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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0631.PDF
f ;IGHT, 6 May 1960 631 Straight and Level T F y°u are feeling a little depressed I about the £65 million spent on Blue •* Streak, you can derive negative comfort from the following recent re- ported conversation between George Mahon, chairman of the US Congress slib-committee on Department ofDefense appropriations, and Gen Rit- land, USAF:— Mr Mahon: "I would like to know whatwe are paying in the Air Force for manuals for the missile programme."Gen Ritland- "All of the missiles, the total?"Mr Mahon: "Yes, I have some information to the effect that it runs into manymillions of dollars." Gen Ritland: "It is costly. However, thecomplexity of all missiles and all the ground support equipment requiresmanuals for training operators and for maintenance and repair."Mr Mahon: "This is a field which is quite expensive, but to spend $40 or $50 or$100 million on manuals would seem almost beyond comprehension. Do youknow about this. General?" Gen Ritland; "Yes, sir."Mr Mahon: "How much?" Gen Ritland- "It runs in the order of$100 million." • A certain aircraft is to be delivered to the customer, says its manufacturer, in the "summer of 1962." Does this mean May 1,1962? Or does it mean Septem- ber 30,1962? The possible difference is five months—a fairly india-rubbery schedule. I am, I know, remounting an old hobbyhorse. But I do wish that British manufacturers would be more precise in this rather important matter of pub- lishing delivery dates. Coyness inevit- ably suggests that the industry doubts its own ability to fulfil its contracts. We might do well to remember that we are competing with an industry which says not only that it will deliver in a certain month; it* sometimes specifies the exact day of the month. I have therefore prepared the Roger Bacon Delivery Date Conversion Table, which I recommend should be adopted by the SBAC (and all industry PROs) as a standard work of reference: — Catering Department THE HiNISTER OF AVIATION <HR SAW>YS3 WAS CONSIDHBIRQ SITH FiRHS CONCERNED WETHER THE BLUE STREAK MISSILE COULD BE ADAPTED AS A LUHCHER FOR SPACE SATELLITES. Manufacturer's published evasive delivery date "First half of the year" "Early in the year" ... "First quarter" "Early spring" "Spring" "Late spring" "Second quarter" "Early summer" "Summer" "Mid-summer" "Middle of the year"!!! ^Second half of the year" . Third quarter" "Late summer" ^Autumn" 'Fourth quarter" "Late autumn" ^'Winter" ... .'" "Late in the year" ... During the year" ... Proposed meaning January January January February March April April May May June June July August September October October November December December * •This beats me. A BJLA spokesmanlater that there were no personal injuries but the tailof the Piemair was badly |iven luncheon an<j left laterdamaged. All passengers were [in a replacement aircraft. To add to these two news cuttings is the Punch cartoon caption which provides the best comment yet on the proposed co-operation with the French in supersonic airliner design: "We tackle the de- sign," says the British representative at an Anglo- French meeting, "and you handle the catering." Believed by scientists to have been extinct for 3,000,000 years, this remarkable creature —indentified by experts as the H.P.R.8— was brought to light during recent investiga- tions into a tunnel under the English Channel • Very often, when an accident nearly happens, a pilot will say, sometimes to himself, sometimes to another: "If an accident had happened no one would ever have known the cause." This is why I think the motto of the Flight Safety Foundation, "Share your ex- perience," is so good—and why this short story is salutary: — Over a period of several months 26 USAF fighters of a particular type suddenly dived into the ground in a 45° left bank during instrument approaches. The cause was eventually found to be dizziness induced in pilots when they looked down to change radio channels by means of a selector located near their right hip. • Reported exchange between Lord Douglas, chairman of BEA, and jet noise demonstrators: — "Tests have proved that the BEA Comet 4Bs which are being used for night flying are less noisy than many of the propeller airliners which have always been flown at night." - . "Rubbish!""It is true." • Now that KLM have introducedtheir new styling The Flying Dutchman has become a phantom of the sky as wellas of the sea. Imagine what Wagner would have made of this—the frenzy ofsound and fury as a spectral Fokker is overhauled by a BEAtnik Vanguardon the night run to Amsterdam. • It's Sky Bolt, not Skybolt. I amdelighted to confirm that the name of this air-launched ballistic missile projectshould be written as two words. A Flight colleague secured this vital informationfrom Donald Douglas Jr himself at the Douglas plant at Santa Monica the otherweek. • Parliamentarian to technician: —"People keep talking about VTOL and I don't understand it. Tell me what itis." Technician explains all about ver- tical jet lift and how you slowly rotatethe engines into the horizontal and eventually fly forwards with forwardthrust, etc. Parliamentarian: "Ah, now I under-stand and can discuss this intelligently in the House. And, of course, when youwant to come down again you turn the engines right over to thrust down-wards." British salesman (thinks): "How onearth can we sell aeroplanes to people like this?" US salesman (thinks): "What a won-derful potential customer." • Most original argument yet for notbuilding the Channel tunnel—"It has no export value." The author? Christopher Cockerell,designer of the Hovercraft. • "It is surprising how difficult thisproblem is [development of a collision- avoidance system] when one considersthe effectiveness of missile-guidance systems currently being produced forthe opposite function." "The ATC problem is one of thosethings, like the selection of air hostesses, on which we are all experts."—Twoquotes from J. E. D. Williams' recent Flight articles. ROGER BACON
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