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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1638.PDF
No. 2629 VOLUME 75 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.c. FRIDAY 12 JUNE 1959 AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club rirst A»ronaytical Wtekly in the World Founded 1908 Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GU N8TON Production Editor ROY CASEY IN TtH I.S ISSUE From All Quarters 792 The Hovercraft Becomes Reality 793 Missiles and Spaceflight 794 The French Industry 795 Thunderchief 799 Straight and Level 8O3 Air Commerce 804 Britain's Contribution to the Paris Show 806 Correspondence 816 The Meaning: of Paris WHAT the Farnborough Display is to Great Britain the Paris AeronauticalSalon is to the world. The Americans tried their luck at taking over that distinction at Las Vegas earlier this year; but though the event was notable in many respects the nations of the Old World declined to play up to the expected form. So the Paris Show endures, as it has endured for fifty years, as the doyenne of international air shows; which is just, because no comparable event has ever been the means of displaying, on an international scale, a greater measure of technical advance. Our first Paris Show Report appeared in our very first issue. We described it as "the first real exhibition of practical flying machines that has been held any- where." In that same issue we also reported as follows: "We observed a large band of Esperantists in charge of a guide who explained the different exhibits in the International tongue. At the stand where the Wright machine was exhibited they met with a particularly hearty reception from one of the directors, who him- self addressed them in Esperanto." Esperanto has not, perhaps, achieved for international relations what its initiators once hoped it would. But the Paris Show is increasingly an occasion for global participation, and increasingly a force for international rivalry—from which, in the air world at least, some of the firmest friendships have stemmed. Iliffe & Sons Ltd., Dorset House, Stam-ford Street, London, S.E.I; telephone Waterloo 3333. Telegrams Flightpre3Sedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s, Overseas £5. Canadaand U.S.A. $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, N.Y. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deansgate, 3; telephoneUlackfriars 4412 or Deanagate 3595. Glasgow: 26B Renfleld Street, C.2;telephone Central 1265. New York, N.Y.: Thomas Skinner <fe Co.(Publishers) Ltd., Ill Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe * Sons Ltd., 1959. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress can be granted only under written agree-ment. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. European Challenge IT was perhaps with exaggerated self-assurance that B.E.A. and B.O.A.C.declared that they had no intention of joining Air Union, the new Air France- Lufthansa-Alitalia-Sabena consortium. One of the two chairmen, indeed, was reported to have said that Air Union was a "narrow co-operation"; and that air- lines should preserve their own characteristics. This apparent contradiction typified British perplexity about the meaning of the new Continental air alliance. We rather patronizingly say that Air Union is obviously a splendid thing—though of course not for us. We talk about domestic and Commonwealth interests, and the need to preserve the identity of our airlines: yet Air Union (comprising two airlines with deep obligations to overseas national territories, and whose four members will retain their identities) has reconciled all these things. Let there be no misunderstandings about the new European air power. By curbing wasteful air transport nationalism Air Union will achieve two objectives. First, it will cut costs in a big way, by rationalizing services and—later—equip- ment. Second, it will gradually come to speak with one voice around the inter- national air traffic-rights bargaining tables. Could it not be that the time has come for us to ask ourselves, in the light of this exemplary statesmanship, whether it makes much sense (for example) for our Corporations to squabble—as they do—about their shares of European traffic; to expend so much energy in forestalling British independent attempts to expand; and to duplicate so many of their administrative services?
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