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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0539.PDF
IRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1909 ^^ and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No2570 Vol 73 FRID A Y 25 APRI L 1 95 8 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. AND BAR Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY Uiffe and Sons Ltd. Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.I Telephone • Waterloo 3333 Telegrams • Flightpres Sedist London 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 (J lines)Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow 26B Renfield Street, C.2 Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) 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. Second Class Mail privileges author- ised at New York, N.Y. In this issue 558 Brussels 1958 -61 Propeller Safety 564 Starliner to Tokyo 567 Aircraft versus Submarine 570 Trails 571 F.D.2 576 The Griffith Airliner Explained 579 Origins of the Modern Airliner, Part 2 Talent and Reward trouble with these fellows," said the apprentice supervisor, "is that as soon as they've completed their time with us they leave and get a better job." In such cases part of the blame can sometimes be laid at the door of the firm concerned; but the underlying problem of "how to hold a good man" is an intractable one. For centuries one of the basic precepts of labour has been to sell oneself to the highest bidder. A good many people, of course, fairly soon get into a rut; but there are others who, for a variety of reasons, follow the move-on doctrine slavishly. One engineer in the profession which the Americans term "avionics" has to our personal knowledge changed his job seven times in ten years—and, perhaps as a direct result, now enjoys more than thrice his original salary. He has done well for himself; or has he? He will probably always be a drifter— albeit one who so far has gathered moss—and in this he is not untypical of many workers in new and expanding fields. A good man is often individually sought after—but not always on his own merits; sometimes he is enticed from firm A to firm B because A is building an aeroplane or missile or motor car about which B would like to know more. And now a new trend is apparent. In the past three years, and particularly in the U.S.A., an unprecedented number of able and ambitious scientists and engineers have formed companies of their own. Most of the basic groundwork in such fields as advanced fluid-control, cybernetics and nucleonics was accomplished by men employed by giant industrial corporations. Since 1955 such men have become increasingly difficult to hold. While many of them have been tenderly uprooted by their employers, and transplanted to new research centres amid ver- dant surroundings reminiscent of a college campus, hundreds of others have formed their own firms, specializing in one sophisticated line of business. They have chosen to live in such areas as Palo Alto, California, or St. Petersburg, Florida; and the visitor can tour such towns and count thriving new scientific businesses by the score. Their catalogues describe products which a year ago did not exist, and their presidents fear an economic slump as little as they do competition. Comparable boffin-firms at Aberporth or Boscombe Down, or anywhere else in the United Kingdom, are conspicuous by their absence. Could it be that, in times like the present, the British engineer prefers to work for somebody else? ' Historic WingsC OMMITTEE discussions have been going on in the Air Ministry about setting up an R.A.F. aeronautical museum in the new wing which is now rising and will eventually be occupied in Whitehall Gardens. This project sounds admirable and it is to be hoped that nothing will impede its fulfilment. Famous aeroplanes (or examples of famous types) are already on view in various parts of the country—at the Science Museum and Imperial War Museum; pre- served by the Shuttleworth Trust or the Royal Aeronautical Society; on the Royal Pier at Southampton; or standing monumentally at the gates of R.A.F. stations like Biggin Hill and Yatesbury. But so far the R.A.F. has never had a permanent col- lection of its historic machines on view, and this lack the new museum should help to supply, at an accessible spot in the heart of the capital. It is appropriate that the proposed museum should be there, for another reason. Nearby, on the east side of Whitehall, is the Royal United Service Institution, which has for long done its best to represent the Navy, Army and Air Force with a fine display of models, uniforms, weapons and battle panoramas. Inevitably the R.A.F., being the newest Service, has had to take third place in this fascinating collection housed in all-too-limited space. The new museum on the Air Ministry's own premises—though itself necessarily limited in size owing to other demands on accommodation—will at least enable the R.A.F. to spread its historic wings a little. After all, when you are 40 and proud of it, there is much to be said for putting a few personal treasures on public view—especially when they are such popular ones as famous aeroplanes.
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