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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0313.PDF
FLIGHT, 4 March 1960 313 Straight and Level " TUST boiled water and an aspirin, I thanks, old boy," was Sir Charles *^ Boost's reply to my enquiry about his health earlier this week. He was, he explained, making a strong recovery from the slight illness that followed his celebration of the "absolutely super" news about the plans for a British super- sonic airliner. It was quite a party—I know because I was there, for part of the party, any- way. It took place at the Air Power Club, and even the fire that broke out on the third day didn't bring it to an end. The blaze is believed to have started in the Brochure Room, where Sir Charles—prince of quality competi- tion, champion of British supremacy in the air, and a keen reader of the air fare notes in The Economist—was observed inciting his guests to set fire to a model of the Vanguard. Highlights of the party were the announcement of Sir Charles's new book Pioneer or Perish, non-stop Hi-Fi recordings of a JT4 running at full power, and an exhibition of abstract paintings on the theme "The Public Wants Speed, Speed, Speed, Not Cheap Air Travel." Stop Press: Just as this page closed for press Lady Boost rang to invite me to renewed celebrations—"a bit more formal this time"—of the Government's supersonic airliner plans. "Boostie is much better now," she said. "He's been sitting up in bed all morning with his Gosport helmet and goggles on throw- ing ogive-shaped paper dans at me." • You may recall my remarks acouple of weeks ago about the public accountability of BOAC and BEA. Arecent newspaper article on the con- trol of State industries reviewed thisquestion. Parliament, it said, is entitled to the fullest information: yet the"reports and accounts are so massive and technical that even the most hard- working members cannot find their wayabout them without expert assistance." Public accountability has never reallybeen denned. I don't expect BOAC to tell me about their dealings with Boeingon the 707, their plans for knocking hell out of PanAm, or their views on theunions. These are management matters, and I have no more "right to know"about them than I have to attend a Cabinet meeting. But there are many things I do havea right to know. For how much did BOAC sell nine Argonauts to the UKindependent airline Overseas Aviation? What were the "complicated arrange-ments" with EAA. concerning that air- line's acquisition of Argonauts fromBOAC? What are the terms of BEA's deal with Onassis whereby Olympictakes delivery of Comet 4Bs? Is a British State corporation in fact buying aircraftfor a foreign operator? Are UK tax- payers buying EAA's Comets? Andso on. I am not an inverted Dr Pangloss,but the suppression of information on such matters inevitably suggests that allis for the worst . .. • From a list of specimen examinationquestions prepared by the City and Guilds of London Institute for theirOrdinary Certificate in Technical Authorship: — Say what you think is grammatically wrong with the following:— (a) "Blimey, we was a long way fromhome and no mistake." (b) "Between you and I and the gate- post, I think he was drunk." But I must not be unfair. In general,the specimens are excellent, with some questions that would certainly floorR. Bacon, who doesn't claim to be a technical author, anyway. Apparentlythe inception of these examinations— the first is to be held in May—is theculmination of seven years' endeavour You dig the rock? Or are you sent by that old-time sweet 'n low? And tell me, you go for that cool champagne or that hot Espresso Ringway? No matter what you say, "Flight" 'n cups 'n liv'n dolls just go swing'n along together through the years. [Left, Dame Clara Butt, Jules Vedrines and "Flight," Hendon, 1911. Right, Mr Marty Wilde, Mrs Wilde and "Flight," Manchester Airport, 1960] by the Technical Publications Associa-tion. "It has always been the aim of the Association," they say, "to have someofficial standard by which the qualifica- tions of technical authors may bemeasured. This latest move represents the first step towards a universallyrecognized qualification similar in prin- ciple to those already existing for archi-tects, engineers, artists, etc." Between you and I and the gatepost,some of the technical authorship that I have to read could do with a bit of qualification. •:,-. ••--•• .•••_••'.-.. • It has generally been the fashion toaccept the dictum that the transport aeroplane and the bomber are far re-moved; anyway, that in performance military aircraft are years ahead of civilaircraft. The dogma, of course, is not difficult to refute, for some of the verybest military types have been adapta- tions of civil machines. Germany'sHe70 and Helll are cases in point, though the bomber application was hereforeseen. The classic instance was Britain First, the Blenheim prototype;and the last war provided an instance of a converted airliner (Ju86P) whichcould not only thumb its nose at the best fighters of the day " (speciallystripped and boosted at that) but which actually had a superior altitude per-formance to a fighter which had been designed and built especially to dealwith it. But dogma dies hard, and I supposethat lecturers will go on plotting "civil" and "military" progress for the bedevil-ment of posterity. I am reminded of all this because Ihave just seen a list of very important military duties, including missilelaunching and reconnaissance, that a supersonic transport aeroplane couldundertake. • An American delegate to a recent ICAO regional meeting asked the secre- tariat for an assurance that the report would be "sequentially paginated." • "Every year our Viscounts taxi some200,000 miles. This vast distance is covered at a cost of about 18 shillingsa mile, so we spend the astonishing sum of £180,000 a year on getting our air-craft out to the runway and back. . . . If we could knock 6d off the mainten-ance costs [of tyres and brakes] for each take-off and each landing, we can expectto save about £3,200 every year. This saving is most easily achieved by keep-ing your taxying speeds down a little." —from BEA's flying staff magazineIntercom. Caveat (A)viator . • Extract from a recent Notam: "Bologna strip operating normally for First Category aircraft. Caution, muddy in profundity." ROGER BACON
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