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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 2386.PDF
FLIGHT, 18 September 1959 269 Straig lit and ve I ARE aeronautical products sold by /% aeroplanes performing circus antics in front of a crowd? Is"thrilling" the keynote of the S.B.A.C. Display, instead of "selling"?Like myself, you may have asked yourself these questions—perhaps whilewatching the flying display, some parts of which are now performed very closeto the limiting ceilings of human skill and courage. Though justifications are sometimesipso facto indictments, I will try to put some of my thoughts on these questionsinto words. It seems to me that any nationalindustry which hopes to succeed in a competitive world must think and actbig and collectively, on a grand scale. The expression of this imperative is theannual display at Farnborough. Like the Motor Show or the Radio Show, theS.B.A.C.'s trade exhibition could just as easily be held at Earls Court or Olympiain London. Instead, the industry chooses to wrap its goods in an alluring flyingdisplay. For no particular reason we pickedMorfax as one of those exhibitors who make utterly unglamorous things—ground support gear like engine ser- vicing stands and platforms — andasked the man on the stand whether he thought the show was worthwhile."We couldn't afford not to be here," he said. The contacts he had made withpotential customers were, he said, invaluable. I think it reasonable to suggest thatthose pretty box formations in the fly- ing display are the pretty boxes whichmotivate buying—particularly in the ancillary and equipment sections of theindustry. This is a point that I think is missed by the cynics who say thatcircus antics do not sell aviation products. • Talking about sales-motivation atthe S.B.A.C. Display, my Flight col- leagues noticed that this year more firms(perhaps influenced by the Paris Show) had pretty women on their stands. I report without comment the experi-ence of one staff-member who was com- pelled by a particular attraction (aswell as, of course, by the technical merit of the associated exhibits) to visit a cer-tain stand in the outdoor exhibition. He joined the queue, and when histurn came he inquired about the missile- like display in the centre of the stand."Oh, that," she said, "that's just a dis- play made out of the different materialswe make and shape. We always like to have something eye-catching on ourstand, you know, and this is it." • A couple of people have mentioned to me the difficulty they found at Farn- borough in getting hold of the right people on the bigger firms' stands. "Well, you see, I'm in the so-and-so division, and I wouldn't know, but I'llsee if there is anyone here who might know." This sort of thing is not easily avoid-able as firms grow larger. And it is par- ticularly difficult where mergers areconcerned, when the dichotomy of in- dividual responsibility becomes mani-fest in almost every department of the outfits concerned, from top manage-ment downwards. I mention this because answers like: "Well, I'm not This is Margaret Jeffery of B.O.A.C., and she is trying out a new set of plastic ear plugs issued by the Corporation to its staff who are exposed to jet noise. The plugs, superfluously explains the caption to the news-agency picture, are designed to "fit into the ear" really the right chap" are symbolic ofindustry's biggest human problem today —co-operation to achieve the mostefficient combination of resources. • A film shown on the de Havilland stand at Farnborough provided, quite incidentally, a remarkable illustration of the capabilities of an erstwhile competi- tor, the Gloster Javelin. The film showed a D.H. Firestreak, air-launched from a Javelin, doing a smart demolition job on a Jindivik pilotless target. The Javelin had taken off from Llanbedr in Wales, the Jindivik from Woomera, Australia. • Another staff-member was closelyscrutinizing the Fairey Gannet AEW.3 when a Fairey service engineer in thecockpit—obviously not recognizing my colleague as one of Flight's team ofexperts—said (just loud enough): "I like this new device for detecting whenyou're flying under water." • Theformation-flyingrivalrybetween the R.A.F.'s Treble One Squadron of Hunters and the Royal Navy's 807 Squadron of Scimitars has become quite legendary. I hesitate to pass judgment; but the consensus of opinion in Flight seems to be that the performance of the R.A.F.'s commentator at Farnboroughwas superior to that of his R.N. oppo- site number. The Silent Service's com-mentator was, we thought, just a tiny bit whizzo. His opening remark on the Monday,introducing the Scimitars at the end of the year's most splendid air display,was: "And now ladies and gentlemen, the show you've all been waitingfor. . . ." • Enough of the S.B.A.C. Display forthe moment. I would like to turn to something said recently by that eloquentprince of air transport, Sir William Hildred, director-general of the Inter-national Air Transport Association. Forget, again for the moment, about allthose unsavoury allegations of price- fixing that he has to answer for, andconsider this: — "I will not go so far as to say thatI.A.T.A. represents a small successful working model of a democratic processon a world-wide basis, although in my opinion it comes close to that. But I dobelieve that the statement in Chapter 1 of the Chicago Convention that 'everyState has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the air space aboveits territory' is a doctrine which must give concern to the Almighty. Nationalsovereignty undiluted by the rule of law becomes ever more dangerous. . . . "If the aim of science is to do honourto the human spirit, we have in the aero- plane, that complex of technologicalexcellences, one of the finest instru- ments ever made by man for his ownwell being and happiness." • So B.O.A.C.'s Boeing 707 captainswant £6,000 a year, £2,000 more than for flying Comet 4s. And no doubtB.E.A.'s Viscount skippers will want more for flying Comet 4Bs, and perhapsmore again for flying D.H.121s. Are increases sought because airlinersare becoming more difficult to fly? If so, passengers must not get to hear ofsuch arguments. Rather, perhaps, in- creases are sought because the pilotswant a share of the higher productivity of the new aircraft. Thus Britain's future supersonic air-liner commanders can be expected to ask for £25,000 a year, which I hopeis being taken into account in B.O.A.C.'s estimates of supersonic airliner operatingcosts. • At the Dutch airfield at Volkel trialsare being made with a new device to drive away birds, which can be a realnuisance, if not hazard, to aircraft. A loudspeaker, ten minutes before take-off, emits tape-recordings of the danger- cries of various species of bird. Thisnoise, it is said, makes all the birds fly away. I only hope they don't fly intoaircraft waiting to land. ROGER BACON
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