Ghosh’s large-deflection hypersonic similitude and consequent plane and conico-annular piston theories have been applied to obtain unsteady pressure and the pitching moment derivatives for oscillating non-slender wedges, cones and ogives. The plane piston theory for a wedge is extended from a quasi-steady analysis, which gives the moment derivative due to pitch rate Cmq, to an unsteady analysis; the two analyses combine to give the moment derivative due to incidence rate , which is shown here to be the same for wedges and quasi-wedges. The present theory can separately give Cmq and for a quasiwedge of arbitrary shape; this principle is illustrated for a particular quasi-wedge namely the parabolic arc plane ogive. In comparison, a previous theory by Hui gave only the sum of Cmq and , only for wedges. The conico-annular piston theory is employed to obtain Cmθ, which is the moment derivative due to a steady pitch angle, and Cmq for non-slender cones and axisymmetric ogives in closed form for the first time.

A general formulation based on a variational approach is used to study the static bending, vibration and stability of circular plates having mixed elastic rotational constraints at the boundary. A single displacement function suitable for these three classes of problems is used in a Ritz scheme to obtain static bending solutions and eigenvalues for various combinations of boundary parameters that exhibit symmetry about two axes. Results obtained are generally in good agreement with those available in the literature and in some cases represent an improvement on those previously reported. The lowest eigenvalues for the stability problem are presented for the first time.

Research at RSRE has revealed significant problems in the use of commercial microprocessors in safety critical equipment. The difficulties arise from the imprecise documentation of the instruction sets by the microprocessor manufacturers and changes in internal design and external functionality during the years a popular device is marketed. To meet certain defence needs, RSRE is conducting research on formal methods of design and implementation of VLSI chips which provide simple processing capability and can be proved to be functionally correct. The first product of this research is a new 32-bit microprocessor architecture, called VIPER, which is described in outline in this paper. Although the primary application of such high integrity devices is in the defence field it is believed that they would be of great value in civil aviation, both in fast control loops in aircraft and in the control of critical DVOR/ DME, ILS and MLS transmitters on the ground.

Tonight, once again, we honour the memory of Frederick William Lanchester, one of the great pioneers of modern engineering, born in 1868 died in 1946. We keep his memory alive by exploring how his ideas and concepts have flowered into maturity, and by reminding ourselves that his example, philosophy and strength of purpose are still relevant in today’s world. I suppose each of us reacts individually to the life and work of a great man.