§ 80. Mr. Dalyellasked the Minister of Technology if he will give details of requests made by industrial firms in 1965–67 for research work to be done by the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, over a value of £10,000, in matters unconnected with defence.
§ Mr. StonehouseThere were no requests for civil work costing more than £10,000.
§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Minister of Technology what initiatives he has taken to bring work done on electro-chemistry at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, to the notice of British industry.
Mr. StonebouseThe Royal Aircraft Establishment's work in electro-chemistry is primarily concerned with batteries, in particular monitoring research contracts placed with industry and universities and advising on development problems. There is little intramural research. The Estab-238W lishment has very close day-to-day contact with the battery industry and users and no special initiative to publicise this work is necessary, though there was a prominent exhibit at a recent Royal Aircraft Establishment Open Day.
§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Minister of Technology if he will give details of non-classified extra-mural research projects of value more than £8,000 placed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, with British university departments.
§ Mr. StonehouseThe following current agreements over £8,000 in individual value have been placed by the Department on behalf of R.A.E. Farnborough:
University Description of work Cambridge Friction and lubrication. Glasgow Effect of stress concentration on static strength. Electrostatic heating for hypersonic tunnels. Degradation of Friedel-Craft polymers. Imperial College. Effect of kinetic heating on characteristics of thin wings. Loughborough Human analogues. Study of the contributions of radio navigation aids to the cockpit work-load in civil aircraft. Practical visual and televisual detection studies. Lancaster Cost effectiveness of navigation systems for transport aircraft. Leeds Investigation into electrode losses in electric arc gas heaters. Newcastle Hybrid navigation-system radio aid computer programming study. Nottingham Investigation of visual detection thresholds. Oxford Impact of high speed neutral particles on solid surfaces. Southampton Investigation of Q-switched lasers and laser amplifiers. Surrey Mechanism of diffusion of hydrogen in iron and steel. Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Polymers containing nitrogen or sulphur.
§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Minister of Technology if he will give the numbers and qualifications of personnel in the assessment division of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough.
§ Mr. StonehouseThe assessment of new projects is not primarily a Royal Aircraft Establishment function. It does, however, play an important part in the 239W technical assessment process and this work is focussed in two divisions which draw on the general experience of the Establishment.
These divisions, each of which is led by a Senior Principal Scientific Officer, employ in total 18 Principal Scientific Officers, 5 Senior Scientific Officers, 4 Scientific Officers, 2 R.A.F. Squadron Leaden. and 23 supporting staff.
The staff have appropriate qualifications and are specially selected for their aptitude for assessment work.