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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0789.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First AeronauticaJ Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2157 Vol. LVII. THURSDAY, 27 APRIL 1950 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. EDITOR MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. ASS/STANT EDITOR H. F. KING, M.B.E. TECHNICAL EDITOR C. B. BAILEY-WATSON, B.A. ART EDITOR JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices : DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I. Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (60 lines). Branch Offices : COVENTRY 8-10, Corporation Screet. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone . Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM, 2. King Edward House, New Street. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Midland 7f9l (7 lines). MANCHESTER. 3. 260, Deansgate. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C.2. 26b, Renfield Street. Telegrams : Itiffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas : Twelve months O Is. Od. Six months, £1 10s. 6d. U.S.A. and Canada. SI0.00. BY AIR : To any country in Europe (except Poland). Twelve months, £5 Is. Od. Six months, £2 10s. 6d. Canada and U.S.A. Six months, $16. In this issue: Nosewheel or Tail wheel? 512 New York Symposium - 518 Orniscopics - - - . 522 Kaman Developments - 524 At Avro's Now - - - 526 Sydney's International Airport 523 Frustration UnlimitedS ELDOM before have so man ' different industries, the aircraft industry among them, felt impelled to raise their voices in protest as they now do against the doubling of the tax upon fuels. If farming, with its various aids and guaranteed prices, is to have relief from this tax, which from the start has been aimed at road users, there is surely a strong case for concessions to be made to aircraft operators, who for a long time past have been handicapped by a ninepence-a-gallon road tax. Home-produced food can save foreign currency ; aviation has shown itself to be a capable dollar-earner. In passing, we should perhaps thank Sir Stafford Cripps for his (unintentional?) encouragement of gas-turbine-powered aircraft; aviation kerosene, untaxed in the past, remains so. Additional fuel bills to be met by the Corporations for local flights and road trans-, port (tax on fuel used outside the country is recoverable) have been estimated at £168,000 for B.O.A.C. and £115,000 for B.E.A. Presumably these burdens, to- gether with the effects of devaluation, will simply make the balance-sheets look less promising—a most discouraging result for those who have worked so hard to reduce the deficits. In any case, the taxpayer will ultimately have to foot the bill. Independent commercial operators, the private owners, and the long-suffering flying clubs—all relatively small users of fuel, many of whom are already at their wits' end—now suffer a further cruel and unjustifiable setback. No less than 15s per hour will be added to the expense of running a Rapide, foi example, and even the cost of flying the humble Tiger Moth will be increased by more than 5s per hour. British Bombers NeededN OT unnaturally, the continued absence of any modern British long-range bomber is causing some anxiety, but no one should imagine that thi? country has gone, or intends to go, out of the big-bomber business. When, as happens from time to time, someone abroad suggests that so-called " strategic bomb- ing " should become the responsibility solely of the American Air Force, and that in Europe we should concentrate on defence, a measure of irritation is added to the feeling of anxiety. All other considerations apart, we believe that to a would-be aggressor the fear of what he may get back in return is just as powerful a deterrent as the thought of the defence forces awaiting his bombers. Everybody must by now know why, for the time being, there are no modern home-built aircraft available to our bomber squadrons. Assurances have been given, however, that designs are on the way, and we do not doubt that they, like their forerunner and first British jet bomber, the Canberra, will prove to have been well worth waiting for. We state categorically, and knowing ourselves to be in good company, that the R.A.F. must be maintained as a balanced, flexible air force, and this cannot be achieved if any single branch is missing or neglected. It is probable that in America the rather overworked terms " strategic " and " tac- tical " are applied in many instances for convenience only, and in some quarters their true significance has come to be misunderstood. As Lord Tedder has pointed out, to try to draw hard-and-fast distinctions between these two relative terms is not merely unsound but actually dangerous. In part, the strength of an ' Anglo-American alliance lies in the combination of the individual abilities of the two nations—certainly not in the subordination of one to "another; this is especially apparent now (as it was during the war) in aviation. There is considerable divergence of views regarding fighter design, and there is little doubt that specifications for future R.A.F. bombers differ considerably from those worked out in America. We at least know that all available effort over heie, small though it seems, is being devoted to the development of turbojet bombers of very advanced conception—bombers that will fly very high and very fast. In America, a country which is already putting into service long-range, high-altitude bombers there still appears to be some doubt as to just what is wanted.
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