ACA/ARC Annual Technical Reports

The Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (ACA) reported annually to the Prime Minister (and First Lord of the Treasury) from its inception in 1909 until 1918 when, following the formation of the RAF, the formal recipient of the report became the Secretary of State for Air. The Annual Technical Report comprised an overview of progress made during the year, together with a selection of relevant technical papers from the Reports & Memoranda (R&M) series. In 1919, the ACA was transformed into the Aeronautical Research Committee(ARC), but the annual publication continued in much the same form until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

In the post-war years, the annual publications of what had by then become the Aeronautical Research Council continued as collections of relevant R&Ms but without the introductory overview. Two reviews of progress were produced, however: the first in 1949 covered the wartime and immediate post-war years from 1939 to 1948 (published as R&M 2585), while the second appeared in 1955 and covered the period 1949 to 1954. The annual compendia of R&Ms ceased altogether with the 1960 volume (which actually appeared in 1972), while the ARC itself was disbanded in 1979.

The Annual Volumes (often known as "Blue Books") were published and sold by the Stationery Office, except during World War I, when they were printed but made available for the Committee’s use only. In later years, volumes marked "For Official Use Only" were issued to the Committee before being sold more widely.

The overview parts of the ACA/ARC Annual Reports, which describe the evolution of aeronautics in the UK over the first half of the 20 the century, have now been digitised and are available in searchable PDF format via the links below*.