My grateful acknowledgements are due to all the people who have encouraged
and helped me, either directly or indirectly, to write this book. In particular
I wish to thank the following for providing information and reference material.
-
Mr C. C. Sweeting, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institute,
Washington D.C.
-
Mr H. W. Foot, Archivist, Museum of Army Flying, Middle Wallop.
-
Mr Chaz Bowyer, military aviation historian
-
Mr R. Simpson, Keeper of Aircraft and Exhibits at the Royal Air Force Museum,
Hendon
-
Mr J. M. Bruce, aviation historian
-
Air Commodore Henry Probert, Head of Air Historical Branch (RAF), Ministry
of Defence (Air), London
-
Mr P. A. Lancaster, Secretary of the Society of Engineers, London
-
Mr lan McNeil, formerly Executive Secretary of the Newcomen Society, London
-
Professor Keith Foster, Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birmingham
University
-
Professor Jacek Stecki, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Monash University,
Victoria, Australia
-
Mr Stephan Karp, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Brunel University,
Uxbridge
-
Dr Elena Veronica Lazu, the Polytechnic Institute, Bucharest
-
Mr R. Shakespeare, Secretary, Slough Industrial Estates
-
Mr Bill Boddy, Editor of Motor Sport, London.
-
Mr Hubert H. Lansley, ``Spanner``
of The Meccano Magazine, 1923-1930
-
Mr C. M. Wright of MW. Models in Henley-on-Thames
-
Mr John Slater, Editor of Railway Magazine, Sutton, Surrey.
I am grateful for the interest and assistance provided by the Director
and Staff of the Science Museum, South Kensington, London, in particular:
-
Mr M. T. Wright, Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
-
Mr P. R. Mann, Road Transport Collection
-
Mr Lance Day, formerly Assistant Director in charge of the Science Museum
Library and his successor Dr Robert Fox
-
Christine Heap, the Archivist.
My thanks are due to the Museum Library for making copies of the following
prints from my father's archives and for permission to reproduce them as
Figures 1 to 5, 9, 12 to 15, 21, 22, 26, 29, 31.
My thanks are also due to the Director of the RAF Museum for permission
to reproduce Figures 7 and 8, to the Shuttleworth Collection for Figure
22 and to Mr Marc Rebibo, present proprietor of Meccano in Calais, France,
for Figures 19 and 20.
Finally I wish to express my appreciation for every facility and assistance
for research provided by the Public Records Office in Kew and the British
Library in Chancery Lane, London.
1989 I.C.