I would first like to express my thanks to the Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers for the honour of asking me to read this paper and, at the same time, I would like to congratulate both the Helicopter Association of Great Britain and the S.L.A.E. for combining to promote this particular discussion. To some of us this fulfils a long-felt want; mainly the airing of problems of helicopter maintenance from the stand-point of the Licensed Aircraft Engineer.

Since the arrival in this country in 1944 of a production type helicopter, I may say that these problems have been apparent in no small numbers. Before that time, of course, a considerable amount of experience with rotary wing maintenance problems had been gained during the operation of the autogyro in this country, and were were therefore fortunate in having some of this experience behind us at the outset of helicopter operation.