It is a great distinction and a highly esteemed honour to be privileged to read the forty-seventh Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture. It is also a distinct personal pleasure to be here. Over the past 15 years I have made periodic trips to England to visit the aircraft companies, to witness the spectacular Farnborough displays of the S.B.A.C. and to attend the Anglo-American Conferences of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences. This has afforded opportunities to observe and admire the rapid progress you have made in aeronautics, the brilliant achievements of British engineers and scientists and, more importantly, the chance to make and deepen warm and valued friendships. The joint meetings of the Society and the Institute are proving to be fruitful ground for the exchange of ideas and for becoming better acquainted. May I express the sincere wish that I shall have the pleasure of welcoming many of you to the Seventh Anglo-American Conference which will be held in October 1959 in New York.