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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0936.PDF
IIGHT, 3 April 1959 467 Straight and Level DID you read (in Flight last week)that the Kenya Police Air Wingis equipped 100 per cent with American light aeroplanes? And thatthe Royal Australian Air Force has ordered Cessna 180s for A.O.P. work?And did you hear (any politician or any newspaper for years past) say thatthough Britain will not allow herself to build supersonic bombers she will havea continuing and pressing need for "police" (more fashionably "fire bri-gade") aeroplanes for localized overseas actions? And have you heard it suggestedthat somebody in this country should pull his finger out and build light air-craft acceptable for overseas operation? Of course you have. And now hereyou are hearing it again. Sickening, isn't it? • The latest person to propose lowerfares for slower services is Mr. Arthur Raymond, Douglas senior vice-presi-dent. He recently told the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at LosAngeles that depreciated, higher-density DC-6s and DC-7s should be used todevelop "cross-country" services within America. If allowed to offer fares wellbelow present levels, these aircraft would, he declared, "attract a substan-tial new market segment without dilu- tion of the existing market." Mr. Raymond noted, in passing, thatsuch a plan would assist the trunklines in disposing of their piston fleets. For the past few years Mr. Raymondhas been stressing that the DC-8's seat- mile costs will be lower than those ofDC-6s and DC-7s. If that is so, why not sell DC-8s to "cross-country"carriers? Because, I think, there is nothing socheap to operate as a depreciated Douglas piston-engined airliner. • Last week Sir Charles Boost, fire-brand boss of Plummet Air Lines, decided to chain himself to the railingsoutside the Planes Ministry. It was to be his "gesture of dissent and defiance"at Britain's supersonic airliner policy. Before the chaining-up ceremony SirCharles called a news conference at his office. "Britain must leapfrog the super-sonic airliner," he declared, "otherwise we shall drop our biggest clanger yet.We must steal a march on these Yanks, and show the world the Blue-Ribandbrilliance of our inventors. The Yanks say they can do a Mach 3 jet airliner by1970. All right—we'll jolly well do a Mach 7 hypersonic boost-glide rocketairliner by 1969. Just think of the pres- tige it would bring. We British have theguts and the genius to do it, you know. We could do it tomorrow. Here, readthis." He tossed me a pamphlet entitledTechnical Facts about the Plummet Hypersonic Boost-Glide Rocket Airliner.It explained how, the faster an airliner flies, the lower the operating cost "be-cause increased ton-miles in the year mean increased economy. .. . The morework in the hour, the more revenue— hence more profit," etc., etc. Passengers would all be "desensi-tized" before take-off by being deep- frozen in special gimbal-mounted,alpha-particle canisters. There would be a big overseas market, especiallyamong Commonwealth airlines, who were being kept "fully informed." "Actually," Sir Charles confided,"that's out of date now. I'm seeing Blackie Blackout-Jones of Scruggs to-morrow to hear about his absolutely super new airliner, which could be readyone year after the VC.10! Just think of that! It will be powered by a solar fur-nace, photon sails, thermonuclear fusion rockets, and ionized-deuterium plasmajets. We've got to keep our ion new developments, eh laddie. . . ?" • The "swing-tail" back-end ofCanadair's CL-44 Tyne-powered Bri- tannia-development is a most audaciouspiece of engineering. If it works in the rough and tumble of day-to-day ground-loading it will make a 30-ton payload freighter with perfect aft-loading out ofa 170-seat, 400 m.p.h. passenger airliner —quite a desirable combination. Andit will be available next year. • Quite the most surprising aspect ofthe Canadair swing-tail is that its designers claim to have reduced by1,000 lb the empty weight of the CL-44 with side-loading doors. Spare a thought for the loads on thehinges when all that overhang is sub- jected to wind velocities of 60 m.p.h.or so when on the ground, and the ingenuity of the engineering is seen ina new perspective. A lighter solution still would havebeen to make the tail completely detach- able so that it could be wheeled awayon a trolley—simpler to engineer (with quick-connect plumbing and wiring,etc.), aerodynamically as good, but The de Havilland Enterprise is well known for, among other things, its alphabet. The de Havilland alphabet (from which it is said the Romans copied theirs) is prescribed for every- thing from writing paper to factory cleansing-vehicles. And even when D.H. workers go a-banner- m arching — as they are seen doing here outside Parliament last week — their identity (bottom left banner) is proclaimed in traditional style much more difficult operationally. SoCanadair chose the difficult alternative —and I think they may have pioneereda new fashion. • When I was down at R.A.F. Tang-mere recently my eye was caught by one of Cuthbert Orde's famous R.A.F.Fighter Command portraits hanging in the officers' mess. It showed a hand-some and serious-looking young pilot, wearing a polo-necked sweater, andunderneath was the caption: "W/C. T. G. Pike, D.F.C., 219 Squadron." That drawing was made in 1941; and when Air Chief Marshal Sir Thomas Pike's appointment as the next Chief of Air Staff was announced last week I couldn't resist looking back at Orde's original notes about his subject: —"He is known in the squadron as 'Killer.' 1 don't think that's a good nickname forhim really, as he is much too kind and friendly. . . . He is very much the staffofficer and was in the Air Ministry till February 1941. It is a remarkable thing,and typical of his powers of concentration, that he should have become an unusuallysuccessful night-fighter in so short a time." No doubt those same powers of con- centration will come in handy from next January 1 onwards. - • An American firm has designed a"space watch." According to an ad. in Astronautics, "the watch would not onlytell Earth time and date, and time on other planets, but would provide a radarwarning system for meteors, a radar speed indicator and a gyroscope to trackdirection." Me poor wrist. • "The wonderful advantages of Jetflight ... on the Jet - powered Electra. . . . Like all Jet-poweredplanes it is more restful. ... It gives Jet speed of 400 miles per hour ormore"—from an American Airlines advertisement about the turbopropElectra. ROGER BACON
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