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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1569.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEERAND AIRSHIPS AERONAUTICAflVEEKLY IN THE^WoRLD .- FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Troilitnr, Sadist, London. Telephons : Waerloo 3333 (50 linen). HEBTFORD ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, KAV1UATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971. 280, DEANSQATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. 26B, RENFIELDST. GLASGOW C.2. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home and Canada: Year, £1 13 0.Other Countries: Year, 11 16 0. 6 months, 16s. 6d.C mouths, 18B. Od. 3 months, Ss. 6d.3 months, 9s. Od. No. 1536. Vol. XXXIII. JUNE 2, 1933. Thursdays, Price 6d. The Outlooks Missing the Seventh / • \HE summer of 1938 promises to be rather a dull one I from the point of view of what one may term spec- -*- tacular aviation. The R.A.F. Display at Hendon has been abandoned, a decision on the part of the Air Council which is perfectly natural in the circumstances, no matter how much one may regret the disappearance of the year's greatest flying spectacle. Empire Air Day was to take the place, in some measure, of the Hendon Display, but the weather last Saturday was extremely unkind, and chose that day of all days for breaking the fine-weather spell lasting several months, thereby causing programmes to be curtailed and amended, if not actually cancelled. And now comes the following announcement from the Society of British Aircraft Constructors : — "The S.B.A.C. regret that the Society's Flying Dis- play and Exhibition, which was organised for the first time in 1932 and has since taken place annually, will not be held this year. The reasons for this decision, reached by the Council of the Society after careful consideration of all the factors involved, are that it is not in the public interest to show the latest types of military aircraft and engines, and that the immense amount of work devolving upon the British aircraft industry at the present time makes undesirable the diversion of time and energy to organisation of a Display." This decision, although extremely regrettable Irom many points of view, is understandable. From a knowledge of the types of new aircraft which are being built in the dif- ferent works, one may safely assume that the Air Ministry would permit no single machine which has not been seen at previous S.B.A.C. Displays to be demonstrated and inspected at any show held this year. That being" so, obviously a display of old and familiar types would give a totally erroneous impression to the many hundreds of foreign visitors who would have flocked to the S.B.A.C. Display. On rather a different footing is the so-called " Static "Display of the S.B.A.C. That section was, in the past, not merely of interest to foreign visitors,, but formed a veryuseful meeting ground for associate members of the Society. It would be a good idea to hold a static exhibition in some convenient hall in London, where members could meet and inspect one another's products. It is to be hoped that such an exhibition will be staged at a later date. A Really Useful StepO NE very good innovation can be recorded which oughtto check the great multiplicity of modifications and consequent delay in the output of aircraft, to saynothing of solving the maintenance troubles of squadrons. Senior officers of the R.A.F., Wing Commanders no less,are being appointed liaison officers at the works of the con- tracting firms. Hitherto there has been no direct touch be-tween the producer and the user of Service aircraft. When the squadrons found something inconvenient in a newtype they had to report to one department of the Air Minis- try, which passed it on to another department, and some-times the report never reached the manufacturer in time to do any good. We can recall one definite case of a new typeserved out to a squadron overseas, which found certain maintenance difficulties, and reported on them. Yet themanufacturer never heard of the shortcomings until an officer from the squadron came home and went to the firmand (this may have been insubordination, so we shall men- tion no names) told the firm the whole story, therebyevoking great gratitude from the said firm. Under this new and admirable system a whole lot of red tape ought (to mixthe metaphor) to be short-circuited. Already the Air Ministry (we rather fancy Lord Weirhad a hand in it) has taken steps to promote co-operation between designers and production managers in the firms,and this further liaison with the squadrons ought to have the happiest results. Castles (Bromwich) in the AirL AST week Flight welcomed the announcement that Lord • Nuffield had made up his quarrel with the Air Minis- •*' try and that his great organisations were to be drawn into the aircraft-production circle. We also suggested that it might be a good plan if, while the new factory at Castle Bromwich was being built, Lord Nuffield's production en- gineers could be in close consultation with the designers of an aeroplane while constructional details were being planned, a system which it was not possible to introduce when the shadow factory scheme was initiated.
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