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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0578.PDF
IN THE NAVY ESTIMATES allusion is made to the Short Seacat missile (a test vehicle is displayed above); the Blackburn NA.39 (fourth example, top right); and the anti-submarine Westland Wessex (first production line, right). Personalities portrayed above are: Rear Admiral Sir Matthew Slattery, Short's chairman and managing director- Mr. H. G. Conway, deputy managing director and chiet enaineer thp Rt. Hon. the Earl of Selkirk, First Lord of the Admiralty; Capt. R I Wshbourn Naval Secretary to the first Lord; Mr. P. D. Nairne, Private Secretary to the First Lord; Mr. J. Dent, Short's assistant chief engineer (guided weapons) Vickers, partly at the R.A.E. and partly with American Govern-ment research facilities to prove the potentialities and practic- ability of the concept. This programme would "make use of theconsiderable work already done by the Americans in this field." The British Government would be contributing part of the costof the work undertaken at Vickers. If an aircraft were to be built construction would be undertaken in this country. Agricultural Aviation Conference A FOUR-DAY international conference on agriculturalaviation will be held at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, during the period September 14-19. The programme will includepractical demonstrations of agricultural flying, and is being organized jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries andFood; the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation; the Colonial Office; the European Agricultural Aviation Centre; the RoyalAeronautical Society; the Society of Chemical Industry; the National Fanners' Union; the Association of British Manufac-turers of Agricultural Chemicals; the Fertiliser Manufacturers Association; and the National Association of AgriculturalContractors. The fee for the conference will be £14; enquiries should beaddressed to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Room 218, Great Westminster House, Horseferry Road, London,S.W.I; or to Dr. W. J. Maan, Director of the European Agricul- tural Aviation Centre, le v.d. Boschstraat 4, The Hague,Netherlands. Britannic Appointments at Belfast ^ a view to concentration of effort on the Short Britannicfreighter (Flight last week, page 240) Short Brothers and Harland Ltd. are reorganizing their senior engineering staff, whichis under the direction of Mr. H. G. Conway, deputy managing director and chief engineer. Mr. R. Boorman remains chief technical engineer, with overalltechnical responsibility for stress, aerodynamics, analytical and test activities. Mr. Boorman, who joined Short in 1926, wasappointed chief structural engineer in 1954 and occupied this post until he took up his present position in 1957.Two new appointments are made. Mr. C. D. Hatton, formerly assistant chief engineer, becomes chief designer, Britannic, inwhich post he will be responsible for all design and development phases of the new aircraft. Mr. Hatton, who joined as a premiumapprentice in 1936, was made principal stressman on the Seamew project in 1951 and assistant chief engineer in 1954. Mr. J. R. Lewin, hitherto chief stressman, is appointed chief BRITANNICISTS (see above): Messrs. Boorman, Hatton and Lewin airworthiness engineer, with the responsibility of advising alldepartments on airworthiness matters. Mr. Lewin joined as a stressman in 1928 and after various stress-office and flight-observerposts was appointed chief stressman in 1951. As the Rolls-Royce Tyne is developed, incidentally, ShortBrothers expect the maximum payload of the Britannic 3 which it will power to increase from 75,000 lb to 100,000 lb andthe all-up weight to 220,000 lb (from 195,000 lb). This "stretched" version will have a thinner wing of greater aspect ratio and a longerfuselage. The 504 Club Meets Again TN spite of influenza and anno domini there was an almost com-••• plete attendance of Avro 504 Club members at the eighth annual reunion dinner, held last Friday at Londonderry House.The seventh apprentice to be admitted to membership- Mr. Philip E. Hall, best apprentice of his year—received hisawards and insignia from Sir Roy Dobson; and Mr. Geoffrey Roe was made an honorary member.Though it is customary for the majority of the speeches to be reminiscent, Mr. Tom Prince shook guests a little by prefacinghis toast of the Avro company with the remark that his first memory of "A.V." dated from 62 years ago. Sir Alliott had"always known what he wanted and, better, how to get it," he added.Sir Roy Dobson responded for the company and welcomed the guest of honour, Air Chief Marshal Sir Francis Fogarty.Mr. Bob Shipperbottom did an excellent job in welcoming the guests individually. Sir Francis ("Joe") Fogarty entertained everyone with Serviceline-shoots by request. In the serious portion of his speech he commented on the excellence of the Avro scientific team, remark-ing that if this country were to "drop out of the race" we should become "air tramps for ever"; he thought it essential that moneybe put into manned supersonic flight. As is usual, the "new" apprentice was invited to speak, andthis Mr. Hall did with exceptional ability. Although, he said, it was now customary to work to a tenth of a thou. instead of bychalk marks on the floor, and computers were operated by teams of mathematicians who did not know the blunt end of an aero-plane from the sharp end, he doubted if it was entirely possible to change aircraft design from an an to an exact science. Therehad to be a touch of genius. Sir Roy Dobsoa here confirmed that there was still art inaircraft design, instancing Sir Sidney Camm's conceptions—he had never produced a bad looking aircraft; they were just theright shape without loss of aerodynamic efficiency, and "inside there was always lots of strength."
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