THAT Britain has remained in the van of progress in the vast and varied field of aeronautical engineering is a tribute to the endeavour and devotion of the early pioneers and their immediate successors. The men who assisted the birth of British aviation and nursed it through the formative years have proved beyond question that as a nation we are endowed with the necessary natural aptitude and skill to compete on level terms with the other nations of the world and to produce aircraft second to none.