FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0665.PDF
FLIGHT, 14 March 1952 303 DEFENCE DEBATED Super-Priority for Aircraft Production : Naval Aviation and Carrier Progress THE Defence and Naval Estimates were the subject of long and interesting debates in the House of Commons last week. Aviation matters were frequently under re view, but in the case of the Defence debates, and with the exception of the Prime Minister's speech, the references were somewhat disconnected and spread through the discus sion of many other matters. DEFENCE ESTIMATES Opening the debate on March 5th, the Prime Minister said that his greatest anxiety in the sphere of defence was the slow rate of delivery of modern aircraft to the Royal Air Force. He had directed that "super priority" should be given to the provision of the latest and best types of fighter aircraft. Mr. Churchill began with the comment that deliveries of modern aircraft were seriously behind the original programme which, in consequence, had had to be reviewed. As a result, the Royal Air Force—though maintaining its size—was not being re-equipped with modern machines as rapidly as it should be. Our greatest need was for modern aircraft in squadron service. At present there were no swept-wing fighters in service such as the American F-86 and the Russian Mig-15. He agreed that it was not unnatural in this competition of types for one nation temporarily to outstrip its rivals; but it would be rather unfortunate if war were to come at the moment when the enemy had the great advantage in modernity. The great problem was that of gauging when to change over from existing production to an improved type. The appearance of the Mig-15 in Russian squadrons in 1949 marked a con siderable advance in aeronautical design, and had created a gap in our productive effort too large for safety. Great efforts, said Mr. Churchill, were now being made to advance production of Hawker 1067 and Swift aircraft for a day- interceptor role. He emphasized, however, that these machines would not be in service in the near future or, indeed, for some time in anything like adequate numbers. Great exertions were needed to build up production to the necessary level and also to gain and keep the lead in design. Mr. Shinwell, the former Minister of Defence, said the real bottle-neck was the difficulty experienced in persuading aircraft manufacturers to play their full part. It might be said they were doing their best, but the day might come when the Minister of Supply would have to recommend that they should be taken over by the Government to speed up production. G/C. C.A.B. Wilcock said there had been an alarming lag in our air preparations, particularly in bombers. What was wanted was a mass-produced bomber—one without all the frills, with only pressurization in the cockpit and not throughout the aircraft. Certainly, he thought, the number of instruments in an aircraft could be reduced. Mr. Nigel Birch, the new Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence, dealt with the run-down in aircraft produc tion when he replied to the debate. He said .this development could be attributed to the post-war policy of adjusting production to dimensions appropriate to a period of comparative peace. This had meant the evolution of the Meteor, Vampire, and Lincoln— all essentially last-war types. Manufacture in the aircraft industry had not started increasing until 1950 and the main difficulty today was simply that of restoring the correct tempo of output. The new aircraft he mentioned as "coming along now" were, except for the Canberra and the F-86, still only prototypes. Meanwhile the Russians had the Mig-15 in very considerable quantity. The result was that in the near future there was no prospect of enough new aircraft being put into service to deal with the Mig. The country thus faced a risk which would be very much greater if we were not blessed with Allies. The state of our air defences alone would be a reason for rearmament. NAVAL ESTIMATES In his statement on the Navy Estimates in the House of Commons on March 6th, Mr. J. P. L. Thomas, First Lord of the Admiralty, said that he had intended to ask for £357,250,000, or £78,750,000 more than the sum voted for 1951-52. Since the Estimates were prepared, however, agreement had been reached with the United States Government on the application of the sterling counterpart of American aid to defence expenditure,'so_he had also presented a Revised Estimate providing for the expected Naval share of £25,000,000 to be taken as an additional Appro priation in Aid. Thus the net cash grant required for Naval expenditure in the coming year would be £332,250,000. Later in his speech, when he turned to the subject of Naval Aviation, Mr. Thomas said: "Every Naval officer now recognizes that this [Naval Aviation] is the main striking power of the Fleet, and Naval Aviation today employs nearly one-quarter of the total manpower of the Navy. It is, of course, important for officers and men of the Navy today to be as airminded as they are sea- minded." On the subject of the Navy's rearmament programme, Mr. Thomas said that it would be achieved, but not without delays, and he made a particular point of the shortage of shipwrights in the Royal Dockyards (600 were needed and 200 could be taken on at once at Portsmouth where the reconstruction of H.M.S. Victorious has been seriously delayed). Some £38 million would be spent on new constructions during x 952-53- More than 80 per cent, of it would be ships already under construction, such as Ark Royal, the four Hermes-class light fleet carriers, the six Dann^-class destroyers, and frigates of four types, as well as a large number of coastal and inshore mine sweepers. The fleet carrier Eagle had been completed and was now in commission, while her sister ship Ark Royal, now fitting out, was expected to be completed in 1954. Referring to the other H.M.S. Eagle of Elizabethan times, Mr. Thomas thought it was fitting that the first new ship to join the Royal Navy since the accession of Her Majesty the Queen was one which she herself launched at Belfast in 1946. H.M.S. Eagle would be able to handle larger and faster aircraft, and to handle them more quickly and with greater ease, than any previous carrier of the Royal Navy. The Eagle's two hangars were served by high-speed lifts; the flight deck covered an area of more than two acres, and the catapults for launching aircraft were more powerful than any that the R.N. had used up till now. The aircraft were put into position for loading onto the catapults by an auto matic device which should greatly speed-up launching operations. Very much improved arrester-gear would accept landings by faster and heavier aircraft than any previously launched from our carriers and the new system of flight-deck lighting would make the opera tion of jet aircraft possible by night as well as by day. H.M.S. Eagle would have a peace-time complement of 88 officers and 1,337 rat ings, excluding the complement of air squadrons embarked in her. In answer to questions, Mr. Thomas added that the Eagle com plete had cost a little over £15 million. He was unable to say when he expected the aircraft would be embarked in Eagle. Turning to the Hermes class of light fleet carriers which were urgently required in service to match the production of modern high-performance aircraft, he said that they should be completed with as little delay as possible. The contractor's sea trials of Centaur, the first ship of the class, were expected to begin early next year and would be«followed by those of Albion in the spring of 1953- The only carrier of the Majestic class in hand was Majestic herself and she was being completed for the Royal Australian Navy, whose other carrier, H.M.A.S. Sydney, had done such valuable work in Korean waters. Mr. Thomas thought that the House would be especially interested in the four types of new frigate : two types for anti submarine work, a third for anti-aircraft and a fourth for aircraft direction. It had not been possible to produce an all-purpose vessel because modern equipment was now so great that it would not go into one vessel of a reasonable size. No one ship, therefore, could carry all, but at the same time each type could do some of the work of the other type. Two of these new types of anti submarine frigates were laid down and well under way. Commenting on the speed of aircraft, which was always increas ing and presenting new problems for defence, Mr. Thomas said by the time a shell from the main anti-aircraft armament of a ship reached the range of its target, the aircraft would have moved on 1,000 yards, so that in the air the shell fired from astern was hard put to it to catch up with the aircraft it was pursuing. Guided weapons were obviously the answer to the problem. At the same time we were trying to improve our gunnery systems to combat the fast aircraft. Concerning the characteristics of the front-line Naval aircraft (Concluded at foot of page 304)
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
