Introduction to the Queen Mary College 100th anniversary of teaching aeronautics special Issue of The Aeronautical Journal

摘要

In September 2007 and in memory of Albert Peter Thurston who established the formal teaching of aeronautics in the United Kingdom, a two-day conference was held at Queen Mary College. The themes of the conference were loosely related to the first public lecture given by A.P. Thurston in 1909: 'Flying Machines (heavier than air type)'; 'Balloons, Airships and Kites'; and 'The Mechanics Principles of Flight'. This special issue includes some of the papers presented at this conference. Peter Thurston was born on 31 October 1881 in Clapton. He studied engineering at East London College and completed the course in 1901. His interests in engineering and particularly the possibilities of flight were evidently stimulated from an early age by his father, to whom he refers as a born engineer. In 1902 he joined Sir Hiram Maxim as his assistant and designer, and was engaged on the design of Maxim's captive flying machines. In 1905 Thurston made the acquaintance of P.Y. Alexander, another aeronautical enthusiast of some wealth. In 1907 Thurston was encouraged by J.L. Hatton, then the East London College Principal, to start regular courses of lectures in aeronautics. Thurston gradually collected a group of aeronautical enthusiasts around him, with funds from their own pockets as well as substantial support from Mr Alexander, and equipped the aeronautical laboratory which was opened in 1909. He then started extensive research on such fundamental matters as the characteristics of wing sections and propellers, the forces on struts and the structural characteristics of typical materials and specimens of aeronautical interest at the time. In 1911 Thurston wrote a small book called Elementary Aeronautics.