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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1269.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2331 Vol. LXIV. FRIDAY, 25 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 5210. 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 3S9S (2 lines). GLASGOW. C.2. 26b Renfield Street. Telegrams, Hiffe, Glasgow. Telephone, Central 126S (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: Battle of Britain Commemoration 428 The Wilbur Wright Lecture 431 London Airport Advances 432 The Accountant - - - 434 Small-helicopter Development 435 Wyvern Squadron - - 437 Anglo-American Conference 441 Farnborough—New Developments 445 Air Port of London T O an increasing proportion of international travellers, an airport is the first close- up view of a new land. Last year, for instance, more people arrived in Britain via the runways of London and Northolt Airports than by way of the traditional white cliffs and harbour of Dover. It follows that a terminal building must not only be designed to permit a smooth and rapid flow through immigration, customs and reception formalities, but that its appearance should make an appropriate impression on the visitor. To some extent, the architecture of a major airport will reflect national characteristics and outlook. So far Britain has remained behind many nations, on both sides of the Atlantic, in erecting such buildings, despite the pre-eminence of this country as a link in the chain of world air travel. In a sense, however, our present lack of permanent build ings expresses British determination to do things in the right order and to do them well. This apparent tardiness has in fact given certain advantages to those responsible for planning our key airport. It has enabled them better to assess die probable future trend of traffic-growth, so that the new terminal should be neither hopelessly small and crowded nor a vast, empty symbol of the optimism which, at one early post-war stage, resulted in wasteful construction abroad. And the limited amount of public money available for airport development has been spent in the most logical sequence; aero- nautically, London Airport is second to none, and compares well with foreign rivals which may have magnificent concrete buildings but inadequate runways and aids. Plans have now been announced, as related on pages 432-433, for providing London with permanent airport buildings of impressive design and capacity. No one will regret the consequent abandonment of the present hutted terminal alongside the Bath Road— leaving space, perhaps, for construction of an airport hotel which might add the finishing touch to the ambitious plans already made for the airport's buildings. With the latest in turbine airliners in service, fine runways laid and, in hand, buildings and equipment worthy of London, there remains one more problem to be tackled— that of expediting the land journey to and from the airport. Anglo-American Accord T ECHNICAL interest passed from the airfield to the lecture hall last week, when the Industry's Show closed after its fourteenth and record year—record for attendance, for firm orders placed, and for good flying weather. On the Monday it seemed as if every one of the S.B.A.C.'s guests as well as the members of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences had been squeezed into No. 4 Hamilton Place for the Royal Aeronautical Society's reception for delegates at the Fourth Anglo-American Conference. Attendance at the dozen excellent lectures during the next three days was also heavy, amounting on average to some three hundred delegates; and there was no doubt that the quality of the papers that were read, and the discussions which followed them, was the highest yet achieved. This was indicative of increasingly good under standing no longer confined to a few British and American technicians. The culminating dinner-dance—a quite delightful social occasion—was held at the Dorchester Hotel in London. After Sir William Farren, president of the R.Ae.S., had warmly toasted the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, Mr. C. J. McCarthy, his opposite number, stated forthrightly that this fourth Conference had been the best. Delegates to past Conferences had noted a reluctance on the part of many American technicians to enter freely into the post-lecture discussions, but this year the position was quite different and the symposium benefited accordingly. There was deserved applause for the work of Dr. Ballantyne (secretary of the R.Ae.S. and organizer of the proceedings) and his staff in making, as Mr. McCarthy put it, a complicated task look easy. In a message which he addressed to the Conference, President Eisenhower drew attention to the international importance of such an occasion. To the individuals who during the last week or two have been transformed from the technical vice-president of X Aircraft Corporation or the chief designer of Y Aviation Co., to Mac, Joe and Ernie, this fourth Conference has represented a much more personal form of co-operation and contact which must prove invaluable in the future.
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