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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1489.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2262 Vol. LXI. FRIDAY, 30 MAY 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 ED/TOR 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 King Edward House, New Street. Telegrams, Autnpress. Rirmineham, Telephone, Midland 7191 (7 lines) MANCHESTER, 3 260. Deanseate. Telegrams, IIHTe. Manchester. Telephone, Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C.2. 26b, Renfield Street. Telegrams, Itiffe, 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: Far-Eastern Delivery - - 648 Prophecy and Achieve ment 654 The Aeronautical Book shelf Our American Corres pondent Reports . . . Plans of Attack - - - Transatlantic Terminal - At Aston Down - - - Bowty Deeds - - - - 657 658 659 660 662 663 Majesty and History W E are often reminded that the reigning Queen belongs to a very air-minded family. The active and much-valued interest which she herself has shown in many aspects of British aviation is shared by the entire Royal Household—as events of the past few days have shown. A week ago the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret flew in a Comet at speeds and altitudes which until lately were phenomenal. Now the report gains currency that the Duke of Edinburgh intends to qualify for pilots' wings (an intention which, we respectfully venture to suggest, might appropriately be realized at the Central Flying School—a unit which is surely above inter-Service rivalry). Royal support of this kind, far beyond the calls of State duty, is too often taken for granted; it gives cause for proud gratification. It seems timely to reproduce here a passage from Flight of 25 years ago, almost to the day, dealing with the visit to Buckingham Palace of the young American who had just made the first solo crossing of the Atlantic. As the pilot left the Palace, where King George V had invested him with the Air Force Cross, "the little Princess Elizabeth waved her hand to him, whereupon Lindbergh went up, shook hands and patted her cheek." That was 25 years ago—only yesterday by history-book standards. Yet since then the lonely path of the transatlantic pioneers has become a broad highway travelled by 1,500,000 airline passengers—among them the Princess who became Queen Elizabeth II. Parting of the Ways SIR HARRY GARNER, Chief Scientist, Ministry of Supply, touched upon a diversity of engaging subjects in the fortieth Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture, a digest of which appears in this issue; and of these none commands more interest at this time than the prospects for civil aircraft. It is clear, as Sir Harry remarks, that operational economy and passenger comfort are likely to dictate cruising speeds below Mach 1 for many years to come, whereas military requirements are such that the focus has already switched almost completely from the problems of subsonic flight to those imposed by the supersonic regime. Thus, in Sir Harry's opinion, the people responsible for developing civil aircraft will no longer be able to rely, as in the past, on "crumbs that fall from the rich military man's table" : if civil aircraft are to improve they will do so only if their importance in their own right is recognized, and if research and development programmes adequate for their needs are put in hand. Nor is the divergence of civil from military practice a matter of speed alone: the problem of range is an almost equally vexed one. According to Sir Harry, there are many people who believe that there would be an important use for aircraft with a range of 12,000 miles. "The job of the scientist and engineer," he says, "is to look into the possibility of designing such aircraft, and that of the aircraft designer to produce them to meet the demand or, as has happened so often in the past, to anticipate it." It is the vital need for this pre-vision that we would stress here—a need to which we may easily be blinded by the Comet's flashing brilliance and other bright portents in our immediate ken. Already, as we know from Mr. Arthur E. Raymond, of the Douglas Aircraft Company (Flight, May 16th), Britain's rivals in the jet-transport field are gazing deep into "the bouncing crystal ball"; and that, like Sir Harry Garner, they have seen the irnminent divergence of the military and civil ways is suggested by a vision described by Mr. Raymond—a large multi-purpose civil transport capable of being fitted into the trans-oceanic, medium and short-range operational pattern, with short take-off and landing distances (at least when carrying moderate fuel loads), adaptable to all kinds of payload and to more than one make of engine, and possessing all reasonable possibilities for growth. . . . Such a Utopian conveyance could hardly be fashioned from crumbs that fall from even the richest military man's table. B
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