A LOOK BACK - AND FORWARD - THE 1996 ALEXANDER-A-NIKOLSKY LECTURE

Thank you It was initially a dream come true to be invited to deliver the Nikolsky Lecture. Then the reality struck that this was a precious opportunity to say something meaningful and worthwhile. That's more t han a little frightening. My predecessors in this position have set a high standard and, by the way, used up a lot of good material that I m ight have presented. Regardless, I shall try. Its expected, and proper , that part of this discussion be reminiscences of history from the sp eaker's own perspective. I'd Like to build on that with some thoughts on where we are now and how to keep the industry growing. As the title suggests, this talk won't stress aircraft model numbers as many earli er Nikolsky Lectures have but will concentrate on the technology that went into those models. As the audience knows, helicopter technology h as made huge strides in the past 40 years. For some very good reasons, that process is far from finished, and future products will see furth er substantial improvements. However, the direction those improvements take is likely to be different. Further, those improvements will come along a lot faster if the industry can select the right goals, and th en can communicate the benefits that will result so that the necessary research and development efforts will get supported. There are lesson s to be learned from our past, so I will try to use my reminiscences t o point out some of those.