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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0164.PDF
162 FLIGHT, 6 February 1953 HERE AND THERE Royal Tour IT is announced that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will begin their Commonwealth Tour on November 23rd by flying to Bermuda and Jamaica. Cost of a Valiant ASKED in the House of Commons on January 28th if he could state the individ ual cost of various super-priority bombers, Mr. George Ward, Under-Secretary of State for Air, said he was unable to give precise figures : but the cost of the Valiant, as production got under way, was unlikely to exceed £350,000, while the figure for the Victor and Vulcan, at a comparable stage, would be higher, but of the same order. R/T. Welcome for Mr. Churchill THE following R/T. dialogue passed be tween the R.M.S. Queen Mary—with Mr. Churchill on board—and a Coastal Com mand aircraft on January 26th :— Coastal Command to Prime Minister and captain : "Welcome home." Prime Minister to captain of aircraft: "Thank you so much." Officer of the watch to captain of air craft : "Prime Minister is saluting from bridge." The conversation is quoted in Ocean Times, a daily paper published on board Cunarders; news is prepared in London— at the Wireless Press, Dorset House—and radioed to the ships. New Designations A NUMBER of new marks of aircraft and engines have recently been "cleared for publication." Among the former are: Valiant B.i (four Avon), Vulcan B.i (four Avon or Olympus), Victor B.i (four Sapphire), Beverley C.i (four Centaurus) and Vickers-Armstrongs 1000 (four Con way). New engines are : Mamba ASM.6; Double Mamba ASMD.4; Sapphire ASSa.4, 5 and 7; Olympus BOI.1/2B and 2C; Ghost DGt.4 and 5; Avon RA.14 and Conway RC0.2. Also released are the fol lowing power ratings: Mamba ASM.5, 1,460 s.h.p.; Viper ASV.i, 2, 3 and 4, 1,145, I>575J I5640 and 1,750 lb, respec tively; and Avon RA.7, 7,500 lb thrust. Also publishable, without reference to power output, are the Nomads NNm.i, 2, 3 and 6. Over the Waters A VARIETY of aircraft gave valuable assistance during and after the disastrous floods of last week-end. Eight Naval Dragonfly helicopters from Gosport were dispatched to West Mailing, in Kent, and four of them were sent on to Holland, whilst the remainder were kept available for rescue work in England. An R.A.F. helicopter from Boscombt Down made a reconnaissance of the' Foulness Head area GROTESQUE GLIDER: The Arsenal 1.301 has been built as a non-powered prototype of the 2.301 supersonic delta fighter. Seen above, the 1.301 is all-wood, has a fixed wheel under the belly and retractable wheels under the nose and wing-tips, and has already been air-launched at about 10,000ft behind a Dakota. Span and length are 26 and 46 feet, respectively. and Hastings of Transport Command dropped 37,000 sandbags for sea-walls. The Duke of Edinburgh made a flight of one and a half hours' duration from Bircham Newton, inspecting damage near King's Lynn and Sandringham; he was flying dual in a Chipmunk with his instructor, F/L. Gordon. As early as last Monday, Bomber Command P.R. aircraft were at work photo-mapping the flooded areas. Several aircraft were chartered by newspapers to take aerial photographs. Pioneer's Portrait WHEN Bernard Adam's portrait of Mr. Robert Blackburn, presented to the Royal Aero Club by Blackburn and General Air craft, Ltd., was hung in the Club last week, its subject expressed himself as being deeply appreciative "of the honour of being 'hung on the line' with so many famous men, more especially as these por traits are in ... my own club, where I have made so many good friends." Maj. Jack Stewart, who welcomed Mr. Blackburn, expressed thanks on behalf of the R.Ae.C. (A reproduction of the portrait—which also included the Blackburn monoplane of 1909 —appeared on this page last week). Flight Refuelling Deal THE controlling interest in the American company Flight Refuelling, Inc., of Dan- bury, Connecticut, has passed from the British parent company to Mr. L. A. Rockefeller, of Reaction Motors and Associates. Sir Alan Cobham, chairman and managing director of the British com pany, will remain on the board. It is understood that the deal has been made in order to provide the considerable capital needed for the expansion of the American subsidiary; the parent company, which is at present very much the larger organiza tion is, according to Mr. Michael Cobham (Sir Alan's son), "unaffected by the sale." 1,000 Hours in Comets OUT of 11,000 flying hours completed by de Havilland Comets in the hands of the manufacturers, B.O.A.C. and U.A.T., no fewer than 1,000 have been logged by John Cunningham, chief test pilot of the de Havilland Aircraft Co. Mr. Cunningham's Comet time reached four figures during the afternoon of January 22nd, while he was engaged in cruise-performance measure ments at high altitude in G-ALYT, the Avon-powered Comet 2 prototype. Since July 27th, 1949, when he took the Comet 1 prototype up for its first test, he and his assistants, Peter Bugge and Peter Bois, have been responsible for the whole of the manufacturers' Comet flight-test pro gramme. One a Week SPEAKING in London on January 29th, Herr Kraft, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs and chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Council, stated that it was planned to complete, and put into operation, a new NATO airfield during every week of 1953. Comparable progress was scheduled for other aspects of NATO defence. Indian Aircraft on Parade THE Indian Air Force took part in the Indian Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26th. Following the breaking of the national flag and a salute of 31 guns, a flight of six Indian Hindustan trainers led the armed forces parade, at which the salute was taken by President Rajendra Prasad. At an air display later nine I.A.F. transports flew past followed by 18 Liberators and a number of Vam pires. Imperial College Expansion A MAJOR expansion of the Imperial Col lege of Science and Technology has been decided upon by the Government after consultation with the University Grants Committee. There are now some 1,650 full-time students at the College, and it is planned to increase this number to 3,000 during academic quinquennium 1957-62. The decision—announced in Parliament last week by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury—is an outcome of the Govern ment's policy of expanding at least one institution of university rank predomin antly devoted to higher technology. Magnesium Output PRODUCTION of magnesium, started experimentally by the Norwegian chemical concern Norsk Hydro in 1951, is now running at an annual rate of 5,000 tons. Norsk Hydro's director-general said re cently that it was hoped to double this figure. The price on the world market is £250 a ton. More about the Gannet FURTHER questions about production of the Fairey Gannet aircraft were asked in the Commons on January 26th. Cdr. J. Long ford-Holt (Con., Shrewsbury) asked what had been the effect on production of the complete change of its design, and what stages of production had been reached when this change was decided on. The Minister of Supply, Mr. Duncan Sandys, replied that it was difficult to assess pre cisely the extent of the delay caused by the changes made in the operational require ment and design; but it was certainly very considerable. The most radical change,
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