Stable columns may have been used by the ancient Greeks, but studies into stability and buckling did not begin until the eighteenth century. In this lecture, Prof Hoff looks at how our knowledge of these phenomena during flight was developed by the Wright Brothers and Theodore von Kármán, before exploring how he and others moved our knowledge forward in the early post-war years.

Prof Hoff’s written paper that accompanied this lecture can be read via the Aeronautical Journal Archive. RAeS members can access the entire Aeronautical Journal Archive for free via the RAeS website.

Prof Nicholas J. Hoff FRAeS gave the Royal Aeronautical Society’s 41st Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture on 14 September 1953. The lecture was introduced by the then President, Sir William Farren HonFRAeS and was followed by a vote of thanks from Sir George Edwards HonFRAeS. The recording was digitised thanks to a grant from the RAeS Foundation and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.