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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0039.PDF
FLIGHT:, 2 January 1959 FROM ALL QUARTERS . . . Promoting the Herald C! ALES promotion of the Herald is now the responsibility of ^ Mr. R. S. Sowter, who has been appointed sales manager of Handley Page (Reading) Ltd. from January 1. His new depart- ment, though part of the Reading company, will function at the Cricklewood headquarters of Handley Page Ltd. At present Mr. Sowter is organizing a series of demonstration tours which a Dart Herald—the second prototype of which flew for the first time on December 17—is to make in various parts of the world from next spring onwards. At the beginning of this week G/C. R. C. M. Collard, the Handley Page director with particular responsibility for sales activities, left the U.K. for Australia and New Zealand where he is to have talks relating to the Dart Herald. In Australia he will discuss aircraft re-equipment with the Air Department, with particular reference to the Victor and the Herald; and in New Zealand he is to continue negotiations with N.Z.N.A.C. Mr. Sowter has been on the Handley Page sales staff for the past four years, concentrating on civil aircraft, and in the field of Herald promotion has acted as right-hand man to G/C. Collard. Weybridge Changes FOLLOWING the decision of Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft)Ltd. to concentrate aircraft design activities at Weybridge, changes in the design organization there have been announced. As from January 1, Mr. B. E. Stephenson has become director of engineering, having previously been chief engineer (civil aircraft); Mr. H. H. Gardner, formerly chief engineer (military aircraft), takes up the appointment of technical director; and Mr. G. F. H. Hemsley, who was previously assistant chief engineer (aircraft), now becomes chief engineer (aircraft) and has been made a special director of the aircraft company. Mr. R. S. Sowter Messrs. B. E. Stephenson, H. H. Gardner and G. F. H. Hemsley Five subsidiary appointments have also been announced, all bearing responsibility to the chief engineer (aircraft). In these posts, Mr. E. S. Allwright, Mr. E. E. Marshall and Mr. D. Parker all have the title of assistant chief engineer (aircraft); Mr. D. James becomes chief structural engineer and Mr. E. J. Clark design manager. These five posts, with the three senior appointments, cover the whole of the company's activities in the field of aircraft design. For the time being, design work on the Scimitar will be handled by the design team at South Marston, under the direction of Mr. A. N. Clifton, who retains his present position as chief designer (Supermarine) until he takes up an appointment at Weybridge at a later date. IN BRIEF The first Britannia 253 long-range trooper/freighter/ambulance air-craft flew at Short's Belfast airfield on December 29. Twenty are being made for R.A.F. Transport Command, 15 by Short and Harland and fiveassembled by Bristol from Belfast components. * * * Following the visit of a West German delegation to the United States,an agreement is to be drafted under which about 300 Lockheed F-104 Starfighters are to be licence-built in West Germany. * * * In co-operation with the Sikorsky Division of United Aircraft Corpn.,the Komaki plant of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, at Nagoya, have completed their first helicopter. The plant is licence-building the S-55,and the first two of about forty on order were rolled out on December 16. * * * Already behind schedule, the first firing of the Martin XSM-68 TitanICBM of the U.S. Air Force was unsuccessful. The attempt was made at Cape Canaveral on December 20, and an explosion and fire preventedthe missile from leaving its pad. * * * • • . .• A sum of £A775,000 (£620,000) is expected to be required to meetthe recent decision of the Royal Australian Air Force to fit two Westinghouse J34 turbojets as boosters to each Lockheed Neptune ofNo. 11 Sqn., R.A.A.F. Most operational U.S. Navy Neptunes have such equipment. * * * The 12th All-England Aircraft Recognition Contest, organized by theAircraft Recognition Society, is being held on January 17 at the Royal Society of Arts, 6 John Adam Street, London, W.C.2. Entry forms areobtainable from the Hon. Secretary, Aircraft Recognition Society, 15 Tavistock Street, London, W.C.2.