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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1511.PDF
RST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2543 Vol 72 FRIDAY 1 8 OCTOBER 1 957 or URICE A. SMITH D.F.C. AND BAR >ciate Editor :. KING M.B.E. mical Editor r. GUNSTON iuction Editor Y CASEY e and Sons Ltd. set House nford Street don, S.E.1 •phone • Waterloo 3333 NCH OFFICES entry Corporation Street •phone • Coventry 5210 ningbam g Edward House, New Street, 2 •phone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) nchester Deansgate, 2 '.phone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines) Deansgate 3595 2 lines) sgow Renfield Street, C.2 •phone • Central 1265 (2 lines) onto, Ontario >mas Skinner of Canada, Ltd. i'onge Street, 1 '•phone • Empire 6-0873 t York, N.Y. >mas Skinner and Co. (Publishers),.id. Broadway, 6 ephone • Digby 9-1197 IUAL SUBSCRIPTION me £4 15s Od, overseas £5 0s Od. tada and U.S.A. $15.00. ered as second-class matter at Post ce, New York, N.Y. this issue Arrow Mk 1 VTOL Design Problems k Vibration Research A New Realm of Flight Operation Longshot Process of Perfection No. 5 Squadron Signpost in SpaceT HE underlying significance of the Soviet satellite is neither scientific nor military. It is true that the tiny orbiting sphere has set the whole world marvelling at the technical prowess of those who built and launched it. True also that the rocket which first projected it towards space may be related to some fearful weapon of terrestrial bombardment. But weightier by far is another truth: that many people have suddenly, and almost for the first time, found themselves thinking for themselves—and thinking thoughts so deep as to cut clean through the clinker of tendentious "comment." No misrepresentation could extinguish the speck of light; nor could the brave little "bleep" be drowned by the clamour for official inquiries and crash programmes, or for denunciation of Russian perfidy. People everywhere became suddenly aware that something very wonderful had happened: that beyond the fringes of the world a clear sign was pointing out towards discovery and adventure without limit—towards a new fraternity of science. There and then the bluster of the politicians seemed futile and the Russians somehow bigger in stature far the calm and candour of their declarations to the world. The good that their little sphere has accomplished, and the permanence of that good, cannot yet be measured. Some people have been merely frightened. Some have been jolted into acute discomfiture. Others still have been given new hope for a world wherein men of science, allied with statesmen deserving of the name, will be allowed to show the way out of a morass of miseries and fears. To these men new power must bring not arrogance but humility. From this week forward we hope increasingly to chronicle their efforts towards new worlds— and a new world. The New Liberalism MONG the changes already coming about in the conduct of the world's affairs are some very significant ones in the field of transport. Attention was drawn to the fact last Monday by Sir Reginald Wilson, a member of the British Transport Commission, in his presidential address before the Institute of Trans- port. "It is clear, I think," he said, "that the separation to which the various branches of transport were once exhorted with almost religious fervour is now on the wane. In the sphere of ownership we see liberalising tendencies like the par- ticipation of shipowners in air transport. Railways become interested in pipe-lines . .. ships are owned by road hauliers . . ." In administration, he remarked, there has been an amalgamation of the Government departments that regulate transport affairs. In politics there are public demands that all forms of transport shall work together to cure congestion and prevent wasteful duplication. And in commerce there is a continually closer inter-working. In sum, all the means of transport are increasingly mixed together, and must be used to aid each other as necessary. More than this—it is no longer a prime objective that the technical means of transport shall compete with each other as such. Competition more and more depends on offering the best combination of means for any given stream of traffic. Aircraft already provide the long haul for bus traffic, and the container van can be carried by air as well as by sea or rail. So the future of transport, like that of the world itself, seems full of oppor- tunity and challenge. Even the difficulties are similar. As Sir Reginald puts it, "If we are not to have a Tower of Babel, the operators involved must understand one another." So here is a chance for statesmen within our own industry of air transport—and for merchant venturers of the calibre of Silver City's "Taffy" Powell (whose imminent retirement, for reasons of health, we hope will be neither permanent nor protracted). For we can be thankful that ±e new liberalism will still afford scope for the prospector as well as for the speculator.
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