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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0477.PDF
Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH. M.B.E. Editor . - -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. antAIRCRAFT ENGINEER \rt Editor - (WNG CDR., R.A.F.V.H.)JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD •• FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, SET Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Wacertoo 3333 (60 lines.) 8 - 10, COVENTRY : CORPORATION ST. BIRMINGHAM, 2: KING EDWARD HOUSE, NEW STREET Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone : Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : 260, DEANSGATE, Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW. C.2: 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4857 SU3SCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year. £3 I 0. 6 months, £1 10 6. No. 2051 Vol. Llll April 15th, 1948. Thursdays, One Shilling cWe Outlook More State Competition ?W ITH a fanfare of trumpets, the fact that Alder- maston is now open to the world was announced last week, and hordes of Press representatives travelled free and gratis to see this latest wonder. Aldermaston, it may be recalled, is the training estab- lishment founded to take over the schools of B.O.A.C. and B.E.A.C. It was considered expedient, when it was decided in 1947 to abandon the original system whereby B.O.A.C. undertook the training for both corporations, to form a new company under the title Airways Training, Ltd. Representatives of B.O.A.C. and .B.E.A.C. were nominated to the board, and the new company was registered with a nominal capital of £1,000. B.O.A.C.'s Director of Training, Air Marshal Sir William Welsh, relinquished his appointment, and the staff at Aldermaston were seconded to Airways Tr^jning, Ltd. It has now been found that the requirements of the corporations have been met, and that they have almost enough fully trained personnel for present needs. From now onwards, courses will be provided for pilots, navi- gators, radio operators, radio and radar mechanics and ground engineers from all over the world. There is no reason to doubt that the courses will be good ones. What is doubtful is the principle of State- owned monopolistic corporations entering into direct competition with private enterprise. In this particular instance, there is one old-establishedi"Air University" with which Aldermaston will, it seems, inevitably com- pete: Air Service Training, Ltd., at Hamble near Southampton. A.S.T., a member of the Hawker Siddeley group of companies, was opened by H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester in June, 1931. Up to outbreak of war in 1939 many hundreds of students, representing more than thirty nationalities, had passed through A.S.T. at Hamble. In addition to its ordinary train- ing, the school had pioneered the blind-flying technique in civil aviation, and pilots from all over the world, as well as most of the senior pilots of Imperial Airways, received training in tftis technique. When the war came, all civilian training was stopped, and A.S.T. devoted itself to the training of R.A.F. per- sonnel, of whom some 40,000 were trained, including Allied Air Forces. Since the war, A.S.T. has resumed its civilian activities, and during the past two years more than 800 students have been enrolled. There are other schools, not of quite such old standing as A.S.T., which are doing good work, such as Straight Aviation Training and the London School of Air Navigation. With such a record of ach:evement, it appears unfair, to put it mildly, that what is virtually a State-owned establishment should enter into direct competition. It is argued, we believe, that A.S.T. and Aldermaston will be supplementary to one another rather than competi- tive. That is as may be. When civil flying was nation- alized we were told that the corporations would not com- pete with charter firms. Now there are rumours that they may compete in some of the more remunerative sphere*, of that branch of flying in order to make up a modicum of the fantastic financial losses which they have incurred on their legitimate business. But then ethical considera- tions have never weighed very heavily with those responsible for our present semi-totalitarian system. First Turbo-jet TransportT HE announcement that the Nene-engined Viking has made its first flight does not mean that we now have a jet-propelled transport aircraft ready to be put into service on the air routes, but it does mean ' that.this country is the first to have a machine in this class actually flying. A programme of test flying will add much information to that already collected with the ''flying test beds" in which the power plants were a combination of piston engines and turbo-jets. Doubtless,the production of the Nene-Viking is linked
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