Fifth Aircraft Production Conference at Southampton: Summaries of Papers and Discussion at the Conference Organized by the Southern Section of the Institution of Production Engineers

THE fifth of these annual conferences was held on 8 and 9 January at Southampton University. As usual the conference opened with a luncheon, at which the then Minister of Supply, the Rt. Hon. Reginald Maudling, was a speaker. The Minister pointed out that the aircraft industry was the object both of immoderate praise and intemperate criticism; in order to make a fair assessment of the industry's achievements it was necessary to compare them with those of other countries, which in practice meant the U.S.A. since no other country about which information was available had an industry of comparable size. Continental countries, although they had made outstanding technical advances, were able to export only a small fraction of the aircraft and equipment which the British industry has sent abroad in recent years.