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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0097.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2453 Vol 69 FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 1956 Editor MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. and BAR Associate Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY Iliffe and Sons Ltd Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.I Telephone • Waterloo 3333 (60 lines) BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street Telephone • Coventry 5210 Birmingham 2 King Edward House, New Street Telephone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) Manchester 3 260 Deansgate Telephone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines) Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow C.2 26B Renfield Street Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) Toronto 2, Ontario 74 College Street Telephone • Walnut 4-5361 New York 6, N.Y. Ill Broadway Telephone • Digby 9-1197 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas • Twelve Months. £4 10s. U.S.A. and Canada, $14.00 in this issue 99 Kenya's First Air Show 103 Germany's Aviation Industry 106 A Constellation Saga 109 No. 18 Squadron 115 Boeing 707 Revelations Forebodings—I NFIRM policies, cutbacks and cancellations are favourite topics of the day among the melancholies. The winding up of the V.1000 project and the probable lopping of the Coastal Command Seamews (the Dismal Jimmies give us tiieir word) are straws in the chill wind of recession; and far worse (we have their earnest assurance) is yet to come. The most distressing aspect is that their prognostications are buttressed in some degree by last week's Admiralty announcement that the contract for Bristol 191 anti-submarine helicopters is to be cancelled in favour of anglicized Sikorsky S-58s. The Admiralty declare that, being smaller, the S-58 is better suited to the Navy's requirements; thus the cancellation can only meet with approval, for there is no greater embarrassment to a modern righting Service than unsuitable equipment. At the same time, it is deplorable that the discovery should have been made, or at least announced, after so long a period (the order was placed in 1954) and when much technical effort had been directed towards the project, for the fuselage was shortened and the undercarriage completely redesigned to meet deck-handling requirements. Happily, development of the R.A.F.'s general-purpose transport version—a type which will have a promising civil counterpart—goes forward. Rumours that yet another anti-submarine aircraft—the shore-based Shackle- ton M.R.3—was to suffer the same fate as the Naval 191 brought forth a prompt rebuttal from Avro; nevertheless, a feeling persisted that the months ahead will see more than one military contract reduced (the Valiant and Hunter have been named) and expenditure on aircraft and missiles carefully scrutinized. One writer has gone so far as to declare that the Navy, Army and R.A.F. missile programmes have already been ruthlessly slashed and that more than two-thirds of the projects have been scrapped or frozen until further notice, in recognition of the fact that "far too many firms have been allowed to take on more than they could manage and have made profits out of all of them—even those which flopped." The only official comment was that of the Air Ministry—"It is too early to say what alterations to the programme will result." Whatever the year may hold, this journal now takes the privilege and pleasure of digging the gloom-mongers sharply but cheerfully in the ribs, and affirming its faith that there will be no catastrophic visitation upon the aircraft industry at —and Portents A MERICA'S defence plans for her coming financial year were outlined last JjL week in an awesome "atomic" budget laid before Congress by President *~* Eisenhower. Providing for an increase of nearly a thousand million dollars in military allocations, it called for the doubling of expenditure on guided missiles; accelerated production of the B-52 inter-continental bomber and F-101, F-104 and F8U supersonic fighters; the building of a sixth Forrestal-class carrier; and the development of a nuclear power plant for eventual installation in vessels of that type. Sixty-four per cent of the budget was declared to be for deterring possible aggression and strengthening international alliances, and it called for a continuing increase in the nuclear-weapon stockpile. Together with "the means of delivery," this stockpile was reaffirmed by the President to be the principal deterrent to armed aggression in the world. Thus, on one side of the Atlantic we have military aircraft and missiles threatened with substantial excision, while on the other the orders mount, the tempo of production quickens, and development drives forward under a tre- mendous financial impulse.
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