FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1947
1947 - 2186.PDF
706 FLIGHT DECEMBER 25TH, 1947 just "drop everything" but will complete at least the first prototype (three were being built, it will be remem- bered, one of them as a private venture). It is difficult to foresee what conditions will be like in a few years' time, and it does not follow that all operators will take the same view as B.E.A. There might well be a fair- sized export market for a type such as the Viscount. At home, the Corporation is likely to be the main, but not necessarily the only, civil customer. And R.A.F. Transport Command might well discover that it needs an additional type not covered by present plans. An Unworkable SystemF ROM a wider aspect, the sudden volte face of B.E.A. is a good example of the sort of muddle into which the existing system of ordering aircraft can lead us. Vickers-Armstrongs, the engine manufac- turers and the Corporation managed to get together over the Viscount in a way that seemed to us wholly admir- able. But they did it in spite of the system rather than because of it. We are not underrating the difficulties, and we fully realize that the production of modern aircraft has be- come such a costly affair that few manufacturers and operators could finance the entire undertaking. But it should not be beyond the wit of so many clever men to evolve a scheme which, while bringing into the negotia- tions all the interested parties, would avoid the worst complications of the present system. Apart from the troubles caused at home by such changes of policy, the effect -on British prestige abroad must be very bad and may even result in reduced ex- ports. A potential foreign purchaser could hardly be blamed if he hesitated in placing an order, not being sure that a reversal of policy might not deprive him of delivery. CONTENTS Outlook Operation India -' Here and There Reconnaissance Demonstration - Correspondence - Transports Today and Tomorrow Airborne Wing - - Civil Aviation News --_--- Service Aviation - - - Cheetah Genealogy Forthcoming Events, page 716 705 - '707 710 712 - 716 717 724 726 730 - 732 Aircraft ExportsT HAT, in spite of the many difficulties with whidfe the aircraft industry has been faced during the year, the export situation should be so satisfac- tory is proof not only that the industry can "deliver the goods" but that its products are highly valued. Figures which we publish in this issue, some released by the Board of Trade and others specially obtained from the Air Registration Board, paint a very gratifying picture, and we publish them as a tribute to the British aircraft industry. The periods covered by the two sets of figures, and the form of presentation, do not afford a complete picture, but they do indicate the vast area of the world covered by these British exports, Particulars are not available of the military aircraft types sold abroad, but the interesting fact emerges that Argentina was our best market, with exports totalling more than £2^ million. In the civil field she heads the list with the numbers of aircraft bought. ' Flight '-• fiii/M photographs AVANT-COUktUK : A iong-owoueu event, tfte first flight of the tail-less Armstrong Whitworth jet-propelled\%sS°jch aircraft, took phcg, on November 13th at Boscombe Down. This Rolls-Royce powered A.W.52 is here seen during its recent firsTpUWiu •itonwuwwlWI'rot Bitteswe// o;r/?eW neor Rugby. S/L. £. G. Franklin, D.F.C., A.F.C., ch/ef tes p/Jot of the Armstrong Wh/tworth Company, was at the controls. B 2
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
