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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0129.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 No. 2347 Vol. 65. FRIDAY, 15 JANUARY 1954 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, Dean sg ate. Telegrams, lliffe, Manchester. Telephone, Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2 lines). GLASGOW, C2 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: Martin Canberra Developments - - - 60 Sabres and Furies - - - 63 Fokker S.14 in the Air - 68 Helicopter Development - 73 Manufacture and Main tenance ----- 74 B.E.A.'s Engineering Base 80 Achievement and Prospect F OR more than one reason it was gratifying to observe the wide publicity and response accorded to a remark made by Sir Thomas Sopwith, chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Group, in his annual statement. First, the reaction to his contention that Britain's "long lead in jet power has not only been cut down but in certain respects lost," clearly reflects a growing appreciation by the educated public of the importance of our aircraft industry. Secondly, it is always pleasant to have one's own stated convictions confirmed by someone at the fountain-head. There can be no further excuse—if any had previously existed—for complacency or inaction. Following his remark quoted above, Sir Thomas went on to say: — "I think we are jeopardizing our position through timidity—and we are nurturing that timidity with complacency. We as a nation should now be spending much greater sums of money on high- altitude and high-speed research . . . We should probe far beyond it and go higher and higher into the stratosphere with our research work so that these things which are mysteries now will be commonplace tomorrow ... "The drive and imagination of our scientists has contributed vitally to the development of atomic power, but where are our research projects for applying nuclear fission to aircraft pro pulsion? We should be working on this now?" We may, perhaps, be excused for repeating a few sentences from our recent leading articles, not in any "we-told-you-so" spirit, but to stress our convictions and join forces with Sir Thomas. On April 17th last year, under the heading "Time for the Next Step," we referred in some detail to American plans for atomic power units. We spoke of the importance of good timing and courageous planning, and in addition quoted Air Com modore Banks—"Remember that failure to take the next step to order a new engine may mean ten years in the wilderness." We concluded our remarks by stating that pre occupation with the many other problems and developments must not lead us to overlook or delay preparation for the next step which had already been taken in America. Less than two months ago we wrote of research: — "There is no doubt that in the coming years aircraft, both military and civil, will travel faster and faster above the speed of sound and above our atmosphere. The practical knowledge required to design the aircraft and their control systems and to build, equip and operate them successfully is being accumulated by America and scarcely at all by ourselves." The warning included in the chairman's statement was regarded as so important that it was inevitably singled out in many newspaper reports to the exclusion of almost every thing else, and what can justly be described as a meaty, readable and very encouraging review of the Group's activities received less attention than it deserved. Among passages of particular interest were those in which he pointed out the relationship between size of orders, rate of production, extent and cost of tooling, and the risk of inflexibility when extensive jigging and tooling is employed. He added a constructive suggestion, over looked in all the reports we have seen: "I would say to any keen young man with good technical qualifications who wants to become an aircraft designer: why not instead consider a career as a production engineer?" On another production matter he said: "High Duty Alloys have made an outstanding contribution to the production of axial compressor engines by the development and production of close-to-form compressor blades. They are today the leading manufac turer in Europe of compressor blades." Little more than a year ago the blade-production bottleneck, as it was often termed, was regarded as an international problem. Much work still remains to be done, but the progress made in a short time has been most creditable. Other noteworthy and encouraging disclosures concerned Sapphire pro duction at Brockworth, which is ahead of schedule, and progress with guided missiles. Towards the end of his remarks Sir Thomas gave it as his opinion that it is in the display of flexibility, the ability to face up to new problems as they arise from day to day and find the right answers to them, that private enterprise is unequalled: "It provides leadership and vision instead of the dead hand of bureaucracy . . ." His concluding offer and challenge to the Government to co-operate in exploring new fields should be taken up without delay. Supersonic research aircraft are one necessity. "Let us be bold. Let there be no hesitation," he says. And drawing once more on our earlier writing we ourselves would reiterate: "Any thought of resting on our laurels must be forgotten. Bold action and heavy expenditure on research will alone keep this country among the leaders."
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