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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 0755.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD - FOUNDED WO9 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY : 8-10, CORPORATION ST. BIRMINGHAM, 2 : GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, T, . _ NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Country 52 10. Telephone: Midland 297 1 (5 lines). Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 : 260, DEANSGATE, 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. Te/ephone : Central 4857. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. No. 1787. Vol. XLIII. March 25th, 1943. Thursdays, One Shilling. Outlook Post-war Civil Types SEVERAL weeks ago we referred to the need forstarting work at once on the design of the com-mercial aircraft types which are to carry the bulk of our air traffic on the long-distance routes after the inevitable interim period is over, a period during which we shall have to make do with converted bombers and with such commercial types as we can obtain from America. The Air Minister's statement in his Air Estimates speech that the War Cabinet has decided '' that the design of a limited number of types of civil aircraft shall proceed with the assistance of the Government as and when it can be arranged without interfering with work on aircraft required for the war." is to be welcomed ; but one could have wished that Sir Archibald Sinclair had omitted the qualifying proviso " as and when," etc. Everything will depend upon the Government's inter- pretation of that proviso. We do think that the Air Minister might have inserted after "interfering" the word " seriously." That design work of this nature must interfere to some extent is inevitable. Even if the task is allocated to one or two firms which could spare the necessary design staff at the moment, it might be argued that if that is so, the men ought, in the national interest, to be transferred to firms which are badly in need of additions to their technical staffs. There is another danger in this equivocal and some- what grudging agreement by the Government to let a start be made on post-war designs. If the Air Minister's statement means what it implies, viz., that starting on the new designs is subject to the work not interfering with war production, it would appear to follow as a logical corollary that the task might be entrusted to a firm or firms with little or no previous experience of commercial aircraft. The very fact that its design staff was not very busy would indicate that it had not been very successful with military types, and it is therefore scarcely to be expected that it would turn out anything very brilliant in the commercial line. We should feel a great deal happier if the Air Ministry would announce the names of the firms chosen to design the postAvar commercial types on which so much will depend in the future. The task of foreseeing what will be wanted, and of incorporating in the design every- thing which the latest knowledge can suggest, is a formidable one and certainly not one to be undertaken on any "as and when" basis. HelicoptersW ITH this week's issue we begin a series of articles on rotating-wing aircraft. From the earliest days Flight has given prominence to this subject whenever opportunity occurred. When Senor Juan de la Cierva brought his C 6 to this country in 1925 many of those who witnessed Frank Courtney's demonstration scoffed at the idea of such a "whirligig" ever being of any practical use. We had followed Cierva's work in his native Spain from the beginning, and we knew that here was no hare-brained inventor with an idea but no real knowledge, such as have cropped up all through the history of flying, but a man who had studied his problems seriously, and who had accumulated sufficient experience to be sure of his ground and of ultimate success. During the ensuing years, when Cierva established himself in this country and, backed by private finance, carried on doggedly with the difficult task of developing and perfecting his ingenious machine, we recorded in our
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