Swings and Roundabouts

THERE is considerable interest at the present time in the various means of obtaining a temporary increase in aeroplane performance for some special purpose and the paper by MR A. D. BAXTER in this issue on power boosting by re‐heat is, therefore, timely. Actually, it is based on experiments and experiences with Wellands in Meteors to meet the threat of the German V‐1 missiles and so concerns itself only with work done four years ago behind the veil of secrecy imposed by war conditions;details of which it has not been thought politic to release sooner. It is none the less interesting, not only because it deals with principles, which do not change, and shows how the first problems were tackled and difficulties overcome, but also because it establishes the fact that, as in so many other matters to do with aviation, it was the engineers of Great Britain and nowhere else who pioneered the way into a then unknown development of the jet engine—which was itself at that time a comparatively new type of power plant evolved in this country.