FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0761.PDF
PART 1 • ONE MAN'S WEEK by C. M. Lambert G 'HERE can be nothing in the world quite likethe Paris Show. During the exhibition weekthat culminates in the final comprehensive flying demonstrations it is a free-for-all ofdemonstration flying, joy-riding and general more or less serious aeronautical amusement. This year three days were reservedrespectively for commercial aviation, rescue and ambulance demonstrations and helicopter flying—in fact, helicopters andfixed-wing aircraft were busy until about 8 p.m. every day. French- men, Englishmen, Germans, Czechs and Poles all got into the airand showed the paces of their products, or demonstrated them to passengers. While the helicopters leapt up and down, the smallaircraft aerobatted; and through it all, as if nothing else were happening, came the civil airliners and the U.S.A.F. Globe-masters and B-47s. To everyone's surprise, close calls were few. Sandwiched between descriptions of aircraft and appeals forparents to collect lost children, there were urgent loudspeaker appeals to demonstrating pilots not to start their engines beforethey had got their aircraft clear of the milling crowds of spectators. So those who wanted to fly wheeled their aircraft laboriouslythrough the crowds; the bowsers turned up as if by magic; and off <vent the aeroplanes on their various sorties. Through it all,inquisitive schoolchildren fingered every morsel of aeroplane in their reach—and stretched or jumped to touch what was furtheraway. At the more critical moments the police restrained the crowds with Gallic firmness and kept them within the broad limits.The public ooh-ed and aah-ed and loved every dusty, windy minute of it. It was the aeronautical beano to end all beanos. There were many indoor stands, but relatively few exhibitors'tents outside. Among technicians and sales representatives there was an easy camaraderie interspersed with keen appraisal of oneanothers' projects. There was little lavish entertainment and everyone was accessible. The host of journalists from all countrieswere excellently supplied with comprehensive information and contacts by the Press section of the U.S.I.A. Such assistancewas sorely needed, for very few French companies are as yet individually aware of the benefits or importance of good publicrelations and publicity. The events of the first week-end were described in last week'sissue. Subsequent days saw the arrival of many more aircraft, each taking its place somewhere in the great outdoor park. Aski-wheel Piper Super Cub joined the Apache and Tri-Pacer; the Klemm three-seater arrived; the Payen Katy (now withspatted undercarriage), the Aerfer Sagittario 2 and a second Durandal landed. There came, too, the German Multoplan, withpropeller between fin and rudder; a Folland Gnat; and the Aubert Super Cigale in Air France flying-club colours. On the far side ofthe field the piloted Atar Volant was visible and a SS-10 launching jeep appeared; the Alize hummed in late one evening, and theFairey Ultra-Light arrived on its lorry; an Aquilon landed and had two Nord 5103 missiles attached to it; the Jodel-WassmerD.I20 Paris-Nice checked in; and a single Hunter landed from Germany and was later joined by a rather worn Venom F.B.4.By Wednesday, the loudspeakers told us, 32,400 people had visited the Caravelle fuselage mock-up. And by Thursday, thehelicopter day, there were no fewer than 45 rotary-wing craft to make a great threshing and twittering fly-past and massed landing.They included Djinns, Alouettes, Bell 47s, a Hiller, Vertol 44s, Whirlwinds, a Skeeter, an Ultra-Light, Sycamores and the SM-1. The wind blew dust over everything and everyone, the sunbeat down, the crowds milled everywhere and the sky was permanently dotted with aircraft. In this atmosphere I went the rounds, talking to many peopleand filling in the background to knowledge of current French aeronautical activity. The fighter and ground-support situation,for instance, seems to be as follows. There are both French and NATO programmes for the light-fighter role. French require-ments are based on two engines, and the Breguet 1100 therefore has two Gabizos. The Aeronavale is strongly interested in thismachine and a deck-landing version is coming along. The Mirage III, with a single Atar engine, is an Air Force intercepter. It seemscertain that the two Nord private ventures, the Gerfaut and Griffon, are not to be ordered and that the S.E.212 Durandal isalso an unlikely starter; reasons are not clear. The NATO support- aircraft are Breguet 1001, Dassault Etendard VI and Fiat G.91,all to be powered by the Orpheus 12, which is reported to have much more thrust than present marks and to be rather larger.Comparative trials in September will decide the production con- tract winner. The Fiat has apparently not won outright. The Sipa company showed a model of their 1100 twin-enginedground-support machine; and ten of these, it seems, are to be built straight away (the company will say nothing about armament).Parallel with this is the Sud Fonceur, also twin-engined, about which there is no information at all; two prototypes are ordered.In the small support-aircraft category there are the Potez 75, of which ten pre-production examples are on order, with a probablerequirement for 100 in all. The Potez 91 is a single-engined attack aircraft in the same class, but no details are released. MoraneSaulnier have revived the 1500 Epervier turboprop project, but it does not conform to the same scheme. Sipa are now so busywith various missile and target projects and with the production of Broussard fuselages that manufacture of the Coccinelle has hadto be postponed, though a single machine has been delivered to the Argentine. A C. of A. has been granted and orders for about 300Coccinelles should be immediately forthcoming. I settled down with Dassault to talk about the new fighters. TheEtendard is a scaled-down Mystere, with 45-deg leading-edge sweep, 2 deg 30 min anhedral and a 6 per cent wing. TheEtendard II was an interim machine with two Gabizos and has now been abandoned. The Atar-powered IV is for the FrenchAir Force, although a marine version is also foreseen. Present engine is the Atar E4 of 8,160 lb thrust, but production aircraftwould have the Atar 8 of 9,700 lb. The VI has an Orpheus 3. NATO have apparently classified 35 different types of unpre-pared surface from which aircraft may be required to operate, ranging from ploughed land to English lawn, and tyre pressuresand sizes are arranged according to the type of ground which has to be used. Etendard IV armament includes a 2x30 mm gun-pack or a The heading picture shows the Borodeur touching down on its skids.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
