 To support this endeavour Sir Richard utilised the designers and engineers at the Fairey Aviation company’s design office to undertake research, design and development work.Hydrodynamic research was augmented by construction of the world’s first experimental low speed wind tunnel for racing yacht design at the Hayes factory.Although the primary use of the wind tunnel was for sails research, Fairey engineers also developed a method of experiment for measuring the component known as skin friction in naval architecture which was used in both the hull and sails research work.