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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0792.PDF
MAY 5TH, 1949 FLIGHT 517 THE SALON AT A GLANCE A Preliminary Appraisal of Aircraft and Power Plants Now View at the Paris Show on Illustrated with Flight " Photographs and Sketches THE description '' a Salon ofrealities," applied by a Frenchcontemporary to the 18th In- ternational Aeronautical Salon, opened by President Auriol last Fri- day, April 29th, is a just one. There is a reassuring absence of disguised mock-ups and abundant evidence that the best of the French aircraft now under development may rank with British and American types. To a large extent the promise shown by France's military prototypes is due to the use of British-designed Rolls- Royce Nene turbojets, now in quantity production at Hispano Suiza; never- theless, the ability of French aerody- namicists is praiseworthy. The Show is, perhaps, international more in name than in fact; although at least eight countries are participat- ing, their representation is by no means commensurate with their rela- tive importance in the sphere of arr- craft construction. Great Britain, for example, shows but a hint (albeit a very high-quality hint) of her poten- tialities—on this fact we comment elsewhere; and America, already fully occupied with a military expansion programme, has contented herself with exhibiting models representative of the aircraft of five makers. Sweden— somewhat surprisingly, in view of her export aspiration* is an absentee. Thus it lies with France to provide the bulk of the material on show, aided by some smaller nations (e.g., President Auriol chats with Captain K. . G. Bartlett (Bristol) without whose presence no Paris Show would be complete. Beyond the Bristol 171 helicopter extend the French, American, Dutch, Czech, Italian and Swiss machines forming, with the British exhibits, the core of the 18th Salon de >' Aeronautique in the Grand Palais. Switzerland and Turkey) seldom represented at affairs of this kind. Belgium, this year, is an absentee, but Holland, Czechoslovakia and Italy are there. No one expected to see the U.S.S.R., so no one is disappointed. That no large transport aircraft are shown full-scale is certainly not indicative of French neglect; indeed, several prototype airliners and heavy freighters of real merit are already flying. Considerations of space alone prohibited their inclusion and models and pictures must serve to illus- trate their characteristics. In their less spectacular way the small trainer, club and touring aircraft now flying in prototype, or early production, form are most significant; they are mostly the result of a number of design competi- tions which have been officially or semi-ofncially spon- sored. Their all-round quality is high and they are proof of keen and active interest throughout the country. Gliding, too, has a tremendous following in France. The development of new power units has not been accelerated to the same extent as that of airframes, and although several gas turbines—turbojets and turboprops— have been built, and some have a fair number of hours of running behind them, none seems to have reached a very advanced stage, nor are.any likely to be in production in
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