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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1510.PDF
664 FLIGHT, 20 November 1953 FROM ALL QUARTERS . . . done during his period of office and for the personal affection shown him. Referring to the painting of his portrait (which now hangs on the walls of Coastal Command H.Q. in company with pictures of the previous commanders) he expressed gratitude to all who had subscribed. Of relations with the Naval commands he said that there had been differences of opinion but no malice. This sentiment was taken further by a subsequent speaker, Admiral Sir George Creasy. At the conclusion of the evening Sir Alick Stevens, wearing his new three-peaked hat, departed in a specially constructed Land Rover cum air/sea rescue launch drawn by senior officers and with A. Cdre. Ryley at the wheel (picture, page 663). To mark the significance of the occasion, the bridge of this craft was adorned with the two brass cannon which normally guard the main entrance to the Mess. Follands for the Fleet ? EXISTENCE of a Folland project for "an interesting naval aircraft of advanced design" is revealed in the company's statement to shareholders, circulated in advance of last week's annual general meeting, which was held at Hamble with the chairman, Mr. C. L. HilL, presiding. The company, we learn, are not prepared to divulge any details yet awhile, but it may safely be assumed that this project—which is entirely a private venture—will show some revolutionary features, introduced by Mr. W. E. W. Petter and his design staff—and that if and when the necessary decisions have been made, a prototype will materialize in a surprisingly short time. The statement made reference, also, to the Folland light fighter, the Gnat, saying that construction of two prototypes had "gone ahead apace" and mat one of them was likely to fly towards the end of next year. The company, it is stated, sus tained a severe set-back when the development of a new engine which had been specified for the Gnat was stopped during last year. Other arrangements, however, were ncaring completion, and the aircraft would be flown with an engine of smaller capacity than originally intended. [This, we understand, is the Armstrong Siddeley Viper.] Follands were hopeful that an engine with the thrust ultimately required would be forthcoming in time for production aircraft. Other points emerging from the statement were that, feeling there was room for a light, simple type of ejector seat, the company had made arrangements for British and Common wealth production and development of seats made by the Swedish Saab company; and that current Folland contracts for aircraft- component manufacture included large orders from de Havillands, with other important work for Bristols, Hawkers and the M.o.S. In reviewing the year's business, the chairman's statement said that, in spite of difficulties in still further expanding the factory capacity available, there had been an increase of 20 per cent in output. Profit was £195,758 as compared with £173,282 for the previous year, but taxation in the period under review had swallowed an even greater proportion of the margin. Fairey Chief on "Outrageous" Taxation SOME forthright remarks on the subject of taxation were also made at another annual general meeting last week, that of die Fairey Aviation Co. Ltd. The speaker was Sir Richard Fairey, die chairman, and his observations were linked to some equally trenchant remarks on the question of nationalization. He began by remarking, bluntly, that his company's increased profits for die year were more than wiped out by additional provision for taxation, which amounted to no less than £641,654. "This is literally an outrageous proportion of our earnings," he said, "and I do not know how long industry as a whole can be expected to stand these exactions." Since the war, for every £1 the company had paid in dividends, it had paid £5 in taxation, and in some cases the dividends themselves were further taxed. With taxation at its present level, directors were forced into die inflationary policy of raising new capital for purposes which ought to be financed out of the proceeds of current operations. By way of a crowning insult added to injury, it had happened to some of the older-established industries mat after they had been milked by taxation of the funds that would have enabled them to remain in a profit-earning condition, they were first accused of inefficiency and dien nationalized. This brought Sir Richard to the subject of nationalization, so often proposed, of the aircraft industry; and he went on to recall some early history—that of "nationalized" aircraft manufacture, by the Royal Aircraft Factory, just before World War I. He continued: — "It was announced in die House of Commons that they had at Farn-borough the 'best brains in the world,' and would in future make all the aircraft needed by die Royal Flying Corps. At about die same time it was announced by another highly-placed defender of this policy that no aeroplane would ever need an engine of more dian 70 h.p. (in view of die fact mat we have reached the stage in development when die equivalent of 20,000 h.p. is being installed in relatively small experi mental aircraft this gives a clear idea of what technical progress would have been like under a nationalized industry). "This policy was put into