FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0136.PDF
134 FLIGHT, 30 January 1953 HERE AND THERE H I.Ae.S. Honour for Peter Masefield RECENTLY we reported the award of an Honorary Foreign Fellowship of the Insti tute of the Aeronautical Sciences to Mr. C. C. Walker of de Havillands, and of a Fellowship to Mr. G. H. Dowty. Now comes news that Mr. Peter Masefield; B.E.A.'s chief executive, is also honoured with a Fellowship. The honours were due to be conferred at the I.Ae.S. dinner in New York last Monday. Holland's Air Strength IN an annual survey, Lt.-Gen. I. A. Aller, Chief of the Netherlands Air Staff, said that during 1952 the Dutch Air Force had more than doubled in strength, and had fulfilled all its international commitments. None the less, new day and all-weather fighters were urgently required, and train ing needed stepping up by some 50 per cent, since total operational strength was still only half of that planned. Korean Engagements ON Wednesday of last week a large force of Mig-i5s appeared over "Mig Alley", and a series of fights with U.S.A.F. Sabres ensued. By the end of the engagement, seven enemy aircraft were claimed to have been destroyed and three others damaged. No mention has been made of American losses. According to Peking Radio, an American Superfortress was shot down on the night of January 12th over Wu Lung Pei, ten miles north-west of Antung, the Mig-15 base near the Yalu river in Man churia. Three of the crew are stated to have been killed;, and the remaining eleven, including Col. J. K. Arnold, Jun., commander of 581 Air Supply Communica tions Wing of the 13th U.S.A.F., taken prisoner. The Chinese claim that the air craft was engaged on a "special strategic reconnaissance mission at the time." ON THE LINE: Work progresses rapidly inside the fuselage of the second Britannia prototype,under construction in the Bra- bazon assembly hangar at Filton. This view shows well the extremely spacious interior, and the close-pitch ing of light-sec tion frames and stringers. Still Swarming THE first two 600 h.p. R-1340 Wasps built by the new Canadian Pratt and Whitney factory at Jacques Cartier have come from the production-line, three months ahead of schedule. One engine is now undergoing calibration by the National Research Council and the other a 150-hour qualification test. The first batch of engines will power the perennial Harvard, still in production for the R.C.A.F.; others will go to the U.S.A. and various NATO powers. It is worthy of remark that the original (400 h.p.) Wasp went into production 27 years ago. Aviation Films in Birmingham THE Birmingham and District Aviation Club is to hold a film show, open (free) to the general public, at Birmingham Inter national Centre, Suffolk Street, at 7 p.m. on February 17th. French Fighter Production PRODUCTION of Mystere II and IV fighters will begin this year, and "other promising types of aircraft" are nearing the production stage, according to M. Pierre Montel, the French Secretary of State for Air. He said at a recent confer ence that present deliveries of military aircraft were 500 a year, and that this could be doubled if sufficient funds were available—but the Air Force budget was expected to be only about 292,000 million francs (£288 mil lion), and this was merely sufficient to keep the Ser vice at its present level whilst improving its qual ity. Every endeavour was still being made to reduce the number of engine types required, M. Montel added. ROBERT BLACKBURN, O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., is the sub ject of this portrait by Bernard Adams, R.O.I.; on Wednesday last the painting was due to be presented by Blackburn and General Air craft, Ltd., to the Royal Aero Club, where it will be hung with the Club's other por traits of the pioneers. In the background is the Blackburn monoplane of 1909, on Filey Sands, where it first flew. Cowes Airport for A.S.T. THE lease of Cowes Airport, Isle of Wight, has been acquired by Air Service Training, Ltd., who intend to use the airfield for training their pupils in forced landings. At the moment they are using a field at Soberton, in south-east Hampshire, for such practice. It is understood that A.S.T. may later apply for a licence to employ Cowes as a relief airfield for their main base at Hamble. A.F.E.E. Addendum IN our introduction to Mr. O. Fitz-williams' article last week, "The Army and the Helicopter," it should have been made clear that the author was in charge of the Rotary Wing Section of the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment from 1944 to 1946; he points out that the head of the establishment itself was Mr. W. G. Jennings. A.S.T. Pakistan School Posts IN Flight of September 26th we devoted a page to the plans of Air Service Training, Ltd., for establishing two "pre-service" schools in Pakistan. It is now announced that the principal of both schools will be Mr. E. Sprawson, D.F.C., M.A., who was at one time a master at Repton, and that the headmaster of the apprentice school will be Mr. F. H. Shaw, M.B.E., formerly a housemaster at Marlborough. Mr. Sprawson served with Bomber Command during the war, was shot down over France, and escaped with the aid of the French. Canadair Changes IT is announced that Alexander J. Lilly has been appointed executive assistant to the vice-president, sales, of Canadair, Ltd., and will also act as flight test adviser to the vice-president, engineering. The post of chief test pilot, which "Al" Lilly has held since 1946, will be filled by William S. Longhurst, A.F.C. Lilly learned to fly in Moose Jaw in the early thirties, flew with the R.C.M.P. for six years, and later joined Imperial Airways. During the war he served as C.F.I, on the Commonwealth Air Training Plan, and as chief test pilot with R.A.F. Ferry Command. Afterwards he was with Maritime Central Airways for a spell before joining Canadair in 1946. He was the first Canadian to fly at super sonic speed. Longhurst, who has been with the company since 1947, served with the R.A.F. from 1939-1945, and later with the R.C. A.F. and with Worldwide Aviation and Wheeler Airlines. He was the first to tow a glider across the Atlantic.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
