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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 2009.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor C. M. POULSEN Assistant Editor MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. Art Editor - (WING CDR., R.A.F.V.R.) JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W6RLD •• FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Flightpret, Seditt, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines.) ST. BIRMINGHAM, 2: MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C2: NEWEDWSATDR E°EUTE' 260' DEANSGATE. 26B. RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham! Telegrams : llrffe, Manchester. Telegrams : Iliffe. Glasgow i Telephone : Coventry 5210. Telephone : Midland 7191 (7 lines). Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. Telephone : Central 4857 COVENTRY : 8-10. CORPORATION No. 2030. Vol. Lit. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year, £3 I 0. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper November 20th, 1947 6 months, £1 10 6. Thursdays, One Shilling. We Outlook Demand—but no SupplyI G T might be unfair to blame anyone in particular for the fact that we have been living in a civil aviation fool's paradise during the last two years. The future looked very different in 1945, and official plans were made for this future, not for the near-starvation, export- at-any-cost Britain of to-day. Civil aircraft were laid down for use almost exclusively on our own internal, European, Empire and trans-Atlantic services. Whether all these aircraft will be suitable even for this somewhat specialized work re- mains to be seen, but it is certain that had it not been for the inde- pendent decisions of certain in- dividual manufacturers there would have been none really suitable for the remainder of the world's operators. At the moment, every airline operator in, the world is either dering new types or preparing to replace obsolescent types dur- ing the course of the next two or three years. Many of them would prefer to buy British aircraft if we had anything up to date and likely to be available at the right time and of the right size. This we could have had if . The position was becoming clear long ago, yet there was no appearance of urgency in the making of new decisions while there was still time. The case of the Ambassador, for instance, has remained in the pending tray while British European Airways carefully sifted the evidence for and against this type. A decision has now probably been reached, but at the moment of going to press there has been no official statement. A home order was necessary before the company concerned could go into production with this aircraft—but need To H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth, Permanent Grand Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators of the British Empire, and to Lieut. Philip Mountbatten, R.N., "Flight" adds to the thousands of messages from all over the World its Congratulations and Loyal Good Wishes on this their Wedding Day. .-,.. ..,...,.-,c the order necessarily have come from B.E.A. ? This Corporation had already spent much time and money on the development of the Vickers Viscount, which was planned exactly to their requirements. This is as it should be, but why, in the meantime, and knowing the export value of the Ambassador, could not an order have been placed for Transport Command for instance ? Means could surely have been found to get production under way before it was too late, as it will be if the production of the Ambassador is being planned to suit the convenience of B.E.A., who are not likely to want to start operating a new air- craft much before 10,51. Of course, production should have been started two years ago or more. This "policy" of building a prototype or two and then waiting for something to turn up is indicative of only one thing —lack of confidence. Either an aircraft is worth building in num- bers for a known market or it is not worth building at all. And ii the Ministries do not know what is warned then let the matter be left in the hands of the aircraft industry, which is familiar with and more at the mercy of the only universal law—that of supply and demand. Collaboration /%MONG the seasons often given for America's present j\ lead in civil aircraft, apart frorh the circumstances of the recent war, is the fact that many, if not most, of her commercial types have been designed and developed in the very closest co-operation between the manufacturers and the operating companies. In this country the present muddled set-up has not been calculated to facilitate such close teamwork, a fact
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