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email: Jan.26. At G.U. Observatory, a
new kind of meeting is introduced: 'discussion meeting',
described by Don Malcolm as "a 'thematic' meeting, which
will be an open discussion on a given theme, leading on to
other aspects of astronautics. There will be no lecturer.
Anyone will be welcome to contribute to the discussion: in
fact the success of the meeting will depend on willingness
of people to air their views. In this way, we hope to loosen
the girdle of impersonality that has tended to constrain
Branch meetings. The first theme is, MEN OR INSTRUMENTS IN
SPACE." This was to prove a development of great
importance. Feb.15. Archie
Roy lectures on 'The
Exploration of the Moon'. Archie was later to work on the
Lunar Orbiter programme, and to win a substantial sum from
Ladbroke's with a bet that there would be a manned Moon
landing before 1970. March 30. Terence
R.F.Nonweiler, the new
Professor of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at Glasgow
University, spoke on 'The Future in Space', at G.U.
Observatory. Some points which he made that night are quoted
in chapter one of "New Worlds for Old". How that happened is the first
personal memoir in here. At that time I was a fourth-year
pupil at Marr College, Troon, and had recently become
friends with a new boy, John McIntyre, whose father worked
for GPO Telephones. John's father had come across a
misdirected circular for the Nonweiler meeting, and had
appropriated it because he thought I'd be interested. That
was how I came to meet Oscar, Archie, Terence
Nonweiler, John Carnegie, and
also Ed
Buckley, Alistair and
Andy
Nimmo, of whom more anon. As
events which change your life go, it was a cracker. However,
the circular for the next meeting which Oscar sent me didn't
arrive until it was over, and Oscar didn't send me any more
because I hadn't turned up. It took several more months to
regain contact: what did it was that in applying for a place
at Glasgow University, I mentioned that I intended to join
the BIS Scottish Branch. Somebody then sent me a syllabus,
anonymously - I never found out who it was, to thank
them. Summer. In great secrecy, a
Waverider
shape is believed to have been tested at Woomera in
Australia, fixed to the nose of a Blue Steel stand-off bomb
(what we'd now call a cruise missile). There were three such
launches in 1962-63 and apparently no photographs were
released of the middle one. Sept.17. Andy
Nimmo, Branch Vice-Chairman,
launches the 'Space & Scotland' project, to produce a
report on the effects of international space programmes on
Scottish industry, for the Scottish Industries Exhibition
the following year. Oct.7. Donald Malcolm resigns
from the post of Secretary; Tom Dutton takes
over. Nov.9. Prof. I.F. Clarke, of
the future Strathclyde University, lectures on 'How
Scientific Is Science fiction?' This was the meeting at
which I reappeared. I disagreed strongly with Prof. Clarke,
as did Andy, who was in the chair, and he invited me to
speak at the next meeting. I had to refuse because I would
then be sitting the 'Prelims' for my S.C.E.
Highers. Dec.21. 'Born, Luna City, 2140
AD', discussion meeting. Ed Buckley unveils artwork which
was later to appear in "New Worlds for Old" (1979) and "Man
and the Planets" (1983). 1963
1961
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