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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1365.PDF
656 FLIGHT, 15 May 1959 FROM ALL QUARTERS Wanted: Government Backing IN his last report to shareholders as chairman of the de Havilland-*• organization, Mr. W. E. Nixon (who on his retirement is being succeeded from July 1 by Sir Aubrey Burke, as recorded in Flightlast week) has some disappointing news to give and offers a warning for the future. His address, circulated in advance ofthe annual meeting at Hatfield on May 29, begins bluntly with news of a fall in the company's 1958-59 net surplus of £486,000.This Mr. Nixon puts down to several factors: development and tooling of the Comet 4; current Defence policy leading to areduced requirement for military aircraft; and the heavy cost of developing civil aeroplanes, powerplants and propellers. Success-ful operation of the Comet 4 by B.O.A.C. had "vindicated the decision" to proceed with it; but the company had been unableto achieve enough sales to make the project remunerative, and in particular had been unable to penetrate the American market.Nevertheless, de Havilland was going ahead with its associates in the Aircraft Manufacturing Co. on the design and constructionof the Airco D.H. 121 for B.E.A.; though on the basis of numbers ordered by the Corporation and with "the absence of any kindof Government support," the terms of the contract were more onerous than anything D.H. had previously undertaken. Mr. Nixonpays tribute to "the friendship and practical assistance" of Hunting Aircraft and Fairey Aviation, the company's Airco partners. His warning relates to the future of the aircraft industry, whoseexports—currently running at £150m a year—he says must decline unless it receives backing on a scale bearing some comparisonwith that afforded to its competitors. The industry can hope to stand up to foreign competition only if Government policy"stimulates a demand for a sufficient number of transport aircraft" to justify spending "many millions" privately on such ventures. Referring to the D.H. Engine Co. the chairman mentions theGyron Junior, scheduled for the NA.39 "and for a supersonic research aeroplane still on the secret list" [presumably the BristolT.188]. He adds that a pre-production batch of the helicopter version of the Gnome engine is "already well under way," withdeliveries due to commence shortly. Mr. Nixon refers with pride to the selection of D.H. Propellers as prime contractors andco-ordinating authority for Blue Streak, and to the important part D.H. Aircraft is also playing in this work. Viscount Templewood AMONG his many other achievements, Viscount Templewood• (formerly Sir Samuel Hoare, whose death on May 7 at the age of 79 we record with regret) was one of the founders of Britishair power. He was Secretary of State for Air twice in the inter-war years (1922-24 and from November 1924 to June 1929) and againfor a short period in 1940 before being made ambassador to Spain. In 1927 he was appointed G.B.E. in recognition of his part inthe first civil flight to India. When he held the office, the functions of Air Minister coveredboth civil and military fields, and Lord Templewood was active in both directions. He venerated Trenchard and fought strenuouslyfor the continued existence of the infant Royal Air Force; and, although not himself a pilot, he took every opportunity of flyingon Ministerial business to promote public air-mindedness. He recorded his experiences as Air Minister in a book called Empireof the Air: the Advent of the Air Age, 1922-29, published in 1957 and dedicated to the memory of Lord Trenchard. In the fore-word Viscount Templewood says: "If a volume of memoirs can have a hero and a plot_, the hero of this book is the late LordTrenchard, and the plot is the establishment of the Royal Air Force and the opening of the Empire airways." Viscount Templewood was Honorary Air Commodore ofNo. 3604 Sqn., Royal Auxiliary Air Force, and the last photo- graph of him published in Flight (December 26 last year) wastaken when he attended the squadron's dinner-dance in London. AIR MARSHAL H. L. CAMPBELL, C.B., C.B.E., Chief of Staff, R.C.A.F., in a Blackburn NA.39. His mentors are (centre) Derek Whitehead, chief test pilot, and Mr. N. E. Rowe, technical director. The Air Marshal's party included A. Cdre. M. Lipton (Director of Operations, R.C.A.F.), and A. Cdre. V. H. Patriarche (Canadian Air Staff Mission) Blackburn Golden Jubilee A JUBILEE dinner was held by Blackburn Aircraft Ltd. in•**• Hull on May 1 to mark the 50th anniversary of Robert Blackburn's entry into aviation and the half-century of existenceachieved by the company he founded. The chairman and managing director, Mr. Eric Turner, presided; Maj. F. A. Bumpus, thelongest-serving director, proposed a toast to the memory of the founder; and the health of the company was proposed byMr. Freddie Wilkinson of the drawing-office staff, the longest- serving employee still with the company (he joined it in 1914).Two of the guests present, Mr. Harry Goodyear and Mr. Arthur Mason, joined Robert Blackburn's company when he inauguratedit in 1909. Some 250 employees attended the dinner, at which a large birthday cake surmounted by a model of R.B.'s first aircraftand with fifty candles round its base was carried into the darkened room. A souvenir menu depicted on its inside covers aircraftthe company has produced from Robert Blackburn's first mono- plane to the NA.39; and in the centre a portrait of the founderhad opposite a quotation from a speech by Sir Roy Dobson describing him as "lovable but quite determined . . . one of thoseselect bands of men who not only designed and built, but flew their own aircraft." A film of Blackburn aircraft, compiled fromhistorical records, rounded-off the evening; and an advanced copy of the house magazine The Courier for May 1, 2009, had beenpublished for the occasion—aptly anticipating the hundredth anniversary of Blackburn Aircraft Ltd. Sir Richard Atcherley's New Post Air Marshal Sir Richard LI. R. Atcherley, K.B.E., C.B., A.F.C., who has joined Folland Aircraft Ltd. as sales director. He recently retired from the R.A.F. as A.Q.C-in-C., Flying Training Command. In a brief announcement of the new appointment in our pages last week Sir Richard's name was regrettably confused with that of his brother David, who lost his life while flying over the Mediterranean in 1952 Decca Radar for Wisley ACCEPTANCE trials of the new Decca Radar MR 100 sur-•^"^•veillance equipment have now been completed at the Vickers- Armstrongs airfield at Wisley, Surrey. The MR 100 providesgap-free coverage to 40,000ft and 100 miles on small fighter aircraft, operating in the 10 cm band and feeding 750 kW to ahigh-gain aerial. High data rate, with the aerial rotating at 10 r.p.m., high discrimination and freedom from siting limitationsare claimed as important qualities of the MR 100. Its range performance has exceeded original specifications and aircraft havebeen brought to within one mile of touchdown without using any MTI to reduce ground clutter. Normally aircraft are handed overto Wisley's Decca 424 airfield radar for precision approach. Two fixed-coil displays for the MR 100 are mounted close to those ofthe 424. Each scope provides four range settings, off-centring and an interscan range and bearing strobe which can be movedto any part of the screen. Vickers-Armstrongs have acquired this advanced radar, claimedto be one of the most important ever made at a manufacturer's airfield, in order to monitor directly the movements of theirValiants, Viscounts, Vanguards and Scimitars in relation to the neighbouring heavy civil and military traffic in the London zoneand airways and from Farnborough and Odiham. It has already proved of considerable benefit in increasing the amount of usefultest-flying carried out. M. MAURICE TABUTEAU, managing director of the French company S.E.V., visited Filton on May 8—his first visit there since 1912. M. Tabuteau joined Bristol in 1910 and directed design work on the Type T biplane. He is seen with Capt. K. J. G. Bartlett, left; Mme. Tabuteau, centre; and his own Emeraude, background
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