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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1447.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2490 Vol 70 FRIDAY 12 OCTOBER 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 Hiffe 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 1, Ontario 67 Yonge Street Telephone • Empire 6-0873 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 602 Bristolian 603 Decca Mark 10 605 International Astronautical Congress in Rome 606 Flying the G 82 607 Cutaway Cutlass 608 Uphill Landing 610 Widgeon in the Air 614 Across the Bridge to Rotterdam 616 Thrust 620 Plain Words on Traffic Control 621 Morocco-Bound Signing up a Star CROSS a not-so-azure main there flashed last week some heartening news of Britannia, the lady who promises to touch American hearts and billfolds with all the charm and success of Miss Diana Dors herself. The New World talent scouts, of course, have had their eye on this British beauty since her coming-out in 1952; and on her first American tour, under the management of the shrewd and enterprising Peter Masefield, she endeared herself as much by the incomparable modulation of her voice as by her Junoesque loveliness of form (not to mention her homely, though wholly becoming, virtue of thrift). How wretched, then, that the premature announcement of her first American contract should have so incensed Northeast Airlines, Inc., her new sponsors, that they should have postponed the signing out of hand, and with what unanimity right-thinking citizens acclaimed impresario Masefield in his public denunciation of the culprit as an ass. Happily there is good reason to hope that, when this is read, harmony will have been quite restored. That the contract will be a felicitous piece of business for Mr. G. E. Gardner, president of Northeast, is clear from a reported statement. "We found ourselves in the happy position," he said, "of wanting the world's foremost turbo-propeller airliner, and finding it available two or three years ahead of any comparable American-made aeroplane." On every count, he added, the Britannia rated "tops" in comparison with other present-day transport aircraft. There we have the considered opinion of an evaluation team of engineering and operating executives which the Northeast chief had sent to Bristol; and though that assessment could hardly be refuted, we must nevertheless acclaim the generosity of the terms in which Mr. Gardner made his declaration. There are those, of course, in this country as well as in the U.S.A., who would lose no time in pointing out that these are the words of a man who has contracted to buy new equipment and who finds himself faced with the job of selling it to a fickle public. That is right enough; but Mr. Gardner's golden opinion has had the enthusiastic support of other American officials and engineers in public and private comment. We recall, too, that when apprised of the rigorous schedule for the Britannia's American tour several airline executives expressed dubiety, if not downright disbelief. In the event, of course, the Britannia conducted herself like the lady she is, and Eddie Rickenbacker, the case-hardened president of Eastern Airlines, had to admit that to complete without serious snag a 24,000-mile trip (taking in New York, San Diego Los Angeles, Vancouver, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Washington, Ottawa and Montreal) would have tried one of his somewhat demode Hollywood queens. Alarm in^the TowerF OR its sheer intricacy air traffic control might be likened to a game of three- dimensional chess, in which there are but a few seconds for contemplation of the moves. The players are the traffic control officers, and as the rules of the game have increased in complexity they have been feeling more and more disturbed about the impending stalemate. The British players put their feelings into words last week (as recorded on page 620) at the first convention of the Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers. Their report, coming as it did from the men who are nearest to the problem, should leave no doubts about the perilously inadequate state of the United Kingdom's air traffic control system. The report is not mere gloom-mongery: it is wisdom before the event—the sort of tragic event which, in the U.S.A., has resulted in "national emergency" measures for the improvement of that country's A.T.C. system. A good deal of choking undergrowth needs clearing away before the root of the problem—the conflicting interests of military and civil aircraft—can be tackled. But the Guild's report contains solid proposals which could be developed forth- with. They would lead to the obviously inevitable joint military and civil control of Britain's air space—a Trinity House of the air.
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