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AT the time of the advent of the all‐metal aeroplane, there were no machine tools and equipment well suited to the peculiar manufacturing operations required. Save for the necessary machining operations, the mechanical labours were performed on equipment largely borrowed from the fitter's, tinsmith's, and coppersmith's trades.

THE firm of Henschel und Sohn G.mb.H. is a very old one and one that is well known for its locomotives and motor cars. It was only six years ago that it started on aeroplanes, just one year before the present rush started. It was therefore in a position to start with a clean slate and it seems to have done this well.

THE fifth of these annual conferences was held on 8 and 9 January at Southampton University. As usual the conference opened with a luncheon, at which the then Minister of Supply, the Rt. Hon. Reginald Maudling, was a speaker. The Minister pointed out that the aircraft industry was the object both of immoderate praise and intemperate criticism; in order to make a fair assessment of the industry's achievements it was necessary to compare them with those of other countries, which in practice meant the U.S.A. since no other country about which information was available had an industry of comparable size. Continental countries, although they had made outstanding technical advances, were able to export only a small fraction of the aircraft and equipment which the British industry has sent abroad in recent years.

If it is true to say that the primary factor governing the arrangement for the production of a fuselage is the type of structural design chosen; it is no less a fact that a wing is far more amenable to re‐arrangement for production and allows the jig designer greater scope. Naturally, the relative ease with which the jigs can be built does depend largely upon the structure and upon the co‐operation between designer and engineer, but there is far more chance for the jig designer who is presented with a finished design and told to arrange it for production as it stands.