Issue 7

WHEN the subject of this Paper was first chosen it was the intention to present in some detail some aspects of the problems of defence that had engaged the attention of the Structural Engineer between the years 1939 to 1945. J.E. Swindlehurst

MR. F. E. DRURY (Past President), proposing a hearty vote of thanks to Dr. Walker, recalled that some years ago the Institution had a paper on the structure of the aeroplane frame by Professor Pugsley, and at that time members made up their minds that although aeroplane structures did not come within normal structural engineering, the aeroplane itself was a structure-a complicated one-and one deserving of any structural engineer’s attention. He did not claim to know anything about the peculiarities of design, but it was quite easy, he thought, to see that in the design of the frame it was simply a question of applying principles of design when the proper forces were known, and he supposed the real difficulty was in estimating those forces.

DR. OSCAR FABER (Past President), said the audience had listened to an excellent paper. It was a subject on which they were all relatively ignorant. He had always realised the Act was going to send some of them into the Bankruptcy Court and others into a Mental Institution, but he had not realised how impossible it was for a layman to understand anything about this Act. This was the impression he had gained, that none but an expert could understand any portion of the Act, and he believed Mr. Hellings would agree with him on that. He did not imagine they could have had a better paper on this abstruse subject than that Mr. Hellings had given them and he thought they were very privileged and should greatly appreciate having heard “from the horse’s mouth” such a wise and eloquent description of some of the provisions of the Act.