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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0070.PDF
FLIGHT, 17 January 1953 First Things First ON NOT SEEING THE SALES TREES FOR THE REORGANIZATION WOOD By a Special Correspondent SO many possible permutations and combinations of the 30major British aircraft and aero-engine firms have beensuggested in the past few weeks that there is a chance that some of our critics may lose sight of our industry's main job in1958, which is to sell its products overseas. If it fails to do so, then no amount of consortiums or combines will bring prosperity. And as well as the new projects now in the design offices thereare still the existing products to be sold, for we must recoup as much as we possibly can from our successful aircraft and guidedweapons. Whether or not-Hawkers join Bristols (for instance) to form a new company, the sales campaign for orders forHunters from those countries which are still building up their jet air forces must continue. There are several British aircraftwhich have survived a welter of real—and imaginary—troubles, have been proven by the R.A.F. or the Fleet Air Arm, and arenow available for export. How stupid it would be if we were to concentrate our energies on rationalizing ourselves, forminglarger and more efficient design teams, yet being so preoccupied that we lost the chance of selling many millions of pounds worthof our current models! Aircraft we can almost certainly expect to continue selling in1958 include the Hunter and the Canberra, and Westland and Bristol helicopters. These are first-class examples of productswhose excellence has been proved by the Services. Customers who examine them may well look to others which have alreadybeen sold abroad—the Gannet and the Sea Hawk, in particular; the Shackleton, which has so far found only one overseas buyer;and the Javelin, which has not so far found any. We are certain to meet strong opposition from the UnitedStates and Canada, who have themselves sold successfully to the sort of customers we are chasing. Sometimes, from the strictlycommercial viewpoint, the competition is unfair—there is, for example, the apparent ability of the American and Canadiangovernments to use their own funds to pay for aircraft for foreign countries. Our only answer to this sort of thing is to offer some-thing so superior that such countries will actually be willing to pay for them. One reason for the Javelin's failure to sell abroadwas undoubtedly the joint U.S. and Canadian "sale" of 100 CF-100 all-weather fighters to Belgium (though that particularblow may have been softened by the fact that the Hawker- Siddeley Group as a whole undoubtedly benefited). There is, too, a new range of military aircraft now in service,or ordered, which appear likely to interest overseas customers. There are the Sea Vixen and the Scimitar and, later inthe year, there will be the P.I and the Blackburn N.A.39. Prob- ably the most important at the moment is the P.I, becauseit is this aircraft which may yet break the American stranglehold on the NATO fighter market. For this reason English Electricare now quite clearly engaged in a strong campaign to sell the P.I to Germany, although the company is not emulating thepublicity which accompanied the unsuccessful attempt by Saunders-Roe to sell the SR.177 to the same customer. Therejection of the SR.177 has probably made English Electric cautious, but their sales effort is the right answer to the Americanattempts to sell one of four aircraft—Grumman 98J (F11F-1F) Super Tiger, Chance Vought F8U Crusader, F-104 Starfighter and F-105 Thunderchief. Nor have the Germans rejected allBritish fighters—only the SR.177. Perhaps, too, the way in which the Ministry of Supply practically became salesmen for theSR.177 may reflect upon the sales of the P.I. If all that one reads and hears is true, they practically said "The SR.177 is thebest fighter Britain can offer you." This would be no way for a Government department to behave towards an aircraft whichit had not itself bought. Selling to another government is bound up in politics, and our own Government is often tremendouslyhelpful to firms; but is it its job to recommend one aircraft and not, apparently, another? Is this the best way to sell British goods? What of the civil side? The position here is clearer, for theViscount has been in the spotlight of success for several years. Although the pace of placing orders has slackened comparedwith the time when mammoth contracts from American, Canadian and other airlines were being received, we may wellexpect Vickers' order-book to be as healthy in 12 months' time as it is today. To these chances must be