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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0601.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 April I960 601 St raig ht and v e I ripHE Ministry of Aviation has | declined to give Flight details of -^ the Comet 4B noise tests that cleared BEA to operate jets from London Airport at night. The Ministry say they can add nothing to Mr Sandys' statement that, at 90 decibels, the Comet is quieter than piston-engined airliners. As I suggested last week, decibels are a technically fraudulent measure of jei v. piston noise, rejected long ago by every authority on the subject. The Minister knows this perfectly well, of course. But all that aside for the moment. What were the test conditions? Where were the noise recorders posi- tioned? What were the weights and heights and power settings ? What were the piston airliner types concerned? How will the Minister's rules be en- forced—will take-offs be monitored and the records of compliance of each airline published, as in New York? All this is secret. Because the disruption of family life is not a matter of national or commercial ! security, the next question must inevit- i ably be: What is being covered up ? By refusing to give information, and by fobbing off MPs with technically ! bogus figures, the Minister is not only j neglecting his responsibilities to the j public, which in this case has no redress j in the courts. He is also doing a dis- t service to aviation. More than two years ago, before jet operations began, I said : "We must not underestimate the reaction of the public to the growing social evil of jet noise. The reaction will, as the airlines move into the jet age, be violent." Whatever form this reaction takes it will not, I feel, be in the interests of aviation. So I believe that the Minister would be well advised to break the con- spiracy of silence about jet noise. This is an instance where good public rela- tions is the only means by which the best can be made of a bad job. • A fortnight ago I remarked on the cult of the hand-gun in America, especi- ally among Servicemen. If you took my remarks with the pinch of salt that most people need to make their Bacon palat- able you may care to consider my picture this week. The official caption reads: "Flying clothes and pistols will be correct attire for Strategic Air Com- mand alert crews attending Easter ser- vices at Offutt Air Force Base Chapel Sunday. These crews, who must be ready to proceed to their planes and be airborne within 15 minutes, can't take the chance of changing clothes for the services. Shown with their families at the Base chapel is a typical SAC combat alert crew . . ." My actual words were: "... in America the cult of the hand-gun . . .is a religion . . ." You may be thinking, as I am, thatthese defenders of the free world might find it possible to defend it just asstaunchly if they stowed their personal weapons where pilot Bulli, in my pre-vious allusion, stowed his—near his seat in the B-52. • Frederick Gibberd, architect of thenew long-haul terminal for London Air- port (which will, the scale model sug-gests, be aesthetically very pleasing), was asked at a news conference whether hisdesign had been approved by the Royal Fine Art Commission. His reply: "I am a member of theRoyal Fine Art Commission." Gun worship: see second story • A slender case can be made out forhushing up details of pool agreements with foreign airlines ("it's a bit political,you know"). But there is no case what- soever for coyness about pool agree-ments between the corporations and the independents. Now pools are not necessarily com-pletely nasty. On the other hand, they are not entirely nice (see Flight,February 20, 1959). The airlines say that pools are in the public interest.Well, all right—why not publish details? Why all the secrecy? • * * To find out how airlines guard their pooling secrets, I called on Sir Charles Boost, chairman of Plummet Air Lines. He has pool agreements ("we call them partnership or consortium agreements, old boy, because it sounds nicer") with all 20 of his "competitors." He explained that pools are designed to give better service to the public, and "are not, repeat NOT, old boy, designed to make things easier for Plummet." But just in case "some ignorant nits get the wrong idea, all pool details are keptunder absolutely super hush-hush wraps." All the relevant files are keptin a strongroom aboard Sir Charles' yacht, and the few trusted executivesinvolved have to swear on oath to a pact of secrecy. And they have to learn offby heart the official statement (drafted by Boost High Gloss Images Ltd) whichcan be given to the press "as a last resort," and which begins: — "The latest pool agreement is a furtherstep along the trail blazed by Plummet towards giving that better service to thetravelling public which it has always been our privilege, and indeed duty, to provide.More convenient schedules, common ticketing arrangements and higher loadfactors mean not only better service to the public but, reduced costs too, which, ofcourse, mean lower fares. The evidence for the advantages of pool agreements isoverwhelming . . ." "So you see, old boy," Sir Charlesexplained, "we just say raspberries to people who say that pools are a badthing. Mind you, it's a good job the Ministry doesn't know some of thethings that go on." (At this Sir Charles nearly choked with mirth.) "Anyway,old boy, we say pools are in the public interest. And that's all that matters—eh, laddie? Have another drink." • "You get these fellows in politics,what are they? They're bald-headed, they twitch, they're nervous. Thetrouble is they don't know anything. They've been humiliated too much. "I mean, take the Blue Streak. Thepoliticians are disbanding that, aren't they? Why? Don't rely on the Ameri-cans, because they're lousy on missiles. Brother, they're lousy. Aircraft-wise, alot of people want shifting out of their jobs in this country. But quick."—Marty Wilde, reported in "Today." • The Guardian tells the story of howDouglas Aircraft Company engineers found that 210 h.p. were being drawnfrom the DC-8's engines for air con- ditioning etc. They thought this was abit much so they designed a recovery system, a jet exhaust for the used cabinair. This was found to deliver thrust equivalent to 220 h.p.—"and the onlyway to account for the additional power was the heat imparted to the air by thepassengers . . ." Feeding champagne to Atlantic travellers, suggests TheGuardian, may be "less efficient for pro- pulsion than feeding paraffin to jetengines; the principle is the same, and that is what counts . . ." • Those of you who can grasp the technicalities of space flight should visit New York's Hayden Planetarium. In- side, an American reader tells me, is a sign which reads: To SOLAR SYSTEM AND REST ROOMS. ROGER BACON
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