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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0582.PDF
582 PLIGHT, 29 April FROM ALL QUARTERS After Blue Streak LAST Wednesday, a full Parliamentary debate was taking placeinto the cancellation of Blue Streak as a long-range ballistic missile; possible replacements were also being discussed. Thereare many alternative delivery systems for Britain's thermonuclear bombs, and the Minister of Defence himself has gone on record infavour of Sky Bolt, the air-launched ballistic missile under development as GAM-87A for the USAF. His public utterance appears to have embarrassed many Ameri-cans, who point out not only that Sky Bolt is still in an extremely early stage of development, but also that it may—like Blue Streak—be overtaken by still later types of weapon system. In fact, there seems little doubt that the US Department of Defense wouldprefer the Polaris fleet ballistic missile system to become a standard NATO weapon. The Royal Navy, it is said, could launch it fromsubmarines, and a land-based version could be readily developed in Europe for deployment from all kinds of surface vehicles.Ultimately it may well be that what comes after Blue Streak will be dictated far more by politics than by technical considerations. Tripartite Co-operation AMONG visitors to the Hanover Air Show (reported on theopposite page) was the Minister of Aviation, Duncan Sandys, who had previously been having talks with the West German DefenceMinister, Franz Josef Strauss. In a communique' issued last Monday the Ministers expressed agreement that two projects wereparticularly suitable for joint development: a VTOL aircraft to meet the needs of NATO forces and "the electronic equipmentand environment system required for the air defence of Europe." The communique added that it had been decided that British,German and French experts should meet soon to draw up plans giving effect to these decisions. During his visit to France, prior to going to West Germany,Mr Sandys had seen Turbomeca turboprop production at Toulouse, and also visited Nord Aviation and M.A.T.R.A. Gnomes for the RAF ON April 20 the de Havilland Engine Company announced thatthe Gnome has been ordered in quantity by the Ministry of Aviation. The initial contract is for "a large number" of1,000 s.h.p. rurboshaft engines for new Westland Whirlwind Mk 10 helicopters for the RAF and for re-engining existing RAF Whirl-winds. The change to turbine power makes possible a great reduction in weight and vibration (and noise, say DH), permitsoperation on standard turbine fuels and confers a substantial increase in performance. A description of the production Gnomebegins on page 587. ..'.:.';?:.i.:.: io-..-;:..:^.••-•,'• Australian Army Wants Caribous '"'''""""'" FOLLOWING an Australian tour by the DHC-4 Caribou earlierthis year, the Australian Army has told the RAAF it would like a full squadron of them.The Army has no legal powers to buy aircraft and is restricted from operating any aircraft of over 2,5001b weight. The RAAFevaluates, orders and operates aircraft for the Army, whose choice is not necessarily accepted; in this case (writes our Australiancorrespondent) the RAAF does not regard the Caribou as ideal. The situation is complicated by the fact that the RAAF andthe Army have been given approval for a full squadron of heavy helicopters of the Bristol 192 or Vertol 107 type. It is understoodthat the Air Force has been told that in this instance the Army must have what it prefers; the RAAF will, however, still evaluatethe aircraft. It is believed that the Army wants the Bristol 192 and that RAAF and Army pilots will be trained by a private firm under long-term contract. This would perhaps be easier forBristol to arrange than for an American firm. The overall dilemma is whether the Army should have boththe big helicopter and the Caribou. There is a strong feeling that the helicopter could very well do the same job and that tworotating-wing squadrons would be more advantageous to the Arm than one squadron of helicopters and one of Caribous. [Caribouorder from US Army—see first "In Brief" paragraph below.] Midas Marketing Agreement MIDAS (measurement information and data analysis system), themagnetic-tape data recording equipment developed by Royston Instruments Ltd of Byfleet, Surrey, is to be marketed throughoutthe Western hemisphere and in Australasia by Lockheed Aircraft Service Inc, Cal3 a subsidiary of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation,under an agreement announced last week. The Midas system forms a complete family of airborne recordersdesigned to satisfy maintenance and operational requirements for both civil and military aircraft. Its function is to provide anaccurate and permanent record of every operating perameter; and provision is made for ejection of the flight record in the event ofan accident, a float and homing beacon being provided to assist recovery from the sea. The managing director of Royston Instruments, K. G. Dobson,said at a press conference last week that the system was "three years ahead of anything in the same field anywhere else in theworld." He commented that if the equipment was properly used and its data noted and stored correctly no two crashes should everoccur from the same cause. CL-44s for MATS ? ^* ^ ALREADY in production for the RCAF and three large US com-mercial cargo operators, the Canadair CL-44 is strongly in the running as a possible standard freighter for the US Military AirTransport Service. According to a letter from Gordon W. Reed (chairman of the committee established to recommend the futureequipment policy for MATS) to Dudley Sharp, Secretary of the Air Force, a deal could be concluded whereby Canada obtainedcertain military aircraft "surplus to USAF requirements," while the USAF purchased 232 swing-tail CL-44s at a total cost of about£313m. Canadair confirm that early in March they were invited to demonstrate the CL-44 in Washington. , •.—, :•• r IN BRIEF The US Army has ordered 22 DHC Caribou aircraft, under a $5m(£1,800,000) contract, with deliveries to start next January. Sir Aubrey Burke, deputy managing director of the Hawker SiddeleyGroup, ha* been elected a director of A. V. Roe Canada Ltd. Sir John Everts, having relinquished his directorship of Rotol Ltd,has been appointed to the board of Dowty Fuel Systems Ltd. The MoA has announced the appointment of E. B. Carter as Directorof Engine Production and J. D. Clare as Director of Guided Weapons Research and Development (Air). An 8ft section of the tailplane of the Victor B.2 which disappearedon a test flight from Boscombe Down in August 1959 was recovered from the sea off the Pembrokeshire coast last weekend. During trials in the Solent last Sunday, the Saunders-Roe HovercraftSR-N1—now fitted with its Blackburn Marbori propulsion engine— reached about 60 m.p.h. It is expected that 100 m.p.h. will eventuallybe achieved. A Saunders-Roe Skeeter has recently been flown with a BlackburnTurmo free turbine. The installation has been made to permit tests of the autopilot system for the Wasp—now under development for theArmy and powered by a Blackburn A. 129 (Nimbus). "Flight" photograph FIRST FLIGHT of the Thurston Engineering Tawney Owl (75 b.h.p. Porsche 678/4), from Stopleford Tawney last Friday, ended in mis- fortune. Failing to gain height, it nosed-over during a precautionary landing in a field beyond the perimeter. The occupants, A. J. MacDonald (pilot) and Harry Radcliffe, were unhurt SPORTSMAN is the name of this autogyro, built by the Rotorw'mg Aircraft Company of Birmingham, Alabama. Target price is $5,600. Production will be shared by a United Kingdom subsidiary, say Pelham H. Anderson (American)^ and John Gear (British), who are jointly responsible for the design
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