effect; but, with a measure of foresight for which the country should be profoundly grateful, the Admiralty took the opposite view. They said diey would support this small and struggling private industry, and, as far as very limited means permitted them, they did so. "It emerged at the outbreak of the First World War tiiat the earlier products of die Royal Aircraft Factory were extremely difficult to build by repetition production methods and were quite inadequate for their purpose; indeed, they earned for themselves the name of 'Fokker fodder' and for a time we lost the command of the air. The War Office had to turn to the private industry which had been fostered by the Admiralty and to beg for their privately built aircraft. Then came the days of such famous aircraft as the Bristol Fighter, the D.H.4 and 9, the Sopwith Camel, and the Handley Page 0-400 bombers. The command of the air was regained, a strategic air force was rendered possible and the British industry established a leadership in military design which, I submit, it has never lost. "Arising out of all this came an official undertaking that Farnborough would never build another aeroplane; and it will be noted that it never has." After acknowledging that since those days the Government had co-operated with the industry, with excellent results, Sir Richard recalled that there was some slight revival of the clamour in 1935, when Mr. Ramsay Macdonald set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the private manufacture of armaments. The out come was that the industry was given a clean slate and the "green light" to go ahead without change of method. "These facts may not have been known to the late Socialist Government," said Sir Richard, "but they certainly were known to their Air Force and Naval advisers, and accordingly it will be noticed mat although our innocent brethren operating civil air lines were nationalized, the 'merchants of deauV remained free." Sir Richard Fairey concluded his address by reviewing current progress and future prospects in the company's affairs. His allusions to fixed wing aircraft and helicopters mainly concerned developments of which news has already appeared in our pages; in his remarks on Fairey guided missile work he was, of course, guarded—though an allusion to "another secret project. . . which keeps us in the field of modern jet-driven aircraft" raises some interesting speculations. A Question of Perspective AN item in the November issue of The Log, journal of the British • Air Line Pilots' Association, reads as follows: — "With the spate of publicity associated with the almost daily changes of the world air speed record, our worthy aeronautical Press appears to have overlooked the most significant news item of post-war aviation. This is contained in the modest announcement of the United States Secretary for Air that, owing to the longer life which it had been found possible to give to turbine engines, it had become practicable to save between $400,000,000 and $500,000,000 worth of engine orders while not affecting the production of a single aircraft. "This is the sort of announcement which the aviation world has been awaiting for years. Since the war it has watched the engine failure rate of piston engines increase steadily according to their size and there appeared to be no turning point to die graph. . . . But we now have information from the greatest consumer of jet engines that he finds from experience that he can approximately halve the number of spare engines required, thereby indicating that the failure rate is coming down to something like the pre-war level of the simple piston engine. This is what we had hoped, but up till now the sample has been too small to judge. Only The Times, with its discerning eye, appears to have thought this worth reporting." These remarks, we feel, call for comment. In the first place, the U.S.A.F. has, since August, reshuffled its entire aircraft and engine programmes. As a general result it can be said that all the types now in production have been adversely affected in order to concentrate on newer types. This is particularly true of engines— every current type of engine has been cut back or eliminated widi the exception of the J57, production of which has been increased. Turbojets are, of course, getting more efficient and are showing longer useful lives. Overhaul times, too, are increasing and show no sign of levelling off yet. But to suggest that the cuts are of any great consequence is to miss the point. Defence Secretary Charles Wilson says it is just like "ordering a pound of beef and finding you only want half a pound." The U.S.A.F. had little to go upon when tiiey began to set up spare-part schedules for really large numbers of turbojets and they now find they have—to give an example—over 6,000 J47s lying in tin boxes spread all round the world. As the B-47 and F-86 have been cut back as well it is hardly surprising that General Electric are hard hit. All the "second-source" firms—Studebaker, Nash, Packard, Lincoln-Mercury, Buick—have been cut and should finish engine work in a few months. Only Ford are kept in, because they are making the J57—which, as Talbott has said, is "the Air Force's future engine." The cuts save 400-500 million dollars and although the engines are in fact better than expected, this is not the whole story.
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