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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1439.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ^ and " - - AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2541 Vol 72 FR I DA Y 4 OCTOBER 1 957 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 BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street Telephone • Coventry 5210 Birmingham King Edward House, New Street, 2 Telephone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) Manchester 260 Deansgate, 2 Telephone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines) Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow 26B Renfield Street, C.2 Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) Toronto, Ontario Thomas Skinner of Canada, Ltd. 67 Yonge Street, 1 Telephone • Empire 6-0873 New York, N.Y. Thomas Skinner and Co. (Publishers), Ltd. Ill Broadway, 6 '• Telephone • Digby 9-1197 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION Home £4 15s Od, overseas £5 0s Od. Canada and U.S.A. $15.00. Entered as second-class matter at Post Office, New York, N.Y. in this issue 532 Britain's Private Viscount Operator 535 Callsign Jet Speedbird 536 Flying Down to Rio 539 Beside the Bamboo Curtain 542 Ground-handling Aircraft 543 Canadair Argus 550 Strikeback 552 Roadable Aircraft Towards the Cataport ?I N the multi-jet wake of the 600-m.p.h. transports a wrack of problems, some familiar, others newly recognized, is trailing ominously, and threatening to encompass the swift craft. And as the menace is seen to subside in one direc- tion, it heaves up sharply in another. In the councils of the airlines, where only a few months back a brash confidence prevailed, a heavy anxiety is felt. On the technical side the problems of noise-suppression and thrust-reversal are being mastered; but only with concessions in performance and simplicity. It is, indeed, the accruing complexity of the whole business—the business of intro- ducing the "simple" jet aeroplane—that gives rise to the new malaise. To the inventory of operational aids the braking parachute may yet be added. This week (p. 559) we write of a new silent-taxying aid; and already there is posi- tive interest among American operators in runway arrester gear. An engineer of T.W.A., for example, declares that his airline "would like to see the development of an over-run barrier capable of stopping commercial transports." Such a device, in his opinion, could probably save "some aircraft." Then the United Air Lines' director of flight safety reports that "several proposals have been made to the air- lines concerning over-run barriers," adding that the subject was larger than any one company and properly came within the jurisdiction of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. For their own part, the C.A.A. say that they have "formed no opinions concerning over-run barrier requirements for commercial aircraft"— a declaration which some would consider to smack of departmental insouciance. Though the operators, quite naturally, are resolved that their swift new giants shall not be subjected to the indignities and penalties of excrescences for the engagement of the barrier, the E. W. Bliss Co. (one of three American concerns prominent in the energy-absorption business) already sees as "the next step" the installation of arrester gear. And the next step to what? To something which Aviation Week describes as a fully integrated concept—the "Cataport"—for "boosting planes into the air, arresting them at land, and trapping them in case they overshoot." Thus, if any speculator in these vexing days should be thinking twice about putting his money into the airline industry, he might do well to plump for machinery—in the first instance for the mixing of concrete in ever-increasing quantities; in the second for mechanical haulage; and then for the acceleration and deceleration of heavy, fast-moving bodies. As Ithers See UsI T is good for us all, as Robert Burns implied, to see ourselves occasionally as others see us; and two comments from abroad last week on the British aircraft industry have a refreshing tang of originality. Thus Herr Ziegler, editor of Flug-Revue, who not only went to Farnborough but visited factories beforehand, writes that "the compactness of the British aircraft industry is really magnificent." He says further: "If a country as small as the United Kingdom can manage to unite more than 300 entrants at a show where foreign concerns are not represented and all of which, without exception, show the most modern tools and the latest machines and aircraft, then I must say 'Hearty congratulations!' " But by the same post, so to speak, comes Russia's first official comment on Famborough—a typically sour remark in the Soviet Army newspaper Red Star that the British aviation industry is "still behind in the solution of many technical problems" and that it "needs . . . business contacts with other countries." Perhaps the S.B.A.C.—which has just published figures (see news-item on page 530) showing that aero-engine exports for August were among the highest ever recorded, almost equalling those of airframes and components—should take note. Or is it that, from Russia's point of view, we are exporting to the wrong countries? If so, no doubt British manufacturers will be happy to accept Russian orders for Viscounts, Vanguards, Britannias and Comets.
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