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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1735.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 <^^ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2549 Vol 72 FR I D A Y 29 NO VE MBER 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 llifte and Sons Ltd. Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.1 Telephone • Waterloo 3333 Telegrams • Flightpres Sedist London BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street ;;i. > :--K 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 Os Od. Canada and U.S.A. $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges author- ised at New York, N.Y. In this issue 828 831 833 835 837 843 844 845 856 Russia's New Airliners British Air Safety Standards Power Generation in Missiles J omanche Wessex lissiles and Aircraft 'oppler in Operation he Sopwitfa Tabloid,1 'hneider and Baby—Part IV assive Refrigeration Archetypes in AeronauticsW E touched last week on some technical aspects of Dr. Lachmann's paper The Aircraft Designer's Dilemma. Following a distinctively Handley Page tradition that same paper was rich in picturesque and (need we add?) biblical allusion; and from it we take our text this week. We begin at a point where Dr. Lachmann reached back into his youth to recall a certain Inspector of the German Air Force who, in a special order, admonished dilatory pupils at the flying schools. This order culminated in the prediction that the aviator of the future would have to be a hybrid, based on the circus director Rentz (a counter- part of Bertram Mills); the scientist Einstein; and the Indian goddess Durga—a many-armed and horrible deity of destruction, but one who was also revered as a benefactress. In later years Dr. Lachmann had often reflected how prophetic this order had proved; for here, in terms of Jung's psychology, were three archetypes. First, the circus director—representing the ebullient entrepreneur (a type who had con- tributed decisively to the rapid growth of aviation). Second, the scientist— symbolic of how the scientific approach permeated "the engineering art of aircraft design." And last, the goddess "whose many arms are not only symbolic of a capacity to deal with the ever increasing complexity of aircraft design, construction and operation, but also of the ambivalence of destruction and the common good which can be purpose and function of the aeroplane." But even this wondrously compounded figure failed to satisfy completely the exacting imagination of Handley Page's director of scientific research; for he himself saw fit to add another archetype—the prophet Elijah. He did this not because Elijah foresaw for his fiery chariot the use of rockets, and jets with after- burners, but because he was a prophet, and because—in all seriousness—vision, or a kind of technical second sight, was essential in the business of aircraft design. "It would be asking for too much," concluded Dr. Lachmann, "to have all these archetypes in the subconscious of one person; but they can be analysed in all successful teams of the aircraft industry in this country and abroad." Persons and Prophets A diverting half-hour could certainly be spent in identifying them with par- ticular personalities in our own industry. Immediately there come to mind some half-a-dozen "brilliant entrepreneurs." Britain, indeed, is especially well endowed with men of this stamp. In scientists, we are told, there is a marked deficiency; but we believe that such as we have are no less in stature for being British than if they were Russian or American. As for the many-armed ones—the grapplers with the hydra-headed complexities of design, construction and operation—these have always grown sturdily in our islands. So sturdily, indeed, that we are persuaded to doubt Dr. Lachmann's belief that it is asking too much to have all the archetypes "in the subconscious of one person." We could name one man at least whose interests and accomplishments commend him very strongly for just that distinction. All in all, then, we need have little fear of a spectral visitation from the erstwhile Inspector of the German Air Force. It is, however, Dr. Lachmann's Elijahs who can best serve our industry in these times of ruthless commercial and technical competition—those especially who bear aloft the fiery symbols BLC, VTOL and STOL. We can think of one "ebullient entrepreneur" in British aviation who would willingly exchange a whole bevy of scientists for a "man of ideas" (as he names his conception of a prophet). That we do possess such men is proved by developments like the Rolls-Royce Bedstead, the Short SCI and Saunders-Roe SR.53, the Griffith supersonic jet-lift delta proposal, the principles of the jet flap and jet deflection, the steam catapult, the angled deck—and doubtless by many another development in the shrouded world of missiles. The Elijahs are still among us. But if they pass unhonoured in their own country, whether by tardy recognition or scant encouragement,-some grim visitation will surely befall.
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