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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0047.PDF
JANUARY 13TH, 1949 FLIGHT 33- of prentices destined for the Royal Indian Air Force, on test over Hertfordshire. Substantial Argentine Order for Prentices : High-Altitude Operation Tests in India PERHAPS the greatest compliment that any foreigncountry can pay the British aircraft industry is toequip its Air Force with British aircraft. The individual company which secures an order is especially to be congratulated, and by selling a large number of Prentices and the licence to build more in South America, to the Argentine Government, Percival Aircraft have added appreciably to their prestige and to that of their trainer. Not only the industry but the country at large may well have reason to be grateful for this order, for a large proportion of our meat ration is supplied by Argentina, and many people had begun to wonder what we should eat when all possible nourishment had been extracted from the one- time British-owned Argentine Railways. It seems that the answer will be, for some months—approximately /1,000,000-worth of Prentices. Three Air Forces will now use Prentices for training. During last year a start was made towards producing fifty for the Royal Indian Air Force by the Hindustan Aircraft Company at their Bangalore factory. In addition to these, several more home- built Prentices to meet immediate require- ments have been flown out to Ambala, an air distance of about 6,500 miles. The Bangalore factory has a complete range of jigs and tools installed, and the first five Indian- Argentine Prentices on the Percival production line at Luton airport. built Prentices, it is reported, are well on the way to completion. Argentine interest in the Prentice was first manifest at the beginning of last year when members of a Purchasing Commission visited Luton. Flight trials were later con- ducted at the Aeronautical Institute at Cordoba, and W/C. A. N. Kingwell, O.B.E., A.F.C., demonstrated the aircraft out there. He is also to test the first Prentice to be handed over at Cordoba. The Aeronautical Institute, which may perhaps be likened to Farnborough in conception, is directed by Brig.-Gen. Don Juan I. San Martin, who also signed the Prentice contract. Commodore Roberto Gibert, Director of the Air Force Military College, and his instructors were among those who flew the first machine to be sent to South America. It may be recalled that a
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