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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0807.PDF
No 2675 VOLUME 7 7 FRIDAY 17 JUNE I960 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. 8MITH DFC Editor H . F. KINO MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CA8EY IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 816 Big-League Gliding 818 Missiles and Space-flight 821 Air Despatch 824 Racing Down to Rhoose 826 France's Aircraft Industry 829 Straight and Level 831 Service Aviation 832 This Aircraft . . . 833 Air Commerce 847 Flight System Survey 852 Cranfleld Open Day 853 Holiday Air Displays 853 Correspondence 854 Uiffe & Sons Ltd, Dorset House, Stam-ford Street. London SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333. Telegrams FlightpresSedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5. Canadaand USA S15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deanagate, 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street, Cl; tele-phone Central 1205-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe & Sons Ltd, 1960. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress can be granted only under written agree-ment. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ ol the Royal Acre Club Firat Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded IMS Neighbour, Partner, Rival AT about this time of the year, or, more accurately, every other year, a /X sizeable detachment of Flight's staff migrates, with light hearts and heavy notebooks, to Paris. Their objective, of course, is the Aeronautical Salon, or Paris Aero Show. These pleasant excursions have been in the order of things for over half a century, for it was in our first issue, in January, 1909, that the first Aeronautical Salon was described and illustrated. The present year is one of interregnum, and the more drab for it; for the colour and spectacle of Le Bourget have come to mean in their way what the delights of Montmartre and Monte Carlo mean in their own. The occasion is, however, essentially an earnest one, for in France we must recognize a brilliant and worldly-wise opponent in the uncompromising business of selling aircraft. And though our neighbour has shown herself to be a valued partner in certain high endeavours this journal has seen fit in recent months to draw attention to the new potential of French aeronautical products in markets that were formerly British and American. A few weeks ago we reported Australian interest in the Super Broussard. We have since recorded a firm order for six from Ansett-ANA. In the continuing belief that the resources and capabilities of France's aircraft industry are insufficiently recognized by Great Britain, in respect both of collaboration and competition, this special issue has been produced. It tells of advanced techniques, massive and modern resources, commercial shrewdness, and high ambition. On the military side the Dassault Mirage III is seen as a Mach 2 fighter/bomber of the highest quality. France has ordered 200 and export potential is obvious. The Mirage IV supersonic nuclear bomber is likely to be ordered to the extent of at least 50—and here again is a Mach 2 aeroplane, of which France has several and Britain one only. The Etendard, by the same makers, is an exceptionally attractive light carrier-borne strike/fighter, again with export potential. The success of the Fouga Magister jet trainer, and of the Sud Djinn and Alouette helicopters, is international, and internationally acclaimed, while the Caravelle stands as a graceful monument to French taste, originality and craftsmanship. Breguet's 940/941 STOL transport has no rival anywhere in the world, and the same maker's Atlantic submarine killer may find its ultimate destiny as a very-low-fare vehicle of mass public transport. Business in Tourism The range of business and touring aircraft, from the elegant twin-jet Paris to the rudimentary ultra-lights, is something that we in Britain have not yet begun to rival, though the nation has found it expedient to purchase a Paris for its College of Aeronautics, and French light aircraft of several types—two of them in production here—are being acquired by British private owners. Considering the executive bracket we find the French already installing their incomparable new tiny turboprops in American airframes; and the results, if we are not mistaken, will be as lucrative as they are enviable. The foregoing are facts which, though not in themselves, perhaps, of first importance, are depressing in some implications. This issue is no panegyric of France's industry: it is an analytical survey of how that nation conducts its aeronautical business and of how it is succeeding. Many of us in this country have had our fun, in the early post-war years, at our neighbour's expense (cardboard mock-ups, Paris fashions for fashion's sake, violent epidemics of prototypes, and the rest of it). For anyone who wishes to preserve such gay memories of Parisian insouciance this issue is not recommended reading. •i:-.
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