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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2090.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2230 Vol. LX. FRIDAY, 19 OCTOBER 1951 EDITOR MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. ASSISTANT ED/TOR 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.1. Telegrams, Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone, Waterloo 3333 (60 tines). Branch Offices: COVENTRY 8-10, Corporation Street. Telegrams, Autocar, Coventry. Telephone, Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM, 2 King Edward House, New Street. Telegrams, Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone, Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 260, Deangate. Telegrams, Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone, blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C.2. 26b, Renfield Street. Telegrams, Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone, Central 1265 (2 lines). SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas: Twelve months £3 3s. Od. U.S.A. and Canada, $10.00 BY AIR: To Canada and U.S.A., six months, $16. IN THIS ISSUE: No. 800 Squadron - - 498 Artificial Satellites Explained .... 504 Performance Index - - 507 Second Time Up - - - 509 T«o Approaches to a Problem - - - - 510 Continental Rallies - - 512 Modern Airworthiness - 516 Two-way Traffic—T O America we "Britishers" owe a great deal. Not least are we indebted to her aircraft designers for keeping their opposite numbers in this country on their toes, and to many of her constructors for freely disclosing vital manufacturing techniques which might have been prohibitively expensive in terms of our own time and money. Never has Anglo-American technical rivalry been keener or co-operation closer than at the present time, though collaboration is not, as is often supposed, of recent growth. Over thirty years ago, during the Kaiser's war, the Handley Page 0/400, D.H.4 and S.E.5 were being built in American factories, and the American Liberty engine remained in continuous service with the R.A.F. from 1918 to the early 1930s. To America, also, we acknowledge some of the best of the R.N.A.S. flying-boats, in the development of which the Englishman John Porte was largely concerned. In later years, the Curtiss D-12 engine, anglicized as the Fairey Felix and installed in the Fox biplane, gave the R.A.F. the world's fastest bomber. This Felix-Fox, it may be remarked, was as outstanding a combination in its day as the Merlin-Mustang of 1943, or, to cite more recent instances, the Shooting Star with the Whittle jet, the Sapphire-Thunderjet, or the Avon-Sabre. The most pleasing aspect of this traffic in equipment and ideas is that it has not been one-way; or at least it has never remained so for long. To-day we see the Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire-powered English Electric Canberra bomber in production at the Martin plant, while at Lockheed, R.A.F. crews prepare to deliver to Coastal Command the first of a batch of Neptune patrol bombers. We see the excellent Sabre airframe wedded to the highly promising Orenda jet, and the versatile Canadian Beaver adopted— with the greatest enthusiasm—by the American armed forces; and we see not only the Sapphire but the Rolls-Royce Tay on American production lines, and licences secured for other British gas turbines, both of the turbojet and turboprop variety, of Armstrong Siddeley and Bristol design. —an Increasing Flow Nor is there any sign that the limit of collaboration and interchange has been reached; in fact, having proclaimed the Hawker P. 1067 and Vickers Valiant as the pre-eminent fighter and bomber in their respective classes, influential American journals are now openly discussing the possibility of one or both of these types being built in the U.S.A. That this is not idle gossip is borne out by Mr. W. T. Gill, President of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, who recently told a Washington journalist that he had no doubt that the matter would be discussed during his present visit to America. (As reported on page 500 of this issue, Mr. Gill, in company with British and American officials, is engaged on a month's tour of American and Canadian factories and military centres.) In answer to one specific question, Mr. Gill is on record as saying that he saw no reason why the Valiant and other British types should not be built in the U.S.A., adding that the interchange of aircraft types would be in line with the aims of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Now that national prejudice has largely been removed and no stigma need attach to the adoption of a "foreign" aircraft or engine, the two nations must ensure that the finest equipment procurable is produced in the most efficient and economical manner for the common good. This does not mean that the perils of over-standardization must be risked, for to-day, more than ever before, it is vital that a healthy stream of compe- titively designed prototypes should be flowing to our experimental establishments and proving grounds. And though we have here confined our observations to Great Britain and America, we are not unmindful of the claims and potentialities of the industries of France, Italy and Holland. Even as this is written comes the news that U.S.A.F. pilots have been flying French prototypes.
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