Document Type: Book (Technical Reference). Purpose: Informational. Authority: Author Expertise.

Scope: The fourth edition of a technical monograph written for an educated audience by G. Geoffrey Smith, M.B.E., editor of Flight magazine, the leading aeronautical journal in Great Britain.

Contents: "Preface by General Carl Spaatz, Commanding General, Army Air Forces

This Book should do much to stimulate interest in the new field of jet propulsion. Mr. Geoffrey Smith has presented his material clearly and his book can be read with profit by the engineer, the pilot and the layman.

The publication of an American edition of this British treatise is reminiscent of our collaboration for victory during World War II. Present progress of jet propulsion for aircraft in the Army Air Forces is a direct result of the exchange of information and ideas between British and American engineers and scientists. Our first jet propelled aircraft, the XP-59, might never have been built if a joint cooperative program with the British had not been realized. The exchange of research data enabled an American manufacturer to produce the two Whittle-type power units which were used in the first flight of the XP-59.

Since the first flight of an aircraft using Air Commodore Frank Whittle's gas turbine, aerial engineers have made remarkable progress with high performance aircraft and power plants. Jet aircraft are already flying faster and higher than airplanes with reciprocating engines. Yet the gas turbine today is as much a novelty as the reciprocating engine of 1910.

The advent of a successful gas turbine for aircraft was not early enough to be of great use in World War II. Still, victory achieved in the air over Germany and Japan has not relieved the Army Air Forces of its responsibilities. Charged as we are with the air defense of the United States, we must continue our research and development toward better and still better military aircraft. In this we must have the cooperation and understanding of every American.

We are depending heavily upon civilian industry and science to train qualified technicians to provide us with the newest and most powerful aircraft possible. We also look to the schools and universities to provide basic knowledge to embryo engineers and technicians, both in civilian organizations and in the Army Air Forces. A large reserve of young engineers, given the proper "know how," is priceless insurance against our country's becoming a second-rate power in aviation. Men will turn to a field such as aircraft engineering, and people will support an engineering program only if they are interested."