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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0001.PDF
No. 2651 VOLUME 77 FRIDAY 1 JANUARY 1960 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC ' -••••'-••••' Editor H . F. KING MBE AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MI8SILE8 Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club Firrt Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 • ••-: •- ••: ••:•--.< : /'••'••. : ' : "-7 ";'' "• • •'. '...>• '•';•'- Technical Editor W. T. GUN STON Production Editor ROY CASEY IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 2 Missiles and Spaceflight 4 light System Survey 6 What Course for the Industry? 7 Tomorrow's Aero Engines 8 The Key to "VLF" 11 Porter in England 1 3 Sport and Business 1 4 Boeing B-52G Stratofortress 1 5 In the STOL Country 1[6 Straight and Level 21 MacHeralding 22 Service Aviation 24 Correspondence 25 Air Commerce 27 Iliffe & Sons Ltd., Dorset House, Stam-ford Street, London S.E.I; telephone Waterloo 3333. Telegrams FlightpresSedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5. Canadaand USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York. NY. 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; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 26B Renfleld Street, C.2;telephone Central 1265. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co.(Publishers) Ltd.. Ill Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe & Sons Ltd., 1960. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress can be granted only under written agree-ment. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. The Grand AllianceT HE sixteenth of December, 1959, was a day that will go down in British aeronautical history as one of tremendous events; and, as on the eve of some other climactic occasions, it happened that there was a sound of revelry by night —a dinner at the Royal Aero Club; a celebration by the British Air Line Pilots' Association; a welcome for a new Boeing representative in London. At all these functions the talk was variously stimulated or vitiated by rumour and speculation concerning the Hawker Siddeley/de Havilland merger. There were many who received the news with dazed incredulity—incredulity that the legendary "D.H.s," of the faithful Nine Ack, the peerless Mosquito, and the transcendent Comet had surrendered their independence. And there was much sorrow on that account. But comfort was drawn from the thought that the D.H. banner would continue to be borne forward within the mighty new alliance, as are those of Hawker and Avro, Armstrong Whitworth, Blackburn and Folland. And as with names, so will it be with teams. A degree of rationalization is to be expected —indeed to be wished; and Sir Roy Dobson, managing director of the Hawker Siddeley Group, proposes to take a long and careful look at the mighty new fusion of power to see how this can best be accomplished. What cannot be accomplished, unhappily, is the securing of orders that were not there before. Sir Roy, of course, is the commanding figure in this historic scene. "All this is in keeping with the desires of the Minister of Aviation," he declares, as though to the nation at large; adding, as in an aside by a general for the reassurance of his troops, "But you can take it we would not have bid for de Havilland unless we saw advantages in it." Sir Roy and de Havilland chairman Sir Aubrey Burke were not slow to proclaim their new grand alliance as the most powerful of its kind in the British Commonwealth; adding that the two companies were already well known to each other, and that the integration of their business interests and technical staffs could be readily effected to the substantial benefit of both. Balance of Power ^ s^ The Aviation Minister has, up to this writing, made no utterance concerning the new dispositions of power. If we are to believe one commentator, the HS/DH join-up may not be entirely what he wished to bring about (the wrong factions having consorted); while from another observer we have the benevolent assurance that Mr. Sandys could enjoy his Christmas in the knowledge that he has accomplished the essence of his task. In any case, it is significant that the first overtures came from de Havilland and not from the Group. Further convulsive changes in the industry's deployment will yet be needed to redress the balance of power. As this is written, Vickers-Armstrongs and English Electric—both commanding big battalions—still stand uncommitted, though holding common ground with the TSR.2. Short & Harland, Handley Page and the aircraft side of Bristol—these and other forces of illustrious achieve- ment are likewise unaligned. In particular there is much conjecture concerning the future affiliations of Fairey and Hunting, already engaged with de Havilland, as the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, on the D.H. 121. The two great engine camps stand ranged as Rolls-Royce and Bristol Siddeley. This, then, is the British order of battle as at present seen—still re-forming, but all the time strengthening in resources and, we believe, in purpose also. The immediate effect of this newest great alliance was to create a strong demand for most aircraft shares on the Stock Exchange—which is one tangible endorsement of the Sandys plan for massive rationalization.
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