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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0645.PDF
1 LIGHT, 13 May 1960 645 f:0W WITH TURMO: A Sounders-Roe Skeeter Mk 12 modified to take c Blackburn Turmo 601 gas turbine in place of the D.H. Gipsy Major r ston engine. The turbine installation will expedite development of the Louis Newmark autostobilizer equipment for the Wasp IN BRIEF Sir Thomas Sopwith is indisposed, and his RAeS lecture on May 17as had to be postponed until the autumn. The Association of British Aero Clubs is holding its 1960 SummerConvention at RAF Thorney Island on May 21 at 2.30 p.m., in con- junction with the Thorney Fair. Peter G. Masefield, who recently completed his term of office asRAeS president, is to read a paper to the Royal Society of Arts (John Adam Street, Adelphi, WC2) on Problems and Prospects of Air Transporton Wednesday, May 25, at 2.30 p.m. Sir George Edwards, managing director of Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd, will preside. In Oslo on May 3 Dennis Hennessy, chairman of Hovercraft Develop-ment Ltd, said that fast five-ton hovercraft launches should be in regular service by next summer and 25-ton hovercraft ferries would be in useby the summer of 1962. Order books would soon be open. He estimated operating costs at 3d per passenger-mile, but said he was confident thatthis figure could later be halved. Nearly 50 members of the • \cronautical Society attended thebranches' conference, held recently at Brough. The principal repre- sentatives were Dr E. S. Moult, the president-elect, and Dr A. M.Ballantyne, secretary of the main society. The guests were welcomed by N. E. Rowe, technical director of Blackburn Aircraft Ltd and presidentof the Brough branch of the RAeS. Air Cdre A. H. Wheeler, CBE, MA(cantab), FRAes, has been appointedconsultant to the Aviation Division of Pan Britannica Industries Ltd, a member of the Tennant Group of Companies. The P.B.I. AviationDivision is at present one of the largest operators of agricultural aircraft in the UK. Air Cdre Wheeler's present duties include the position ofadviser to the ARB; and he is a trustee of the Shuttleworth Trust. THE GREAT OXFORD FLY-IN VERDICT of the schoolboys who collectively hitch-hiked somethousands of miles to the Shackleton Aircraft Sales Weekend at Oxford Airport last Friday, Saturday and Sunday was that itwas a roaring success. Salesmen and demonstrators may give more qualified approval, depending upon the business outcome of theirefforts, but the popularity of the event is now beyond question. Twelve months have made a big difference to Shackleton'ssales venture. This time last year import restrictions on foreign types were still in force. By comparison, the trickle of 1959 is fastbecoming a 1960 flood; 43 aircraft have been sold in the past ten months by the Piper agents alone, and the other importers arequickly stepping up their sales drives. Last year the Kidlington weekend (the aerodrome was officiallydesignated Oxford Airport on May 5) was notable for the numbers of secondhand British aircraft offered for sale; this year theemphasis was much more on new foreign aircraft, particularly the executive US types. The Piper range was there complete,from the powerful Aztec down to the sporting Super Cub. Cessnas also were present in strength, with most of the range except forthe 210 (which appeared the following day), and including both a 3IOC and the newest, sleekest 1960 310D. The Mooney Mk 20Apaid a visit on Friday and over from Ireland was the latest Bellanca 260. Hot from the Hanover show was the prototype Piaggio P. 166,I-PIAK, supported by a second of these smooth miniature air- liners, from McAlpine at Luton. Another from an Italian stablewas the wonderfully sleek, fast little two-seater Falco; bubble- canopied Turbulent, Jodel D.I 17 and D.140 Mousquetaire werethe Frenchmen, on sale through Rollason; from Germany came the astonishing RW3 Multoplan; and Belgium sent the Nipper,incomparably demonstrated by Bernard Neefs of Avions Fairey. What of new British types for prospective purchasers to fly andbuy? The Auster D.4, described last week and first of a new Auster range; a fluorescent-bright J5L; a Jackaroo; a Prospector;and the six-passenger civil Prentice. Later came the Garland Linnet and the "Bristol" Chipmunk, but this was the sum total.Is there a real competitor for the new foreign types among them? Bright sunshine gave the weekend a carnival air, and the demon-stration on the first day was one of the best light aircraft displays to be seen for a long time. It was understood that there was to be a straightforward fly-past by each type, but when the Piper circusgot airborne they really cut loose. In every corner of the sky air- craft were being wrung out in no uncertain fashion—the Aztecgetting airborne on a feathered engine; a Comanche whistling past in high-speed runs; a TriPacer leaping off the ground andinto the steepest of climbs, and in any spare corner, it seemed, Piper Super Cubs in every attitude from sideways on to upsidedown. They weaved in and out, looped, stall-turned, slid sideways past the parked aircraft and picked a particular blade of grass forlanding. Oxford is Vigors' home airport and the sales team made the best of it. Indeed, they set the pattern for the Cessnas, Austers,Piaggio, Jodels and everything else that followed. It was a spirited forty minutes and the stops were pulled out in no uncertain fashion. This is one of the joys of Shackleton's weekend; distributors*for new aircraft are welcome to demonstrate the newest and the best on sale in Great Britain, but for those searching for somethingin the secondhand market there is also plenty of variety. A few examples picked at random showed that the minimum price fora used aircraft was about £400, for a Tiger Moth with C of A due to expire in July. Among many others on offer were CirrusGeminis at £1,750 and £1,975 (the latter with STR.9Z 44-channel VHF and MF receiver); a Leopard Moth for £1,300; and a D.H.Dragonfly with 2,570hr on its airframe but only 20 and 355 engine hours for £1,700 (it also had quite useful radio and an ADF).One of the best bargains, at a quick glance, appeared to be an almost immaculate Lycoming-powered Auster V at £1,400. One important change since last year is that ownership of theairport has passed from the Corporation of Oxford to the Pressed Steel Company. Full aerodrome and approach control is nowavailable (frequency is 119.7), and the firm have installed manual homing and Ekco CE.70 cathode-ray DF equipment. This newoperational base for the Pressed Steel Aviation Division's business fleet (two Doves and TriPacer) bids fair to become a light aero-plane centre for central England. *Distributors represented were: Cessna, Airwork Services, Piccadilly,London; Piper, Vigors Aviation, Oxford Airport; Piaggio, Aero Enter- prises, 17 Drayton Road, Borehamwood; Jackarooy Turbulent and Jodel,Rollasons, Croydon Airport; Bellanca 260, Peter Clifford & Co, Oxford Airport. MetaSokol, Gp Capt Mole, 3 Red Place, Green St, London Wl.W. S. Shackleton act as agents for all the above types. ' SUN AND SALES at Oxford Airport during Shackleton's Aircraft Sales Weekend (see above). Right, the used aircraft park, only part of the many aircraft which flew in, and left, Tim Vigors hands over the documents of a new Piper TriPacer to E. H. B. Portman "Flight'* photographs
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