AERADE Reports Archive | ACA/ARC History
Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics
1909-1920
Aeronautical Research
Committee
1920-1945
Aeronautical Research
Council
1945-1979
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*.
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* It should be noted that from 1918-19 the Annual Report Volumes also contained Supplements describing the work of the various Sub-Committees and Panels in more detail. These are not included at present but will be added in future as time and effort permits
Illustrations | |||
1909-10 A V Roe Triplane 1910-11 De Havilland Biplane 1911-12 Barber Valkyrie 1912-13 Short Biplane 1913-14 Sopwith Tabloid 1914-15 Bristol Baby 1915-16 Martinsyde Scout 1916-17 De Havilland DH1a 1917-18 Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a |
1918-19 Supermarine Baby 1919-20 Vickers Vimy 1920-21 R32 Airship 1921-22 R36 Airship 1922-23 R38 Airship 1923-24 R80 Airship 1924-25 Handley Page Hyderabad 1925-26 Gloster Gamecock 1926-27 Short Singapore |
1927-28 Boulton Paul Sidestrand 1928-29 Bristol Bulldog 1929-30 Armstrong-Whitworth Argosy 1930-31 Fairey Firefly II 1931-32 Hawker Hart 1932-33 De Havilland Tiger Moth 1933-34 Gloster Gauntlet 1934-35 Hawker Super Fury 1935-36 Bristol Blenheim |
1936 Avro Anson 1937 Westland Lysander 1938 Saunders-Roe Lerwick 1939 Supermarine Spitfire 1939-48 De Havilland Vampire 1949-54 Hawker Hunter |
Aircraft illustrated were generally in service at around the time
covered by the particular Annual Report.
Aeroplane drawings are from "The Dumpy Book of Aircraft & the Air", Sampson
Low (London), Circa 1955
Airship pictures appear by kind permission of the
Airship Heritage Trust :
http://www.airshipsonline.com/airships/index.html
Jet aircraft pictures are believed to be in the public domain
The webpage was developed by Geoff Butler (Farnborough Air Sciences
Trust) and Paul Needham (Cranfield University) : April 2009
Further information on Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) can be found at: Farnborough Airsciences Trust homepage