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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 2106.PDF
134 FLIGHT, I August 1952 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Canada's Industry and British Designers T HAVE read with great interest "Technician's" excellent letter A (July lith) in which he disputes Mr. W. E. Petter's implication that British technicians are lacking in duty to the British aircraft industry because they emigrate to Canada and U.S.A., where they get paid what they deserve. One of the most refreshing aspects of Canadian and American aviation is that a man, of whatever social standing and lareelv regardless of age, can command both position and salarv which his merits deserve. Where a man may take 25 years in England to reach the status and pay his contribution deserves, he may take five years or so in the New World. As Canada's great future unfolds, so the Old Country will lose her sons to a land where standards are higher and fresh air blows through industry. We are a Commonwealth in which we are free to circulate (though we must leave our Sterling behind). It is not reasonable to speak of the great Brotherhood of the Commonwealth in one warm breath and then coldly blame an Englishman who prefers the company of a brother in Canada to remaining tied to the mother country. Britain became great because her people set out for other shores and a better, freer life. Those emigrants lareelv remained affectionately loyal to the mother countrv. But if the mother country treated her emigrants as sons lacking in duty then our Commonwealth would not be what it is today. Are we to assume that Mr. Petter considers Rolls-Rovce, de Hayilland, Avro, and others are lacking in dutv by establishing subsidiaries in Canada? May not the technician emulate the employer? On the contrary, if sufficient technicians emigrated to Canada the British aircraft industry would follow. I forecast that the S.B.A.C. Show, 1960, will be held at Toronto Airport! I have travelled about the world much during the last ten vears and seen U.S.A. and Canada in relation to other lands. Many Englishmen are ignorant of what awaits them in the New World. If the Commonwealth is to survive, 10,000,000 Englishmen should emigrate during the next ten years to Australia, New Zealand, and to Canada (yes, and to the United States). It is our duty to the Commonwealth to do so. Godalming, Surrey. ROBERT BICKNELL. [No doubt the following further letter from Mr. Petter will help to put this matter into perspective.—ED.] T AM afraid that your correspondent "Technician" in his letter •*• published in your issue dated July 1 ith, has entirely missed the point of my previous letter, which was not that the acceptance of a more highly paid post in Canada was selfishness on the part of the individual, but a plea that the young aircraft engineer, in considering his future career, should give due and profound thought to the sense of achievement and satisfaction which he derives from his work in addition to immediate emoluments. DURING this week, cinema-goers to the Plaza, London, have seen the first run of a really great film—probably the greatest flying film ever made. We voice this opinion, moreover, after having seen most of, if not all, the principal aviation pictures of the last 25 years. Written by Terence Rattigan, produced and directed by David Lean, with Sir Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, N'gel Patrick, John Tustin and Dinah Sheridan leading a cast with not a false or ill-played character in it, The Sound Barrier* is an outstanding and at times bitterly moving film. Briefly, it tells of the problem which faced and to some extent still faces the aircraft designer and the pilot in defeating the effects of flight at sonic speed. Inevitablv, the test pilot's wife fears for her husband; equally inevitablv—filmically—the test pilot is killed. But this is not cheap emotionalism. Test pilots do get killed, some of them, and in this film the whole thing is treated with a simplicity and sincerity which matches the greatness of the work. Sir Ralph Richardson gives a memorable performance as the aircraft manu facturer, and Joseph Tomelty (whom we have never seen before) is not overshadowed by this in his playing of the chief designer. *Presented by London Films, and distributed by British Lion Film Corporation. Mistakes can so easily be made in this matter through inexperience, with consequent disillusionment at a later date. In the liberal professions instanced by your correspondent, there 1 are, of course, very wide variations in the level of earnings due to I the individual's skill and standing in the community. In aircraft ' technology, where there are many more grades or classifications, there are bound to be similar and even greater variations. The more enlightened aircraft firms in this country certainly appreciate the importance of a balanced scale of salaries covering [ the whole of the variations in degree of responsibility, experience, etc., whether it be on design, technical, research work or on the ; productive and administrative sides. The relatively high average earnings of the aircraft production worker ensure that this must be so and, indeed, the maintenance of such properly graduated '[ scales is one of the most important functions of management. In the aircraft-design field the normal play of economic forces should rapidly correct the lot of anv underpaid technicians in this country, and the converse is equally true: that a considerable influx of technicians into Canada, etc., will eventually create a surplus and result in a lower scale of remuneration. Under present world conditions actual emoluments in aviation at all levels in both Canada and the U.S.A. are considerably higher than in this countrv; even so, it is gratifying to find that some of the aircraft technicians who emigrated to Canada have now returned to this country to take up more interesting work, even at some material loss to themselves. W. E. W. PETTER, Hamble, Hants. Managing Director, Folland Aircraft, Ltd. Dark Contrail? A N unusual sky trail was seen over Cambridge on the morning - of Julv 11th, between 9.15 and Q.30 a.m. The phenomena passed over the north side of the city in a line from north-east to south-west, at an estimated height of between three and four thousand feet. The trail, which was extremely dark at its base, had a vee- shaoed appearance when seen in section and was several hundreds of feet in length. There was a certain amount of medium cloud above it and, behind, the skv was extremely clear. One observer to whom the writer spoke described it as having a "butterflv-tail" form and said that along the base there was a thick, bla«k roll cloud, resembling the more familiar line-squall formation. There was, however, no line-squall activity in the area during the morning in question. Cu-nim clouds were, however, in evidence. Manv neople have noticed that Sabres and Shooting Stars leave black trails, particularly when flying at the lower altitudes. Is it possible that one such machine flew out of the medium cloud during aerobatics, left the trail and then flew away again before being seen? Cambridge. G. N. N. Ann Todd does a better job than we have ever seen her do before, and Nigel Patrick and John Tustin, as the pilots, give an authen- ticitv to parts which, so easily, could have been spoiled by less skilful handling. To the director the credit of welding story and players into something not easily to be forgotten. The "other stars" of the picture are the aircraft—Vampire, Attacker and Swift —and, of course, the firms' test pilots who do the actual flying. If models were used for any of the "air" shots then we failed to notice it—and that itself is a measure of the film's quality. There are, of course, points at which the aviation pedant will cavil; liberties have, for example, been taken with time so that events are shown coincidentallv which, in fact, were months apart. But this is a small price to pay for a picture which in theme, feeling and fidelity to the nature of things is so absolutely, so compellingly right. Never before have we seen the sheer beauty of flight so clearly portrayed; it is, after all, largely a matter of feeling— fundamentally it is an emotional experience—yet in a few brief scenes, by the most masterlv air-to-air photography, that indefin able nuance of the illimitable is made real, and the earth-bound man and woman in their cinema seats may glimpse for a fleeting moment a little of that wondrous, joyful loneliness of those who are privileged to move in the emptiness of the upper air. "THE SOUND BARRIER": A MAGNIFICENT^FILM
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