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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1645.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2343 Vol. LXIV. FRIDAY, 18 DECEMBER 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 S210. 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: Viscounts from Hum All-weather Landings - Integral Experiment - - Aspects of Combustion - Trials from Eagle - - For Escort Carriers - - Helicopter Ground Resonance - - - - Award for Ability - - B 802 805 807 809 812 814 815 818 International Airworthiness A MERICAN airworthiness certificates for Comets still seem to be far away and /\ the subject continues to be surrounded with doubts and some mystery. One -«-•. thing, however, is certain: that America, with or without jet transports of her own, should by now have been able to formulate national requirements in all the essentials if not in great detail. This is a necessary preliminary. International agreements, particularly those of a technical nature, always take a long time to work out. This was a fact which the chairman of the Air Registration Board had in mind when preparing his 1951 annual report. He pointed out that the likelihood of design-novelties being included in each new type of aircraft meant that I.C.A.O. certification could be applied only to older classes of aeroplane. Then he stated: "I believe that if I.C.A.O. were to set itself the very modest target of establishing important fundamental requirements, filling in details only when stability has been achieved, more fruitful progress would be made." He added: "The Board is satisfied that British civil airworthiness requirements, which were the first to embody full international standards, provide an example which may be followed with confidence." Obviously, if international standards can be agreed a great deal of time and trouble is going to be saved; but here we should discriminate between the significance of, on the one hand, acceptance of and compliance with I.C.A.O. standards so far as they go and, on the other, of reciprocal acceptance of national airworthiness certificates between two countries. The former is expected for operation by one country of a nationally certificated aircraft into or over other I.C.A.O. countries. The latter clears the way for the licensing and operation of a foreign aircraft in the country of the purchaser. Already there is mutual acceptance of C.s of A. between Britain and America for piston-engined aircraft, and we believe that sooner or later, when America has experience of turbine transports, these, too, will be included. At the moment, however, it seems that other, non-technical, forces are preventing such agreement. We say "non-technical" because, so far as can be ascertained, discussions of technical matters between the A.R.B. and its American counterpart have always resulted in a reasonable measure of agreement and the resolution of problems. Sometimes the only difference of opinion is in the phraseology; the English and American languages are by no means identical. Even where a C. of A. for a piston-engined airliner is mutually acceptable the requisite documents differ considerably in the two countries. So far as the C. of A. for the Comet 3 is concerned, and considering only the technical aspect, some Americans have suggested that tiiey are being asked in effect for a carte blanche because no such flying machine exists as yet. We understand that fundamental technical requirements have, in fact, been largely settled and that even die outstanding details such as single versus double pressure-windows may well be agreed in good time. Following months of experience, incidentally, British opinion even more firmly favours the single-pane pressure window. We note that Mr. Grover Loening, in an address at the recent convention banquet, at Wichita, of the National Aviation Trades Association, made some pertinent sugges tions about airworthiness certificates. We are not yet in possession of the full text or background to his speech, and therefore make no comment other than that implied by quotation of extracts here. Mr. Loening called for a five-year moratorium on the C.A.A.'s requirement for airworthiness certificates. He thought that Government supervision of aircraft designs had hampered new development and that "these rules and regulations in general only represent die good practice of existing aircraft of the previous year. If there is a departure in design, new rules and regulations must be written before any [aircraft] can be made." The airworthiness certification law was based, he said, on two false assumptions. The first was that "the prospective buyer knows so litde about aircraft that he needs the protection of a benevolent Government . . ."; the other was that "the constructor is so badly informed on air technique and aircraft engineering that he needs a handbook from the Government..." It appears that these suggestions for a reform of C.A.A. methods are of a sweeping nature. For our part we have no doubts about the value of the work of our own A.R.B. or of the appreciation by the industry of the way in which it is carried out.
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