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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0328.PDF
344 FLIGHT, 14 March 1958 Straight and Level THE managing director of a Britishaircraft firm was recently heard toblast: "If that aeroplane is not out by I'll push it out myself." It would be unfair to identify him, for two reasons. One, the remark was made in private; two, he isn't the only British managing director who is trying to cure the dreaded malady of drifting delivery-dates. The cure is simple: make all such remarks in public, on the record. Pub- lish all target-dates, as the Americans do, and let it be clearly known that heads will roll if they are not achieved. To be cagey about target-dates means only one thing. The dates will slip by, and so will the customers. • Don't look down your nose at marine engineers, you supersonic dreamers. Before many years are past we may launch a new type of tanker for bulk transport of petroleum. It will weigh about 100,000 tons. It will be driven by nuclear power. It will travel thousands of miles at 50 to 60 knots. And, just to be different, it will cruise far below the surface of the sea. Extensive hydrodynamic tests show that a deeply immersed body of suitable shape can be driven at 50 knots by the same power needed to propel a similarly sized surface vessel at about 30, largely owing to the great reduction in wave-making drag. How lucky we are that aeroplanes are all "deeply immersed" in a homogenous medium! For further details please apply to Mitchell Engineer- ing, Ltd., and Saunders-Roe. • The more I look at this futuristic ship the more I am fascinated by it. How would it navigate?—clearly by an inertial system. Could it slip through the Suez canal without paying its dues? —well, it could, I think, but nobody would let it. Could it carry and fire a ballistic missile?—well, ask the U.S. Navy. Or the Soviet Navy. • "Big improvements to the Metro- politan" announced the London even- ing papers recently. They were referring not to the CV-440 but to a busy subur- ban railway, now part of the London Transport Executive. The improve- ments, unfortunately, do not affect the rolling stock, some of which has win- dows which resonate with the air com- pressors under the floor and brakes which stick-slip, causing an excruciat- ing noise. This sort of trouble would n»ver be allowed to get beyond the pro- totype stage in a transport aircraft. Before 1939, however, the Met. was a fine railway, with Pullman cars on the fast trains; and I can hardly see Convair putting a massive brass plate engraved with "live in Metro-land" on each CV-440 door. • AF/ij'JtrcolleaguewasinanAmerican D.O. the other day when in walked the smoothest nylon shirt you ever saw. The owner was in a hurry. "Look, Walt," he said, "we can't see you need all that titanium in the wing." "Howso?" "It'll cost three-and-a-half million bucks and we just don't need to use it; we can get away with light alloy." "Maybe so, but we're on the limit, temperature-wise; and I'd be sorry to see us do something that couldn't be stretched to Mach 3." "Chief engineer knows that. What he wants is an assurance from you that there'd be no way of getting past 2.6 without titanium." "You can tell him from me that is so." "Right, three-and-a-half million dollars it is." And that's just how it was, and the stocks were ordered within an hour. • But don't rush off to Canada or the States. The lure of the smoothest nylon shin you ever saw may be strong, but you can get one just as good over here —and cheaper. And you know there are design teams in the States with low morale, too. • Most readers who have Channel 9 no doubt saw Independent Television's recent enterprising presentation of the Jack Hylton Show—filmed aboard a chartered B.O.A.C. Britannia en route to New York. When I first saw the publicity-still reproduced below my thoughts went out to Bristol, in particular to their stress office. The floor-loading case presented by Miss Winifred Atwell and her "other" (honky-tonk) piano, particu- larly during her exposition of I Wanna Say Hello, must have been a bit near the limit. From Bristol, however, came the cryptic reassurance "we looked at that one." Among those gathered round the unique stress-case are Hughie Green, Rosalina Neri [oh boy—R.B.], and (right) Jack Hylton. • Our fighting Services have always been noted for their reticence in taking great care never to boast of their achievements in battle. Especially is this true of the Royal Navy—the Silent Service. But any R.N. ship bearing a famous name proudly wears a large and durable plaque recording the battles fought by all ships which have borne that name. How about the famous R.A.F. airfields? Certain famous war-time stations do have a plaque telling of the stirring deeds that were once done there, or done by aircraft operating from there. But most do not; and, as one walks along their tarmac roads, one feels that no young airman posted to such a place could feel anything but indifference to its history. He might, it is true, see that the roads might be named after people or aeroplanes—like Victor Beamish or Lysander—but he's probably never heard of either and has no particular wish to. The Air Ministry thought of doing something in an organized manner ten years ago, and people have prodded them hundreds of times since. Could we not spare £1,000 or so (Oh-point- something per cent of the overall R.A.F. appropriation) to erect a permanent board—and I don't mean a wooden affair covered with black and white paint —outside the front gate, the guardroom or S.H.Q., so that station personnel and visitors can have esprit to put into their corps, and feel that the place really means something? • This reminds me that nameplates of all kinds are very important devices. All too often one arrives at the main en- trance of a famous aircraft company to find that there isn't really any name up at all. It may be that there is just a small brass plate beside the door (registered office variety). There may be a name and pseudo coat of arms cheaply done, or perhaps relieved in concrete letters ten feet high and shot through with dismal dribbles of rust and lichen. Only in the newer post-war fac- tories—which are very rarely the head office of a large company—can one expect to find the name displayed in a manner which does the firm credit. Just bring in a competent architect—and don't overrule him. • A member of Flight's staff, during a visit to a Canadian aircraft company, pointed to the schedule for the first flight of a new prototype, and remarked: "That looks a bit difficult to meet." "Oh no," came the reply, "this is the difficult one, the first production machine. The first prototype's im- possible." ROGER BACON
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