The Royal Aeronautical Society, Washington, DC Branch was formally inaugurated on 17 December 2003, a momentous date in the annals of aviation, as it was the centenary of manned flight by the Wright brothers. The aims of the Washington, DC branch are to help promote advances in aviation safety and technology by providing a forum to improve still further the technical, political and social interchange between the US and UK aerospace communities.
The Branch is led by a group of volunteer board members and committees. Learn more about the board and the Branch’s management
History of
The Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) is the world’s only professional body dedicated to the entire aerospace community. The society was established to further the art, science and engineering of aeronautics. The Society has been at the forefront of developments in aerospace ever since.
The Society was founded in 1866, it was originally known as The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain. The founding members were the Duke of Argyll, Mr. James Glaisher, Dr. Hugh W. Diamond, Mr. F.H. Wenham, Mr. James William Butler and Mr. F.W. Brearey. The Society’s original charter was for the “advancement of aerial navigation and for observations in aerology connected therewith”.
The first public meeting was held in the rooms of the Society of Arts building on June 27, 1866. At this meeting, a lecture was given by Wenham on ‘Aerial locomotion and the laws by which heavy bodies impelled through air are sustained’. His lecture is now a classic teaching on aeronautics and helped set the precedent for the aviators and aeronautical engineers and scienctists of today.
The Society moved to No.4 Hamilton Place in 1938 and in 1940 it helped respond to the wartime need for and expanded aircraft industry. The Society established a department to collect the best available knowledge of the industry – a working tool for engineers who might come from other industries and lack the specialised knowledge required for aircraft design. This technical department became known as the Engineering Sciences Data Unit (ESDU) and eventually became a separate entity in the 1980s.
The Society today has over 20,000 members and has become an international, multidisciplinary, professional institution that is dedicated to the global aerospace community.
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