EARLY this month I was invited by your Council to read a paper before you, and itwas with some misgivings that I accepted this date on which to do so

The paper and drawings have been prepared very hurriedly, due to the short timeavailable, and I would ask you to make allowances if at any time I fail to makemyself perfectly clear

It was my original intention to give a paper entirely on arresting apparatus, butI soon discovered that the arresting and alighting gears were too closely alliedto admit of separate treatment

Some of you may not be quite clear concerning the functioning of arresters, andso I will define an arrester as a means for braking the forward speed of theaircraft on landing with the object of minimising the length of run necessary topull up

With these explanations I will start my paper which I have entitled“Aircraft Alighting and Arresting Mechanisms”