In 1013 he went down from Cam. bridge to join the staff of the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, and the following year, at the age of 24, became head of the experimental department.
The war arrived. The young engineer learned to fly and went to France with the Royal Corps. In 1916 he returned tò England to become senior officer of the squadron of pilots at Martlesham with the exciting but dangerous job of testing all new types of aeroplanes.
From 1918 he was head of the aeroplane design section at the Air Ministry. Then he returned to consulting engineering, which led to his being appointed technical adviser to Imperial Airway
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.