added the possibilityof a number of orders for the Vanguard. It will fly this year, and already there are two orders for 20 each from B.E.A. and Trans-Canada Airlines. The VC-10, discussed elsewhere in this issue, will be offered to the world's airlines this year, and willundoubtedly be closely looked at because it is the first British airliner to use the large Rolls-Royce Conway by-pass engines. Less public recognition has been accorded to the graduallymounting Britannia orders. A proportion of these are for Trans- port Command, but the Britannia's performance with the firstcivil operators is bound to influence sales to newcomers. Sales of smaller civil aircraft continued last year and hold promise for theNew Year, but the accident last month to the Twin Pioneer was a solemn reminder that even aircraft already selling to the worldare still the concern of the engineers. This year must, then, be a year of selling. We are notoriouslybad at advertising our wares; the members of the recent Cana- dian Trade Mission praised British industry generally, but addedthat we were bad at "banging the drum." Publicity should go hand-in-hand with the salesman. We must see the end ofdoubtful "security" restrictions on our goods—restrictions imposed, one sometimes suspects, because decisions to spendpublic money are made by politicians, helped in varying degrees by their technical advisers. It is essential that back-benchers inthe West German or Australian parliaments should know far more about the goods they are asked to buy. We have all had the experi-ence of technical considerations being overruled for policy reasons. If that is done in foreign governments it may mean lost orders forBritain. We must make the politicians aware of the technical qualities of our aircraft and weapons. Talks on the future of the British industry may last for manymonths yet, and some of the ill-informed discussion will inevit- ably be harmful by creating unnecessary uncertainty in the mindsof customers and employees. Our natural love for what Pepys called "a good discourse on the general ill-state of things" is acurse upon the industry, for all is not ill, and the salesman's job will be made less difficult if such discourses are held in private.The way to achieve that is for the industry to sort itself out quickly, quietly and, above all, efficiently. Jon. Jan. Jan. Jan. Jan. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. Feb. feb FORTHCOMING EVENTS 17. Institute of Navigation: "Influence of Atmospheric Con- ditions on Radar Performance." by Dr. J. R. Saxton. 18. Aircraft Recognition Society: All-England Contest. 21. R.Ae.S.: Section Lecture: "Environments and Environ- mental Testing," by P. J. Duncton, A.F.R.Ae.S., and T. F. R. George. A.F.R.Ae.S. 22. Kronfeld Club: Film Show. 23. R.Ae.S.: Guided Flight Section: "Guidance and Control," by I. H. Bedford. 1. British Interplanetary Society: "Meteoric Hazards to Space Flight," by Dr. N. H. Langton, M.Sc, A.lnst.P. 5. Kronfeld Club: ''The Oxygen Story," by G. Melvill-Jones. 7. Helicopter Association: nWind Tunnel Testing of Heli- coDter Models," by M. S. Hooper, F.R.Ae.S. 7. A.B.A.C.: Annual Dinner. 10. Institute of Transport: Brancker Memorial Lecture: "Problems and Economics of Air Traffic," by A. Cdre. W. E. G. Mann, C.B., C.B.E., D.F.C. 12. Kronfeld Club: "Flying and Motor Racing," by R. Flock- hart. Feb. 13. R.Ae.S.: Main Lecture: "Application of the Theory of Stability in Structural Design," by H. L. Cox, F.R.Ae.S. R.Ae.S. Lectures (to Feb. 13):— Jan. 18, Birmingham, "Airworthiness for the A.R.B.," by W. Tye. Jan. 20, Halton, Film Show. Jon 21, Luton, "New Methods of Approach to Airworthiness," by W. Tye. Jan. 23, Isle of Wight, "A Bush Pilot in the For North." by R. J. P. Barber. Jan. 27. Halton, Film Show. Jan. 28. Bristol, "Aircraft Flight Systems," bv Capt. A. M. A. Majendie. Jan. 29, Southampton, "Fljght Testing Procedures at Supersonic Speeds," by W/C. R. P. Beamont; Weybridge. Film Show. Jan. 31, Chester, Annual Dance. Feb. 3, Derby, A.G.M.; Henlow, A G.M. Feb. 4, Lufon, "Development of the Armstrong Siddeley Viper." by W. H. Lindsey. Feb. 5. Brough, "Supersonic Aircraft and Missiles," by P. J. Duncton; London Airport, "Noise," by Prof. E. J. Richards; Reading, "Ultra-Sonic Testing." by J. Crowther. Feb. 6, Bristol, "Design of Civil Aircraft," by D. P. Thome; Isle of Wight, "Develop- ment of the Rotodyne and Gyrodyne," by D. M. Davies; Swindon, Lectures. Feb. 11, Boscombe Down, Film Show. Feb. 12. Chester, "Aircraft Fuelling Problems," by E. L. Bass. Feb. 13, Cheltenham, "The Microscope in Engineering," by A. E. Bingham; Bristol, Lecture.
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