* * * The U.S. Navy have chosen to order the McDonnell F4H-1(apparently in preference to the Chance Vought F8U-3) as its next- generation carrier-based intercepter. Unlike the F8U-3, the F4H-1 hastwo engines and carries a crew of two (see Flight for October 3, p. 547). A decision in this contest has been awaited for many months.* * * The U.S.A.F. Military Air Transport Service made over 80 flightsduring November transporting equipment to Thor IRBM bases in Britain from the Douglas Aircraft premises at Long Beach, Cal. TheM.A.T.S. commander, Lt-Gen. W. Tunner, said at Scott A.F.B., 111, recently that his aircraft [mainly C-133s and C-124s] had made over250 delivery flights to Britain since this operation began in September. * * * On December 22 the American National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration stated that it will spend $200m (£71,428,600) over the next four years in developing a rocket engine with a single chamberrated at 1,000,000 lb thrust. The contract has been awarded to North American (Rocketdyne Division). Also on December 22, the U.S.A.F.negotiated a $50m contract for additional Snark intercontinental cruise- type missiles for Strategic Air Command. Nottingham University has accepted a gift of £100,000 from Rolls-Royce Ltd. to endow a chair in thermodynamics. This will be known as the Hives Chair, to mark the close link between the university and theformer chairman of the company, Lord Hives. * * * A complete guide to the National Boat Show (Olympia, London,December 31—January 10) is provided by the special January issue of our associated journal Yachting World. * * * ••• ' • • . ' - The heavier and more powerful Lockheed C-130B version of the Hercules made its first flight at the Corporation's Georgia Division onDecember 10. Maximum weight has been raised from 124,000 to 135,000 lb, and Allison T56-7 engines provide 16,200 h.p., an increaseof 1,200 over the C-130A. * * * A new Hawker Siddeley Group company, Hawker Siddeley (Hamble),has been formed to service Petter and Armstrong Siddeley diesel engines and to manufacture generating sets, marine propulsion units and marineauxiliaries. The directors will be Sir George Briggs (chairman), Mr. D. K. Fraser (managing) and Mr. J. C. Dacomb, and the company willhave accommodation with A.S.T. at Hamble. * * * "'•••••. '•;- Two U.S.A.F. pilots in F-104 Starfighters recently intercepted andtheoretically destroyed an "enemy" aircraft 172 miles from iheir base only 8 min 59.2 sec after they took off. It was stated by Gen. CurtisLeMay, Vice-Chief of Staff, tnat the intercepted aircraft was flying at 35,000ft and the Starfighters' mean speed from brakes-off was1,150 m.p.h. • ^ * * * .".: :•':•'• " A bronze plaque was unveiled at Roosevelt Field, New York, onDecember 15 to commemorate the arrival there of the airship R.34 after its flight from East Fortune in 1919. The plaque, donated by theAir League of the British Empire, has been set in a marble plinth on the Bosch Arma Corporation premises, which now occupy part of theformer airfield. * * * Indicative of the production capacity of Boeing's Transport Divisionat Renton, Wash., is the fact that, parallel with the 707 airliner, the KC-135A Stratotanker is being turned out at a steady rate of 15 aircraftper month. Now cleared for a gross weight of 297,000 lb, the KC-135A is standard global tanker/transport of the U.S.A.F. Strategic AirCommand. The 200th flew on December 22. * * * A course of studies on acoustics as applied to aircraft and the effectsof noise on structures was held at the University of Southampton by the Department of Aeronautical Engineering from December 15 to 20.Among the lecturers were Prof. E. J. Richards (the fundamentals of noise, jet and propeller noise and Lighthill's theory of the subject) andMr. D. J. Mead (fundamentals of vibration theory, random response theory and the damping of structural vibrations). There was anattendance of forty-three, including representatives from aircraft com- panies and airlines (several of them overseas) and research establishments.
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