Directory

The archive of the Royal Aeronautical Society not only includes minute books and membership records, but also includes an invaluable historic letters collection correspondence with many of the influential names in nineteenth and early twentieth century aeronautics including the Wright Brothers, Samuel Cody, Samuel Langley, Octave Chanute, Lawrence Hargrave, J.W. Dunne, A.V Row, Lord Rayleigh, Sir Frederick Handley Page, Santos Dumont, Gustav Lilienthal, F.W. Lanchester, James Glaisher and Sir Geoffrey de Havilland. The NAL also cares for personal collection of many of its Fellows and others, including Sir George Cayley, CG Grey, BFS Baden Powell, Harald Penrose and Percy Pilcher. It also provides a home for material from the British & Colonial Aircraft Company, the Bristol Aviation Company, the Civil Aviation Authority Library and the Society of British Aircraft Constructors.

The Royal Aeronautical Society was formed in 1866 to pursue “Man’s dream to conquer flight”. Since then the Society has become a home for aerospace professionals and pioneers who are interested in perfecting man experience of operating above ground level. These include engineers, pilots, airline operators, balloonists, lawyers, astronautical engineers, UAVs and doctors. The Society's library, now called the National Aerospace Library, contains the archive of the Society together with the personal collection of many of its Fellows and others, together with material from a number of corporate collections