Aeronautical Development in Australia and its Potential Contributions to the British Commonwealth
Authors: Coombes L. P. 
Published: August 2016

The Twelfth British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture “ Aeronautical Development in Australia and its Potential Contributions to the British Commonwealth ” was given by Mr. L. P. Coombes, D.F.C., B.Sc, F.C.G.I., F.I.A.S., F.R.Ae.S., Chief Superintendent, Aeronautical Research Laboratories, Melbourne, before the Society on 22nd November 1956 at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Mr. E. T. Jones, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., President of the Society, presided and introduced the Lecturer

MR. E. T. Jones: The British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture was given annually and normally alternated yearly between a resident of the United Kingdom and a resident of a member country of the Commonwealth. This year the lecture was to be given by a resident of Australia and it was his great pleasure to introduce Mr. Coombes. Mr. Coombes had long been a friend and colleague of many of them but as they had a fair number of the younger generation present he would introduce Mr. Coombes properly.

Mr. Coombes had served the profession of aeronautics since 1917 when he started as a pilot in the First World War. For ithese services he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was a Fellow of the Society and a Fellow of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences. He was also a Fellow of the City and Guilds Institute. Mr. Coombes was elected Chairman of the Melbourne Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1953 and in 1956 he was elected President of the Australian Division of the Society. He was also a most active and enthusiastic member, or delegate rather, of the Commonwealth Advisory Aeronautical Research Council, a body to which he referred in the paper and which came into existence in 1946.

Mr. Coombes joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment in the Aero Department in 1924 and a year after transferred to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe. He was recalled to Farnborough in 1930 to take charge there of the seaplane testing tank which had just been erected and many would remember that Mr. Coombes and the late Mr. W. G. A. Perring worked side by side on that tank for many years. He thought it was about 1938 when he and his family left England when there were no facilities at all in Australia for aeronautical research. Indeed there was no organisation in Australia for aeronautical research and he thought that there was no need personally or professionally for Mr. Coombes to go to Australia because he had already assured for himself an eminent aeronautical career in the British Air Ministry. Mr. Coombes therefore was just as much a pioneer, aeronautically speaking, as those men of sail who set out from England two centuries before him. Mr. Coombes was both architect and designer of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne and was now the leader there of a strong team of scientists and engineers who had made quite a reputation in the aeronautical sciences for the high quality of their work.

He would like now to read a message from Australia from Mr. Isbister, the honorary secretary of the Australian Division, which said: “ Please convey to our President, Mr. L. P. Coombes, best wishes for a successful British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture. From Council and members of the Australian Division.”