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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0204.PDF
NO. 2608 VOLUME 7 8 FRIDAY 16 JANUARY 1989 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. Editor " H. F. KINO M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. CU N8TON '.. Production Editor ROY CA8EY IN THIS ISSUE Outer Space Before the U.N. Argosy Airborne Bristol Brains Trust Redecorating: the Front Office Pro-built The U.S. Industry's Year Fauvette Cold Lake No. 112 (Fighter) Squadron The Record-breaking Rotodyne Radio Distress Beacon 88 89 90 91 93 96 97 98 1OO 1O2 105 New Shapes under Rotary Wings 1O7 Ilifle & Sons Ltd., Dorset House, Stam-ford Street, London, S.E.I; telephone Waterloo 3333; telegrams FlightpresSedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s, Overseas £5, Canadaand U.S.A. $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, N.Y. Branch Offices Coventry:8-10 Corporation Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: KingEdward House, New Street. 2; telephone Midland 7191. Manchester: 260 Deans-xate, 3; telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 26B BenfleldStreet, C.2; telephone Central 1265. New York, N.Y.: Thomas Skinner & Co.(Publishers) Ltd., Ill Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © lliffe «& Sons Ltd., 1959. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress «an be granted only under written agree-ment. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. and Aircraft Engineer FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD: FOUNDED 180S Opportunity for Action "IN the long term, the best hope of success lies in the civil field." The words are I those of Mr. W. J. Taylor, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply, speaking of the future of the British aircraft industry in the recent House of Commons debate on that subject. It is our inclination to award him ten out of ten for that statement; but by the same token the Government should receive nought out of ten for the way in which they are meeting—or failing to meet—the implications of the remark. The future of the industry is, indeed, largely a civil future, even when due allowance is made for the work likely to result from contracts for TSR.2, the new R.A.F. attack aircraft. The current dispersal of design staffs and skilled work- people, and the emptying of shop floors, can be checked only by a boom in civil orders. If there is no boom, Britain's potentially most valuable technology will atrophy. Ironically, the peoples of the world can now look forward as never before to a future of peace and material prosperity, in which the demand for air travel could be immense. And upon demand for air travel—that is to say, the numbers of passengers and goods-shippers flowing to the airline ticket-desks— depends the number of aeroplanes flowing from the factories of our valuable national engineering asset. The airlines are not necessarily the best advocates of what is best for them- selves or the public. Yet we still have no unified national air transport policy embodied in an expert executive authority that can guide, foster and, when neces- sary, direct our air transport industry into the pursuit of wise economic policies. We have nothing to compare with America's Civil Aeronautics Board or Canada's Air Transport Board. Our airlines have no executive authority to help create the demand which could assure the civil aircraft future. No new committees are needed: it should be possible to expand and give executive power to the Air Transport Advisory Council. Great Britain's political bargaining powers are second only to those of America, and we have men wise and temperate enough to use these powers to influence the whole air transport world. : Equipping Cinderella I T looks as though R.A.F. Transport Command is in for a happy new year. Thefirst Bristol Britannia 253 (for No. 99 Sqn.) has taken the air at Belfast, the Minister of Defence has authorized an increase in the Command's carrying capacity and the adoption of AW.660s, and the first Argosy has successfully flown at Bitteswell. Thus when Air Marshal Sir Denis Barnett takes over from Sir Andrew McKee in May as A.O.C-in-C. he will have under his direction a transport arm potentially more muscular and flexible than any the R.A.F. has previously possessed. This is not to say that all is as well as can be, and that Transport Command is no longer a Cinderella. The Britannias will reinforce the Comets on fast long-range operations, and the AW.660s will supplement the Beverleys. What is still needed is a faster and longer-range heavy freighter. We hope that the phrase "an expansion of carrying capacity" signifies a further Government intention in that direction.
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