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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1275.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2485 Vol 70 FRIDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 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 4-5631 New York 6, N.Y. Ill Broadway Telephone • Digby 9-1197 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas • Twelve Months, £4 10s. V.S.A. and Canada, $14.00 In this issue 425 More About the Gyron Junior 426 Still-better Big Tubojete 427 Top-Drawer Top-Dresser 429 The 17th S.B.A.C. Show 439 The Display Pilots 443 Production in Progress 448 Background to Farnborough 451 An Air War in Germany 454 Riding the Mistral 456 Brief Encounter Thoughts Before ActionW HAT an infernal internal fluttering of butterflies we experienced over the week-end, while the editorial and photographic teams were steeling themselves for the coming assault on Farnborough! But whereas the butterflies were assured of conditions favourable to success the portents for our own venture could hardly have been less sympathetic. The met. chart read with all the promise of a contract cut-back and, rally ourselves as we might with recollec- tions of doughty deeds done in bygone years under the lowest of Farnborough skies, we were quite unable to tap the barometer of our spirits beyond "Set Foul." From the shrouds of their rain-checks American visitors tendered tentative tup- pences to sodden news vendors to be apprised that the P.I (a golden hope this year—coming in at Mach 0.98, whipping into a 6-g turn, etc.) would be a non- starter. And though, in their good-neighbourly way, they reminded us that a canopy-jinx can settle on the best-regulated development programme, we remained inconsolable—and full of butterflies. By Sunday morning the met. was beyond profanity and our customary recce of Farnborough appeared the merest folly. On every hand the dirge arose "Nothing new this year." Then suddenly, as we traversed the Hog's Back, the tiniest speck of blue shone through, and by the time we were on the airfield the whole prospect had brightened at least to the point of hope. We conclude this on the mellowest of English Sunday evenings, with the sun getting low over Laffan's Plain. Most of the aeroplanes are here; and some of them—if only in respect of equipment—are of uncommon interest. "The static," too, is full of promise, as we have witnessed. What tomorrow may bring later pages will tell. But right now those Farnborough butterflies lie as quiet as if they had been doused by an E.P.9 or Agricola. Merchant VenturersT HAT small area of London Airport over which the statues of Alcock and Brown now preside has recently witnessed two stirring episodes in the history of British enterprise in the marketing of civil airliners. The first was the arrival home last December of the de Havilland Comet 3 from its "back-in- business" tour round the world. The second, last week, was the arrival home of the Britannia from its dollar-chasing tour of North America. The customer's polite attentiveness becomes especially eager when the brochure and the sales talk are replaced, or at any rate backed up by, the actual aeroplane which the customer can feel and fly from his own airfield. "Tangible hardware," we believe, is no better than paperware if it is not displayed with vigorous and aggressive showmanship. But there is another facet of salesmanship no less vital to success, and one which, we believe, is in keeping with the national character. This, paradoxical though it may seem, is the need for belief in the rival product. The "unselling" of tie opposition—howsoever absurd some of their claims may seem—is an unconvincing and negative substitute for the straightforward selling of one's own product. We have previously recorded on this page Boeing's reply to our suggestion that the 707 seemed more likely to be on time than the DC-8. "Don't worry," they said, "Douglas will be right on schedule." This reassurance of their awareness of what they are up against did not diminish our confidence in the 707. We are certain that the tide in the affairs of Britain's civil airliners is being taken at the flood, and that it will lead on to great fortune. And one of the signs, displayed by the Comet and the Britannia, is that the most effective way to deliver a brochure is to wrap it up in the aeroplane concerned and send it by air. That may be an expensive way of sending it; but Mr. Peter Masefield's estimate that the recent American tour cost Bristol about the same amount as a Britannia tailplane put the cost into perspective. It seems likely that many tail- planes, with fuselages, wings and engines attached, will be sold as a result.
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