FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0571.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2250 Vol. LXI. FRIDAY, 7 MARCH 1952 EDITOR MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. ASSISTANT 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.1. Telegrams, Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone, Waterloo 3333 (60 lines). Branch Offices: COVENTRY 8-10, Corporation Street. Telegrams, Autocar, Coventry. Telephone, Coventry 5210. BIRMINGHAM, 2 Kins Edward House, New Street. Telegrams, Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone. Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 260, Deansgate. Telegrams, lliffe, Manchester. Telephone, Blackfriars 4414 (3 lines). Deansgate 3S95 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C2. 26b, Renfield Street. Telegrams, lliffe, 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: Too Small, Too Few - - 256 Probing Around the Pole 262 About the Air Estimates 263 Winds in the Ionosphere 265 Another International Airport ----- 266 Maple-leaf DC-3s - - - 267 Non-flying Prototype - 268 Pre-1915 Apprentices Dine 272 Who Lets Slip Fortune . . . O NCE again, this week, we print several references to manpower and material shortages, to aircraft-production time and cost, and to kindred matters. Current difficulties continue to raise costs, and to delay re-equipment; this means, ultimately, less efficient aircraft in service (because designs have to be frozen years before the aircraft reach service with squadrons or airlines) and, by the same token, less freedom in developing good basic designs to keep abreast of requirements. The intensity of effort devoted to military production is to a great extent related to estimation of the degree of national emergency by both the Government and industrial leaders. Directives can be issued and orders placed, but the Government cannot in the normal course of events compel firms to expand their capacity and their sub-contract arrangements to produce any more rapidly than they wish. Conversely, the most progressive of companies cannot get very far today without official aid in the matter of scarce materials, imported machine tools, extensions to buildings, and so on. It is Flight's impression that the sense of urgency is limited to but a few people, and that nothing short of a war which directly threatens this country is going to produce a national effort worthy of the adjective "all-out." Too many people are still content to talk and plan in a theoretical sort of way, thinking wishfully that nothing really serious will boil up. Several companies in the aircraft industry are undoubtedly anxious to make a genuine all-out effort, and whether or not it is concentrated primarily upon military or commercial aircraft production, or equally upon both, is not, perhaps, the point of greatest importance. Air Chief Marshal the Hon. Sir Ralph Cochrane's words to the Air League at Bristol impressed many : " . . . Air power, if it is to be permanent, must be broad-based on commerce. ... I saw ships being built for owners all over the world as well as for our own trade, and I was thinking again what a great influence this had had on our life as a seafaring nation. It is on that foundation that we have built up our sea power. The air must do the same, and I see no reason why it should not. Let them (the youth of the country) realize that we are only at the beginning of the air age, that we have hardly scratched the surface of what will come to be done in our lifetime ..." What we want to be sure about in the first place is that there is a determination to fulfil a realistic programme of aircraft production. Are all the firms working to capacity? Are there any real objections to allowing firms outside the industry to come in and make a worth-while contribution? Are there plans to take over the shadow factories once more? Is it too much to hope that the news, just announced, that Shorts are to build Comets at Belfast (and without interruption of their Canberra programme) is a portent of a wider resurgence throughout the industry ? The Airliner Opportunity Overleaf we publish Charles Gardner's critical views on Britain's opportunities in the jet-airlines market. If we accept his judgments—and most people will agree with at least the fundamentals—then do we also believe that something must and can be done ? Can we each ask ourselves straightforwardly, "Do you think that something will in fact be done?"—and honestly feel the answer to be "yes"? This is a good measure of each man's faith and determination. Flight feels—as strongly today as when the subject was first discussed—that fortune has presented this country with a not-to-be-repeated opportunity in the civil aircraft field. Rarely is more than one new form of propulsion perfected in a generation, and seldom is one country allowed to take such a lead as Britain had (and still has) in jet propulsion. Though formidable to meet, the actual physical requirements of such a great and vital task as that facing the aircraft industry are, we believe, within Britain's capacity, in spite of her many other commitments. Successful accomplishment of the task is likely to have a profound effect upon the whole nation's fortunes and future. He who doubts should endeavour to imagine what the last 150 years of our history would have been without the Royal and the Merchant Navies.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
