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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 2168.PDF
738 FLIGHT DECEMBER 23RD, 1948 some not inconsiderable safeguard. There are com- ponents which simply cannot be produced without cer- tain special machine tools. Reference has been made to turbine blades, which are a problem in themselves. It is likely that a licensee would prefer to obtain his blade blanks from the original manufacturer rather than go to all the trouble entailed in learning how to produce them. Dissemination of Knowledge THERE are those who would suppress publicationin the technical press of all information aboutmilitary aircraft and power plants. It is difficult to see how such publication could materially assist a potential enemy. Detailed descriptions do not include the kind of information which would enable anyone to manufacture the aircraft and engine, but even if it did, the security regulations are such that no such descrip- tion is permitted until the machine or engine has been in existence for a considerable time. Thus, by the time the information was disclosed, and by the time any attempt was made at copying, there would be a very long gap, one of years. Such copying might have been possible in the .early days of flying, when aircraft were simple contraptions of sticks, wires and fabric. Produc- tion of a modern aircraft or engine is a long and slow process. Preventing the British technical press from publishing anything about military aircraft would, therefore, not serve any useful purpose by depriving a potential enemy of a source of valuable information, but it would seriously interfere with the spread and general dissemina- tion of knowledge throughout our own country's indus- try. So far as foreign countries are concerned, the most CONTENTS Outlook The Future of Air Transport "Give 'Urn Bird Low-Flying Fellow '." Here and There - - - Civil Aviation News - - Seventy Years Airborne .... Manning the R.A.F. - Per Ardua ad Cumuli - - - - - Intrepid Birdman Powered Controls Correspondence Service Aviation ..... Forthcoming Events page 762 - 737 739 741 742 744 747 755 756 758 759 762 763 that the British press can be held to be doing is to pub- • lish particulars of something which has been found to "work." That is a lead, certainly, but not, it seems to us, one from which an enemy could derive much practical benefit. Far more disquieting than publication in the British press of descriptions of military aircraft material already in service is the leakage of information into the American press of information about new British projects. The British technical press has the confidence of the aircraft industry and, we think we may say, of the Government departments concerned. That confidence has been built up through years of scrupulous observance of the security regulations, and it would be journalistic suicide, to put it no higher than that, for a journal to disclose information which it knew to be secret. It would not do that very often before it found the doors of the manufacturers closed to its representatives. LONDON LANDMARK : At this season of the year it is appropriate for us to pubhsfotbis new air photograph of St. Paul's which, for so many, is the spiritual centre of the British Empire. The area surrounding the cathedral was blitzed on the night of May IOth-1 Ith, 1941, and an account of some of the air fighting during that raid appears in the histSry of No. I Fighter Squadron on pages 747-754. \ X B 6
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