Taste in Engine Cowlings: Some Reflections on an Apparently Controversial Subject

THE subject of air‐cooled engine cowling is one in which we have taken a special interest ever since the inception of AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING. In our first issue, in March 1929, we published the now famous Technical Note No. 301, which first gave the results of wind tunnel experiments with the then new N.A.C.A. cowling, and in the following month we published a full summary of Report No. 314, which developed the subject. Following with dramatic rapidity came rumours of the Townend Ring, the tests with which were first revealed to the public at the annual “Inspection” of the N.P.L. on June 18th, 1929, some of which were published in the issue of AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING for July of that year. Mr. Townend read his paper on his invention to the Royal Aeronautical Society on March 6th, 1930, and this appeared in full in these pages the following month.