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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1333.PDF
654 FLIGHT, 8 May 1959 The Industry ^ , ' ^:-;i r de Havilland Chairmanship Changes IS briefly recorded in the main news-pages of this issue, theA\^ most senior Board appointments within the de Havilland •*- -*- organization are to change hands on June 30, when Mr. W. E. Nixon, F.C.I.S., retires and Sir Aubrey Burke, O.B.E.,succeeds him. Mr. Nixon retires from the chairmanship and managing director-ship of de Havilland Holdings Ltd.; from the chairmanship of the de Havilland Aircraft Co. Ltd., de Havilland Propellers Ltd. andthe Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd.; and from his directorships of the de Havilland Engine Co. Ltd., de Havilland Aircraft ofCanada Ltd., de Havilland Aircraft Pty. Ltd. (Australia), the de Havilland Aircraft Co. of South Africa (Pty.) Ltd. and the deHavilland Aircraft Co. of New Zealand Ltd. Sir Aubrey Burke, who is at present deputy chairman of theholding company, deputy chairman and managing director of the aircraft company, chairman of the engine company, a director ofde Havilland Aircraft Inc. and managing director of the Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is to succeed Mr. Nixon in each of theappointments named above. Wilfred Nixon's first connections with aviation were in 1910,when he went to the Balloon Factory at Farnborough (forerunner of the R.A.E.), where he met Geoffrey (now Sir Geoffrey) deHavilland. Towards the end of World War I he renewed the association, joining Capt. de Havilland at the Aircraft Mfg. Co.Ltd. at Hendon. In 1920, with other colleagues of subsequent years—Messrs. Walker, Hearle and St. Barbe—he helped tofound the de Havilland Aircraft Co. Ltd. Since then, for nearly 40 years, he has been responsible for financial policy and manyOther matters. Initially company secretary, Mr. Nixon was appointed to theBoard in 1931 and succeeded Mr. F. T. Hearle as managing director in 1944. In 1954, when deputy chairman, he succeededMr. Hearle to the chairmanship. A year later he relinquished the managing directorship of the aircraft company to Mr. (now SirAubrey) Burke, but became head of the newly formed holding company. Of Mr. Nixon a colleague has written: "He is universallythought of as a warm-hearted and genial individual, an orderly and unhurried administrator, a fair and kindly man, a patient lis-tener; but his light touch and easy manner have never misled us Tape-recording Aircraft BehaviourA NEW flight recorder has been produced by Royston Instru-ments Ltd., of Chertsey, Surrey, for commercial aircraft. Based on automatic tape recorders produced for test and develop-ment flying and industrial applications during past years, the new equipment has been prepared to conform with the airline specifica-tion issued by the European Airline Electronic Committee last year. Any kind of performance, functional and positional informa-tion, reduced to electrical voltages, can be recorded on seven information channels, using time multiplexing to sense from 700to 70,000 points per second on up to 300 channels on a single length of tape which would cover 150 hours' aircraft operation.The complete recording equipment is designed for A.T.R. rack- ing, would weigh 40 lb, measure 10inXl9;Jinx7jin, and wouldcost about £2,000 per unit. An eighth signal channel would carry a timing signal and aircraft identification, date and flight number.Playback equipment, with accelerated reproduction, has also been prepared; additionally, the tape may be initially sampled on simpli-fied local equipment or re-recorded for simultaneous inspection at different places. In the event of an accident the tape cassettecan be ejected from the aircraft by an explosive charge initiated either by a pilot-operated switch or by an inertia switch. The re-corder would automatically work whenever the aircraft master Mr. W. E. Nixon (left) and his suc- cessor as chairman, Sir Aubrey Burke as to the firmness of his grip on a matter that is under discussionor the thoroughness which he will apply in dealing with it." Mr. Nixon's judgment played a large part in many weightydecisions made by the company through the years. These included, to quote a few only, the advisability of entering the engine field,of manufacturing v.p. propellers, of building jet airliners, and of leasing the Chester factory in order to fulfill large Vampire andVenom orders without interfering with Comet production. Sir Aubrey Burke's association with the D.H. enterprise is ashorter one—he joined it in 1944—but he had previously had long and varied experience in aviation. In the early 1930s he was withVickers on rigid-airship construction; then, after taking the A, B, C and D ground engineer's licences—at one period he wasthe only man to hold all four—he joined Ford and assisted in European demonstrations of the Trimotor. Next, after two yearswith Airwork, he entered Imperial Airways, and on the formation of B.O.A.C. in 1939 became superintendent of technicaldevelopment. In the early war years he was at the Ministry of AircraftProduction, where he carried a large share of responsibility for the Civilian Repair Organization; he was also for a time deputymanaging director of D. Napier and Son. Rejoining B.O.A.C. in 1943 he became their assistant director-general (technical);then, less than two years later, he went to de Havilland as director and general manager of the newly formed engine company, becom-ing its managing director in November 1948 and its chairman —in succession to the late Maj. F. B. Halford—in 1955. Variousdirectorships within the wider de Havilland organization followed, and on January 1,1956, he became managing director of the aircraftcompany; three years later he was knighted. He was appointed deputy chairman in 1956, and a year later was elected to a similarposition in the holding company. Sir Aubrey, who is a member of the A.R.B., is the 1958-59president of the S.B.A.C. switch was on. A float, a dye marker and a radio beacon wouldhelp to recover the tape record after an accident. It would be possible to record comprehensive information on thefunctioning of each engine, control-surface positions, flight para- meters and many other factors which could then be used afterroutine flying to analyse the wear on each part of the aircraft. In this way it might be possible to make an exact assessment of over-haul requirements based on actual wear rather than on arbitrary and conservative estimates which must at present be used. A British airline has shown considerable interest in the recorderand flight trials are expected to begin in June or July. The Royston equipment appears to be more comprehensive than the otherflight recorders so far produced. IN BRIEF Mr. G. C. D'Arcy Biss has been appointed an additionaldirector of the Fairey Co. Ltd. He is a senior partner in the firm of Ashurst, Morris, Crisp and Co., who have been solicitors to thecompany since its foundation in 1915. * * * Mr. R. S. Hewitt has joined the Board of Elliott Brothers(London) Ltd. He started his career with Elliott Brothers in 1928 and is deputy controller of Elliott-Automation. * * * Col. A. E. Tyler, O.B.E., has been appointed managing director of W. S. Electronics (Production) Ltd., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of K.G. (Holdings) Ltd. * * * Rotol Ltd. (who, incidentally, were showing a representative range of their products at the recent Hanover aircraft exhibition) were hosts at their Gloucester headquarters on April 24 to 24 members of the S.B.A.C. education and training panel. Being loaded into a Bristol Freighter sent from Sweden to Southend Airport are components of the Solartron ten-target radar simulator recently ordered for the Royal Swedish Air Force. The equipment was despatched in two loads, on April 23 and 29
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