered in the death of Mr. H. T. Busk, who recently lost his life in the execution of his duties, being burnt to death in mid-air whilst personally carrying out investigations of an experimental character. Mr. Busk combined with exceptional ability as an experimenter a very thorough knowledge of his work; he was largely responsible for the design and construction of many instruments and appliances which have proved of the greatest service in the development of the present-day machine.
There are many of the less-informed members of the public who believe that the flying-machine has been developed, and is to-day being designed, by empirical methods, and that the scientific man has had nothing to do with it, except, perhaps, late in the day, to give plausible explanations of the " whys and wherefores." Nothing is further from the truth. The work relating to the design and construction of the modern aeroplane is quite as much the result of careful and scientific calculation, in fact, rather more so, than in the case of shipbuilding. All matters connected with the flying properties of a machine, whether it be lifting power, propulsion, or stability, are amenable to rigorous scientific treatment, and are as carefully founded on scale-model and wind-channel experiment as the analogous problems in ship design
In scientific work connected with flight (as pointed out by the author in his recent James Forrest Lecture), the work which has been done in this country is far in advance of that done on the Continent; more especially is this the case in connection with stability: it is fair to take it that the advantageous position in which Britain finds herself to-day in the matter of aircraft is legitimately
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