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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0667.PDF
FLIGHT, 16 May 1958 683 Straight and Level JUST before the end of the last war,the nations of the world—with onenotable exception—signed the Chicago Convention. The offspring of this agreement was the International Civil Aviation Organization, which became an agency of the United Nations. The air transport operating countries of the world—with (repeat) one exception —bound themselves to operate to I.C.A.O.'s standards, and to conform to its recommended practices. In I.C.A.O. the nations painstakingly formulated a kind of supra-national government to foster the orderly de- velopment of international air transport. It has worked like a charm, in spite of many conflicts, because the nations wanted it to work. Then, after 13 years, up pops the exception. Confident in her fine new aircraft (designed and operated to stan- dards about which no one outside Russia knows a thing), the U.S.S.R. offers to exchange traffic rights with the outside world. This is all very well, and I am hope- ful that nothing but political good will come out of air commerce with Russia. As Mr. Kruschev told Lord Douglas, aeroplanes should carry passengers rather than bombs. But we shall save ourselves a lot of trouble if we insist that Russia agrees to abide by the pro- visions of the Convention, which have served the rest of the civilized world so well these past 13 years. • I hear that the prototype de Havil-land Mosquito, W4050, progenitor of a most noble and glorious breed of aero-plane, is to find eternal rest in the actual place of its birth—Salisbury Hall, Lon-don Colney, Hertfordshire. This, the moated 17th-century housebuilt by Charles II for Nell Gwynne, was where de Havilland secretly de-signed and built the first D.H.98 Mos- quito in the dark days of 1940. Afterthe war, the Hall was for a time the headquarters of the D.H. TechnicalSchool; it lay neglected until 1954, when it was bought and restored—with greatcare and taste—by its present owner, Capt. W. Goldsmith, Royal Marines.The aircraft will, he hopes, be on view to the public during the summer. I can think of no happier a memorialto the immortal Mossie. • Have you ever noticed how, in orderto heighten dramatic effect, some writers resort to a little pure invention? Lastweek I was reading of a visit to a steel- works, wherein the author described the"roaring of the molten steel" as it flowed from a furnace tapping for casting intopig. I've never heard molten steel make more noise than a frying egg. My morning paper recently called thepiece of de Havilland IRBM airframe which one can see from the Barnet by- pass "a gleaming steel cylinder." I won- der why? As far as I can see, the obvious material to use is aluminium alloy. • At a quick first glance there appears to be nothing unusual about this El Al Britannia 313, seen taxying in at New York Idlewild. But to the M.T.C.A. air traffic con-troller who happened to be walking near B.E.A.'s maintenance base at LondonAirport at teji o'clock on the morning of Friday, May 2, there was something un-usual about the fact that a wheel was lying on the grass at the east end ofNo. 5 runway. He promptly reported it; and B.E.A.confirmed with Bristol's service engineers at London Airport their suspicions thatthe wheel belonged to a Britannia. Some- where, unknown to its pilot, a Britanniawas airborne—if not actually about to land—with one wheel missing. There began perhaps the fastest pieceof emergency aviation detective work on record. Within the hour the followingthings were done. B.O.A.C. checked whether any of their Britannias had beenout of London the previous night. As it so happened, none had. London Con-trol confirmed that El Al Britannia 4X-AGC had taken off for New Yorkat 02.30 and was presumably within two or three hours of its E.T.A. at NewYork. Bristol Aircraft at Filton identi- fied the serial number as belonging toa wheel fitted to 4X-AGC. London Con- trol alerted Idlewild, who advised theEl Al captain—who had just been diverted to Boston—to land at Idle-wild where better emergency facilities existed. Newsreel and television photo-graphers turned out in full force at Idle- wild, only to be disappointed (?) by aperfect landing. Capt. Zwi Tohar (who, incidentally,flew a Britannia on its non-stop New York - Tel Aviv record last December)said: "I noticed nothing on take-off or landing." Perhaps he would have if hehadn't had four-wheel bogies. • The recent disclosure that an orderfor 70 Sea Hawks was cancelled only one year after the introduction of theangled deck into service with the Royal Navy gave a clear idea of the accident-reduction value of this invention. It must have saved the Navy a cool £3,000, infact, because a grateful Admiralty awarded the two men primarily res-ponsible £1,500 apiece. As has been said before, the angleddeck is the sort of thing that now—after it has been invented—seems so obvious.Why didn't anyone think of it before? One reason why one person at leastdidn't think of a mere angled deck was that he had bigger ideas. The deckwould not just be fixed at an angle—it would swivel round so that aircraftcould land into wind, along the deck, even if the ship were steaming cross-wind. And that's only half the story. Notonly would the deck rotate, turntable fashion, but it would go up and down,lift fashion, too. Thus, instead of the aircraft approaching along a glide-pathdown to the deck, the aircraft would fly past straight and level, as the deck roseup to meet it. You've probably guessed that the aircraft had no wheels and thedeck was made of rubber. • Peter Masefield, reviewing OliverStewart's book Danger in the Air, wrote last week in the Manchester Guardian:"The only dogma in aviation is that there can be no dogma." The prototype of this aphorism is, ofcourse: "The only thing you learn from history is that you learn nothing fromhistory." Which, I think, is 99 per cent true. But my first reaction to PeterMasefield's bons mots was that they are themselves dogmatic. Then I looked upthe word dogma just to make sure, applied it to aviation, and decided thathe is right. The business is teeming with people who make downright assertionsbased upon insufficient facts. • According to American Aviation,more than 20 per cent of the employees —employees, not just scientific andengineering staff—of Aerojet-General hold science degrees. As this famousrocket-propulsion firm employs approxi- mately 11,500 people, I calculate theirboffins to number something in excess of 2,300. Could someone tell me howmany degree-men we have working on British rocket motors? Oh yes, I forgot;this sort of figure is a military secret in Britain. And I almost forgot to say thatAerojet-General is not even the biggest American rocket company. • I like the remark of the air trafficforecaster who said: "I can never meet another air traffic forecaster withoutlaughing." ROGER BACON
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