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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0285.PDF
and Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.6. Editor - -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C '" <W/NG CDR. R.A.F.V.S.) Art Editor - - JOHN YOXALL 1;AIRCRAFT ENGINEER ;;; FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD •• FOUNDED moa Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (40 lines). COVENTRY: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM, 2: KING EDWARD HOUSE, NEW STREET. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : 260, DEANSGATE. Telegroms : Iliffe, Manchester Telephone: Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2lines). GLASGOW, C.2 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : tliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4837. • SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home: Twelve months, £3 Is. Od. Six months, £1 10s. 6d. BY AW : To any country in Europe (except Poland). Twelve months, £5 Is. Od. Six months, £2 10s. Overseas: Twelve months, £2 18s. 6d. 6d. To Canada and U.S.A. Six months, $16. No. 2095. Vol. LV February 17th, 1949 Thursdays, One Shilling Outlook A 600 m.p.h. "Straw"C OMPLACENCY received a rude shock on February 8th, when the Boeing XB-47 jet-propelled bomber flew from the State of Washington on the American west coast to Washington in the District of Columbia on the east coast, a distance of some 2,290 miles, in 3 hours 46 minutes, or at an average speed of more than 607 m.p.h. That flight gives a glimpse of what bomber intercep- tion will mean in the future. Even allowing for the fact that one does not at the moment know what sort of tailwind helped the machine along, the performance is sufficiently startling to impress the urgency of a revi- sion of tactics on those, some in high places we regret to say, who are~ still living in the present if not in the past. It is a sobering thought that the speed achieved by the Boeing bomber represents more than ten miles a minute. It is reported that the machine flew at an average height of about 30,000ft. The Meteor 4 with Rolls-Royce Derwents running at combat rating takes 6 minutes 28 sees, to reach that height. In the mean- time the bomber would have covered some 65 miles, a fact which points inevitably to the need for two-seater fighters equipped with the necessary radar and other equipment. Moreover, if the fighter is to be effective for attacking the bomber, once it has contacted it, it must have a speed well above that of the bomber. The question arises whether such a fighter is a prac- tical proposition. With a lower military load than that of the bomber, the fighter should be a smaller aircraft, and by cramming on power its speed should, therefore, rje capable of being pushed up to something greater than that of the.larger machine. But until supersonic problems have been: solved, both types of aircraft may be limited to the same speed by Mach effect. It may « 5 well be that the ultimate solution will have to be guided missiles, but in the meantime we cannot afford not to develop the two-seater fighter. We started the German war with just enough fighters to save the country. Our bomber production had to wait until invasion had been staved off. It looks as if the position is a great deal worse now. The Petrol Tax AgainP ERSISTENT hammering away usually brings results in the end. It is to be hoped that this will also be found to apply in the case of the demand to have the unfair and unreasonable tax of o,d per gallon of aviation spirit removed. For months and years attempts have been made to persuade the Chancellor of the Exchequer to abolish this tax, but with no result so far. A new attack was launched on February 9th, when a deputation made representations to Mr. Glenvill Hall, Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Principal spokesman was Mr. E. C. Bowyer, chief executive of the S.B.A.C., and the depu- tation included representatives not only of that body but of the Royal Aero Club, the Association of British Aero Clubs and Centres, the British Air Charter Association, the Air League of the British Empire, the Air Transport Section of the London Chamber of Commerce, the Joint Air Transport Committee of the Federation of British Industries, the Association of British Chambers of Com- merce and the London Chamber of Commerce. It will scarcely be denied that these bodies represent influential sections of the community, and it will be inter- esting to see what reply the Chancellor of the Exchequer will make. The position, as most of our readers will be aware, is that duty is payable only on aviation spirit used in this country. The Corporations which operate to places
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