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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0898.PDF
275 MARCH 28, 10,40 with great advantage both as between private firms and as between government departments charged with re- search and administration. It is for those who agree with this idea to take the next step and seek to arrange their exchange. Lockheed v. EnglandT HE announcement elsewhere in this issue that six- teen Lockheed Lodestars have been ordered for South African Airways is a severe blow to the aircraft industry of England; so severe that it may be described as the loss of the South African market. Events there are going the same way as they did in Australia. Before the ban on American aircraft was lifted and the first Douglas DC2 was imported in May, 1936, DH 86s and Rapides were in use on the airlines in Australia. But thereafter, Australian operators, ex- cept for a negligible number of Rapides, bought only American all-metal transports, Douglases and Lock- heeds. They could not buy British because there was no comparable type. Canada, too, when it went seriously into the airline business, equipped its new Trans-Canada Airlines with fifteen Lockheed 14s, and in New Zealand, though numerically few, Lockheeds make up a large proportion of the small transport fleet there. Now, with the total cessation of export since the war, we have clinched the Lockheed grip on our own markets, and the loss of South Africa swells the total to four—the transport air- craft markets of all the British Dominions are now lost to the British aircraft manufacturing industry. One may, perhaps, be justified in asking if all is well commercially with the Empire when it cannot—no, will not—supply the needs of its own Dominions. None of these markets will be regained before the aircraft bought have worn out or otherwise reached the end of their lives. They will not be regained then without strenuous effort, for airline operators do not like changing over to a new design. For operating and maintenance reasons it is easier to go on with the same type, and if that type is satisfactory, an intruder has no chance. British airliners are now no more than intruders on the airlines of the British Dominions, and the result of the contest, Lockheed v. England, can be announced. SyltI T is at least a possibility that the German pilots who killed a civilian and wounded several others in a village in the Orkneys did not do so deliberately; but the R.A.F. determined to impress on them that they must be more careful where they unload their bombs, even if they are in a hurry. But, in teaching that lesson, our airmen were careful not to hurt any German civilians. The Island of Sylt had been evacuated by civilians some time ago, and everything on it was there- fore a legitimate target. So Hornum was duly plastered, and the Germans have been careful not to let American correspondents wander there at will. PRACTICE INTERCEPTION : Supermarine Spitfire eight-gun fighters of a squadron stationed in Scotland get off the mark for a practice interception. A visit to the squadron, which has made sixteen interceptions of enemy aircraft, bringing o° nine machines, is described on pages 290-293.
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