On 8 July 2006 a team from the University of Toronto flew a full-sized, piloted, flapping-wing aircraft. In this entertaining lecture the project’s leader, Prof James DeLaurier, shows us the inspiration behind the project and guides us through the research, design, testing, construction and certification stages, before taking us through the events of an early morning in 2006 when a pilot flew the Ornithopter No.1, nick named “The Big Flapper”, for fourteen seconds over Bombardier’s Airfield in Toronto.

Prof James DeLaurier MRAeS presented his lecture. Ornithopter Research, to a meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society on 12 September 2007. The lecture was introduced by AVM David Couzens FRAeS and the film & podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

Rewind: Designing & flying a man-carrying Ornithopter by Prof James DeLaurier MRAeS

“Oh come on, surely it was the Wright Brothers who did this!” In his lecture Dr John Ackroyd FRAeS tries to persuade us that Sir George Cayley, not the Wright Brothers, defined the concepts behind the aeroplane and flew it in 1804.

After exploring Sir George’s early life and some of his non-aeronautical designs of early tractors, engines and artificial hands, Dr Ackroyd explores Cayley’s key breakthrough, his discovery in 1799 that flapping wings would not lead to flight and what was needed was a complete separation of the lifting from the propulsion system.

Dr Ackroyd then analyses Cayley’s results from his glider flights, experiments and concepts using modern aerodynamic techniques and compares Sir George’s achievements to those who came after. He also explores how Sir George learnt from aerodynamic shapes found in nature and that the challenges facing aviation could be divided into the four basic areas which remain the fundamentals of aeronautics today: aerodynamics, structures, flight dynamics and propulsion.

The recording concludes by showing how Cayley’s work influenced and compared to the work of future generations, most notably how the Wright Brothers built on Cayley’s work to be the first to conquer the challenge of powered flight.

The lecture was specially recorded to mark the 250th Anniversary of Sir George Cayley’s birth and was produced by Peter Laws CEng MRAeS. 

Find out more about Sir George Cayley by visiting www.aerosociety.com/cayley250

Cayley

Classic Lecture: The invention of the aeroplane near Scarborough at the time of Trafalgar

Concorde Test pilot Alan Smith’s path to BAC took him to flying Meteors and Venoms for the RAF and a colourful life in the pilot’s seat for smaller airlines in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. In this first interview, Alan Smith shares how he discovered his passion for aviation and recounts the early years of his RAF flying career, leading to his transition into civil airlines and ultimately becoming a Concorde test pilot. He brings to life the excitement of flying a wide variety of aircraft and the memorable pilots he met along the way.

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1933, Alan Smith grew up beside the bustling Vickers-Armstrongs shipyard and started out as an apprentice plumber. But the skies were calling: on his 15th birthday in 1948, he joined the Air Cadets. A gliding course at RAF Ouston quickly earned him his A and B certificates, and he took part in cadet flights, including a memorable ride in a Lancaster at RAF Leuchars.

Soon after, he won a flying scholarship, clocked 30 hours on Tiger Moths, and earned his private pilot’s licence by early 1951. As the 100th recipient, he celebrated at the Royal Aero Club in London, where Lord Brabazon of Tara - holder of Aviator’s Certificate No. 1 -  personally presented him with Certificate No. 27,000.

Just weeks later, Alan left plumbing and the Newcastle shipyards behind to join the RAF. After basic training at RAF Cranwell, he began flying at No. 6 Flying Training School, RAF Ternhill, where he flew solo after just 60 hours on the Percival Prentice. Alan Smith recalls meeting Wing Commander Flying Downey at the bar of the officers’ mess whilst celebrating the milestone of his first RAF solo flight.
He was then posted to RAF Middleton St George for advanced training on the Harvard, followed by a jet conversion course at 205 Advanced Flying School on the same Teesside airfield, flying the Gloster Meteor F.4 and T.7.

Alan’s next posting was to 228 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Leeming for night-flying training, which included an exhilarating nocturnal flight in a de Havilland Mosquito, rendezvousing with a Meteor with no lights. He was then assigned to RAF Wahn near Cologne, West Germany, flying Meteor night fighters for two and a half years with the 2nd Tactical Air Force. He recalls incidents involving fellow pilots and one mission when he ran out of fuel and crash-landed after his hood became stuck.

Back in Britain, his hopes of becoming an RAF instructor at the Central Flying School were dashed when the Commandant disapproved of his lack of sporting experience. Instead, he joined 89 Squadron at RAF Stradishall, flying de Havilland Venom Mk 3 night fighters. When the unit was unexpectedly disbanded, he was appointed Officer-in-Charge of Stradishall’s Station Flight, overseeing the dispersal of 13 aircraft of five different types. During this period, he also completed an Instrument Flying Rating course on a Vickers Varsity at RAF Debden. However, Alan did not see himself as a Career Officer and left the RAF in April 1959 after seven years’ service.

Driven by his ambition to become an airline pilot, he next moved to London with his young family and studied for an Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence. He had to prove his skills all over again and passed with a twin-engine rating just eight months later. 

Alan Smith talked with Julian Temple, Heritage Archivist for BAE Systems Heritage, on 1 March 2024. The recording was edited for podcast by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS and is published by kind permission of BAE Systems for the Royal Aeronautical Society/National Aerospace Library’s oral history project ‘If I only didn’t do it that way…….” Capturing history from the horse’s mouth to inspire today’s aeronautical professionals. Further interviews with Alan Smith will be released in future podcasts.

A transcript of the interview recording is available on the National Aerospace Library catalogue: https://raes.soutron.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/RecordView/Index/4185389

An interview with Alan Smith.....from shipyards to Concorde - learning to fly, RAF service with Meteors and Venoms and trying to get into the airlines

Putting tens of thousands of extra people through an airport in a short period is always a challenge, especially if they have three times the average amount of luggage containing such things as firearms, specialist wheelchairs and canoes – now try putting it through the world’s third busiest airport; a bad press might affect future plans and, by the way, twenty thousand of those additional customers are from the world’s media. 

Andy Garner, BAA’s London 2012 Director and the man responsible for the smooth running of the Olympic Traffic at Heathrow tells members of the RAeS Air Transport Group Lecture about the challenges the airport faced in 2012 and how they overcame them with record-breaking customer satisfaction rates. 

Andy Garner FRAeS addressed a meeting of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Air Transport Group on 23 October 2012 and the podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

Rewind - Handling the Olympic and Paralympic traffic at Heathrow by Andy Garner FRAeS

This webinar will be delivered by Dr Michael John Pryce MRAeS, Senior Air Systems Analyst of Future Projects Research. Mike will explore the challenges in meeting the future needs for combat aircraft across the globe.

He will also look at enduring issues that challenge the development and support of future combat aircraft, and how to overcome them within resource constraints and political limitations.

Three main areas will be explored:
- Design for Combat Air
- A Low Cost Industry
- Combat Air Transformation

These build on work done as an advisor during the development of the UK Combat Air Strategy. The webinar will take into account recent developments in the United States, Europe and East Asia, where public debates are rapidly evolving, and explore their implications for the UK.

RAeS Webinar: The Supply of Future Combat Aircraft

The Royal Aeronautical Society is the world's only professional body dedicated to the entire aerospace community. Established in 1866 to further the art, science and engineering of aeronautics, the Society has been at the forefront of developments in aerospace ever since.

An interview with Alan Smith.....from shipyards to Concorde - learning to fly, RAF service with Meteors and Venoms and trying to get into the airlines

AeroSociety Podcast

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