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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0615.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2520 Vol71 FRID A Y M A Y 1 0 1 95 7 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 Iliffc 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 Thomas Skinner of Canada, Ltd. 67 Yonge Street Telephone • Empire 6-0873 New York 6, N.Y. Thomas Skinner and Co. (Publishers),Ltd. 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 620 Tangible Vanguard 623 Thoughts on British Missiles 626 Helicopter Blind Flying 628 Business in Great Waters 630 Napier Gazelle :; 636 Helicopters Over Pakistan 637 Competition Gliding 641 In the Dock 646 Vertol44 : Shot up — but not Down iNYBODY who leaves his money in the aircraft industry needs his head examining." This cheerful sentiment is attributed by the Stock Exchange Gazette to "a leading personality in aviation" and prefaces an article in that journal entitled "Shot Down by Sandys." As an honest attempt at interpreting the industry today we commend the article to any reader having financial interests or aspirations—with a caution against undue depression which its dominant tone of grey might engender. Generally it makes good sense. ("The plain fact of the matter is that the industry passed its cross-roads some way back, and those who realized this before the recent axe fell are still in the fight for survival: those who did not face a bleak prospect.") But also there is an under-estimation of the industry's flexibility and powers of recuperation. ("It is no use expecting those aircraft companies which have been caught out to establish successful production schemes for the manu- facture of alternative goods overnight. The way is not easy and aircraft companies are, in any event, far from being temperamentally conditioned to the hurly-burly of competitive mass-production techniques.") In this last connection the article does point out that companies like Dowty and R. B. Pullin have long been working towards a reduction in their dependence upon the aircraft industry and have succeeded to a very satisfying degree; but the fact seems to have been overlooked that there are few firms in the industry who have not chanced their arms outside their primary field—with such items as cars, buildings, industrial electronics, household appliances, industrial hydraulics, computers, armament for the Army and Navy, and marine propulsion. Since our friends of the Stock Exchange Gazette have headed their valuable appraisal in the language of air warfare, we may state our own belief in the same idiom. While perceiving that the aircraft (or, more explicitly, the aeroplane) industry has been well and truly shot-up by Mr. Sandys' salvos of missiles, we fail to discern that it has yet been shot down. There is, admittedly, a great amount of smoke which obscures the continuing affray, the occasional flashes of fire show apparent battle-damage. But the tail—no longer over-heavy—appears to be keeping well up, and stability may well have benefited from the Minister's onslaught. True, certain structural members may be in danger of falling apart; but the integrity of the airframe is not beyond hope. But enough of this grim militancy. The brighter future is in commerce. Insecure in the Knowledge . . . ^MONG readership reaction to our Flying Aids feature issue of April 12 we note with particular pleasure the comment of another "leading personality in aviation" who wondered how we had overcome the security regulations in compiling the reviews which that issue contained. The answer is that we had available only such material as had been openly published by the manufacturers concerned. Despite the fact that much of the equipment described is officially "restricted" by joint Anglo-American agreement, its existence and workings have been repeatedly disclosed in America, though stringently withheld in Britain. The American Government has recognized this situation to the extent that tighter security laws are being drafted. One result of security policies loosely applied in one area and strictly enforced in another is that a civil agency wishing to buy certain equipment learns about the still-secret products of the first area and not about those from the second— even though the latter may be better, cheaper or more closely suited to its require- ments. Such a situation obviously affects the business interests of many firms. Meanwhile, the damage caused when the information also reaches a potential enemy appears to be regarded as of secondary importance by the less security- conscious concerns; and their disclosures tend at the same time to invalidate the more tightly enforced regulations.
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