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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0656.PDF
6 March 1959 325 Straight and Level A N incident probably unique in air/% transport history took place last •*• week. Weary of the engineeringstrike which has grounded the Plummet Air Lines fleet for 16 weeks, the chair-man, Sir Charles Boost, decided to return from his 16-week yachting holiday in theSeychelles to address the men himself. Precariously balanced on the nose ofa corroding Speedmaster, and charac- teristically attired in goggles and flyinghelmet, he appealed to the men to see reason: — "You are a lot of mugs. You have beenbamboozled by disruptive Communist elements who are agents of the Kremlin.This strike is an unconstitutional dis- honouring of agreements, and I say rasp-berries to the lot of you. Get back to work. It is the right of management tomanage. . . ." At this point Mr. Alf Slurry, worksconvenor of the joint sectional panel for the national trades union side of theclerical operatives and metal workers' union, leapt on to the Speedmaster'snose and wrenched the microphone from Sir Charles's hand. He cried: "Brothers,management are a lot of mugs. They have been bamboozled by capitalistelements who are agents of Wall Street. This strike is a constitutional working-class stand for the principles of collec- tive bargaining. We are the elite of theindustry. . . ." Mr. Slurry's words were lost in themost dreadful noise of rending metal as moderate representatives of Plum-met's management and workers, acting together in a spirit of co-operation, etc.,etc., retracted the undercarriage of the Speedmaster. • There is no doubt that one of thebest training courses in aeronautical engineering in this country is the onegiven to the apprentices and technical college students of R.A.E. Farnborough.At the recent prizegiving ceremony more than 70 special prizes (apart fromH.N.C.s, O.N.C.s, and other educational awards") were distributed, presumablyin recognition of pretty hard work and application by the students concerned.Unfortunately, a colleague who was present tells me, this high standard didnot extend to the clothes worn by the students. Several seemed to be dressedfor an informal rock 'n' roll session, for painting the garage or for working onthe motorbike, rather than for what is presumably judged to be a fairly impor-tant and formal occasion. I have ng^wish to provide ammunitionto' the brigade who are continually Pawning that the younger generation- decadent and aimless, and that the country is therefore going to the dogs.ut* would suggest that students might wear jackets, might take off their scarvesand miht get their trousers pressed be- fore coming up to the platform for their prizes. Perhaps a solution would be to add yet another prize or two to the College's already formidable collection. How about the Austin Reed Prize for the Best-pressed Student, or the Hector Powe Award for the Apprentice Best Suited to the Occasion? "My dear, I washed my helmet in paraffin last night as you suggested and now I can't do a thing with it. So that's why I've come along to this Air BP exhibition. I'm sure they have the right grade for everything . . ." • Another Atcherley story (see lastweek's leading article)—the story of a transatlantic flight hoax that never tookplace—was told by the Chief of the Air Staff, Marshal of the R.A.F. Sir DermotBoyle, when he recently unveiled the portrait of Air Marshal Sir RichardAtcherley. The plan, devised before Lindbergh'sfirst solo crossing in 1927, was made possible by the likeness of Richard tohis twin brother David. Richard was to take-off and disappear somewhere inEurope. David was meanwhile to cross the Atlantic by ship—and also to dis-appear somewhere. Then, with sus- pense built up, David was to turn upin flying kit, haggard and unshaven, to be hailed as the first pilot to have crossedthe Atlantic solo. "Financial difficulties prevented whatmight have been the hoax of the cen- tury," said Sir Dermot. Mitteleuropa, Aug. 1, 1993 • At the 743rd plenary session councilmeeting of NATOH (Never Accept The Other's Hardware), it was finallyagreed that the VTO strike fighter to specification SFX.53B would be jointlyplanned by the Romano-Frankish con- sortium agreed at the 742nd session. With Yankish assistance, the workwould be subdivided as follows: air- frame, Franks; propulsion, Goths(licence from the Angles); fire-control, joint Teuton/Hun system; ground-sup-port equipment, joint Romano/Vandal concept; handbooks and technical train-ing to be decided between Ostrogoth/ Norse team or—owing to representa-tions made by the foreign minister of the Angles—Saxon/Celt. In view of the recent Teuton/Vandaltrade agreement it was considered un- likely that the Vandals would agree tothe Huns sharing in the fire-control, while the anger of the Franks at beingeliminated from the propulsion field was likely to produce a stalemate in theproduction of the airframe, rendered more acute by insistence of the Anglesin adhering to their obligations to their commonwealth. These factors were considered likelyto result in delays additional to the 33 years and one month since the specifi-cation was issued. As a stop-gap it was agreed to accept the Yankish offer of100 F-118s, which would be free but whose spare parts would cost 78,901,234thalers daily. • "All of us in civil aviation have beenliving in the air space with jets for at least 10 years. We've been getting alongwith jets in the traffic control system on a scale far larger than the airlines everwill be able to generate. There are more B-47 and B-52 jet bombers aloneusing the system this very minute than there will be jet transports used by allU.S. airlines in the foreseeable future. These bombers, and the thousands ofother jet fighters, bombers and trainers, are considerably 'hotter' and morecritical in their performance than any known jet transport plane would everbe permitted to be. "Matter of fact, the Boeing 707 andDouglas DC-8 are in many ways gentler and safer transports than their piston-engine counterparts. But this know- ledge doesn't fit the 'jet age' campaignplan, so few people outside the aviation industry are told such facts. "The 'coming jet age' is largely ahoax. But so far as the airlines are con- cerned, it's probably the most profitablehoax in the history of hoaxing."—From the AOPA Pilot, journal of the Air-craft Owners and Pilots Association, Washington, D.C. • "Nothing like that has ever hap-pened. Our chaps have a lot of other things to do. Why would they interferewith an airliner? It is not true."— —Admiral Liu Hoh-Tu, of the ChineseNationalist Ministry of Defence, on the "buzzing" of a Comet 4 by a ChineseSabre (a photograph of which appeared in Flight of February 6). ROGER BACON
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