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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1195.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2329 Vol. LXIV. FRIDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER 1953 EDITOR MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. ASSISTANT EDITOR H. F. KING, M.B.E. ART EDITOR 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 5P10. BIRMINGHAM, 2 King Edward House, New Street. Telegrams, Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone, Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 260, Deansgate. Telegrams, lliffe, Manchester. Telephone, Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C.2. 26b, Renfield Street. Telegrams, lliffe, 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: The Curtain Rises - - - 355 The Men at the Controls - 368 Pod Pros and Cons - - 371 Hemispherical Bombing - 375 London's Anglo-American Conference - - - - 381 Sonic Bangs 382 Inter-City Helicopters - 389 A Colourful Farnborough N OT many years ago there was a very un-British dullness about this country, about too many of its people, and even worse, about its approach to many of the tasks confronting it. For every individual who was keen to do something, there seemed to be others standing by to say why he shouldn't and couldn't. The aircraft industry suffered less than most from this after-war blight on the land; but, even so, it was felt for a time that all was not as well as it could have been. Fortunately this melancholy state of affairs is now a thing of the past. For all Britons, memories of 1953 will centre upon a most glorious Coronation, dazzling in its splendour; and for those of us concerned with aviation, there has been a Royal review and salutes and mass fly-pasts. We have seen, too, all-round progress; and now comes the 1953 S.B.A.C. Flying Display and Exhibition which, apart from its more serious purposes, is offering yet another spectacular experience for visitors from places at home and abroad, be they civil or Service chiefs, company executives, scientists, or their wives and children. Colour is the keynote: we cannot recall any comparable occasion upon which so many of the aircraft, civil and military, have been so vividly painted, nor the stands and caravans so gaily prepared, even to the addition of uniform Coronation-year banners to announce each company's name. To the technical progress achieved by so many exhibitors our reports on die following pages and in subsequent issues will bear witness. For the enthusiast with a natural pride in his nation's achievements the resurgence of British aviation—now so apparent to all—is most gratifying. For fear of allowing too rosy a hue to tint our judgment of this colourful Farnborough Display, perhaps we may examine some of the arguments and stipulations expounded by Mr. Gordon McGregor in his address as guest of honour at the S.B.A.C. dinner last Monday evening, and see how they apply to British products. As president of T.C.A. he is a man whose views may be relied upon to reflect sound sense and business judgment. He is in the unusual position, too, of having dollars or pounds sterling equally available to purchase good equipment, of having the great American industry across the border, and of having in use a fleet of international aircraft which are giving outstand:ng service: Trans-Canada's North Stars, like B.O.A.C. Argonauts, are Canadian/American/British products, and never has there been a more satisfactory mixture. What, then, are Mr. McGregor's observations, and what led him and his company to select British turboprop airliners in the face of the strongest competition? In the first place, in his speech he paid a compliment to the people of Britain upon then- determination to set their house in order after the war. Next he spoke of "many excellent designers" and thirdly of the inherent flexibility of the British approach to airframe and engine development. Of the last-named observation, Mr. McGregor explained that manpower is so expensive in America that manufacturers are being driven into "fantastically large investments in tooling." Those—and they are many—who are visiting the S.B.A.C. Show to seek new civil aircraft will, we believe, be gratified to find that, as Mr. McGregor says, "the prospective buyer is being offered custom tailoring." To consider a different point, British jet and turboprop airlmers are the fastest transports in the world, but Mr. McGregor makes it clear that if high cruising speeds lead to an aircraft being "hot" near the ground he has little use for it, because of its reduced safety and regularity. Anyone who watches the flying displays—albeit of aircraft flying light—will not, we feel, find reasons to call them "hot." Of two other, different, matters raised, we may comment that, rightly or wrongly, the Ministries concerned have so far rather spurned the lieht fighter, although in the new Seamew anti-submarine type, which has strong NATO appeal, they have in a sense given support to a similar concept for a cheap, simple design to do a specific job without breaking the bank. Of standardization, we would add that, while the sponsors of this great display and exhibition have done much in this cause, much more remains to be achieved, both nationally and internationally.
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