r-r reprint
Besides Sir Stanley's book, the R-R heritage Trust do a facsimile of an internal paper drawn up in 1941 to explain why the largely empirical RAE formula did not accurately predict perfomance leading to friction between propeller designers, aerodynamicists and mechanical engineers. Most of the writers' names are well known save one poor gentleman whose tastes and predilections did not suit the times and he left. A waste of talent. I look on the pamphlet with great affection, it is easy to draft into an Excel spreadsheet allowing you to jiggle parameters and see the results. I met Bill Practice who used to design propellers and was astonished to find it was him, not perhaps his son, when I found the address by chance in a phonebook. Not far from the airfield that was his workshop and where D O Finlay, the English captain at the 1936 Olympics and later Spitfire pilot did much flight testing. Practice himself was a very gifted engineer and unassuming. After enjoying his hospitality and listening to first-hand accounts of people like Fedden, Hooker and so on I noticed a picture in the hallway which I recognised as a famous Aussie rocketry range. "Oh yes" he said "Rockets came along later, I thought you were only interested in Merlins".