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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1305.PDF
461 FLIGHT, 2 October 1953 Prototype Swift and Spitfire 24. BY H. F. KING, M.B.E. (With a contribution by- Jeffrey Quill, O.B.E., A.F.C.) ^'•:J;:-::^O. :;::^^^ SIRES OF THE SWIFT A FORTY-YEAR RECORD OF SUPERMARINE ACHIEVEMENT Part 1. The Pattern of Progress A MAN who helped to keep things lively in the early days of British flying (in deed, throughout his career) was Noel Pemberton Billing, and when he died in 1948 he was remembered and respected for a wide variety of ideas and achievements. We are concerned with him here as the founder of the great Supermarine organization, whose fortieth birthday is honoured this year. P.B.'s enthusiasm for aeronautics dated from the early 1900s, and in 1912, while he was dwelling aboard a three-masted schooner moored in the Itchen, he took over premises at Woolston for the construction of aircraft—especially those of the marine persuasion. _ One of P.B.'s resolutions being to build "a boat that will fly rather than an aeroplane that will float," he registered the name Supermarine as his telegraphic address, and the remarkable tractor flying-boat which he exhibited at Olympia in March 1914 was styled Supermarine P.B.I. It was acclaimed as one of the cleanest aircraft, irrespective of class, constructed up to that time and the workmanship was exquisite. The circular-section hull had steps built on as separate units. June 1914 saw the business transformed into a limited company—Pemberton Billing, Ltd.—with an initial nominal share capital of £20,000. The two subscribers were P.B. himself and Alfrednie Broughton, and hardly had the business been re constituted under their directorship when Britain went to war. Thus, Flight of August 14th, 1914: — " 'Hustle' is the order of the day at the Supermarine works at Southampton just now, and the latest product is a small scout ing biplane. In his breezy way Mr. Pemberton Billing has given the timetable of the progress of the first P.B.9, as these machines are to be known. The decision to turn out the scout was not come to until Monday, when the draughtsmen attacked the problem of forthwith getting out the designs. To such effect did they work, that by Tuesday actual construction was commenced, and by the following Tuesday the machine was ready to take the air." A full description of the little scout appeared in the following issue, so that something of a record for aeronautical journalism, as well as for aircraft construction (and perhaps for security lax- ness also), seems to have been established. Which leads us to reflect that, in present circumstances, a full description of Super- marine's latest fighter, the Swift, or of its Rolls-Royce turbojet, is unlikely to be authorized for many months, or even years, to come. G
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