FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0910.PDF
18 FLIGHT, 1 July 1960. Straight and ve I YOU know the old definition of acamel—"a horse designed by acommittee." I wonder what sort of a supersonic airliner would come outof the Anglo-Franco-American collab- oration now being considered. It is not going to be all beer andskittles welding our own design teams together to work on a supersonic air-liner. For example, Avro and D.H. are in the same group—but so were VanGogh and Gauguin. So were Reynolds and Gainsborough. Like all artists—and aircraft design is an art as well as a science—they each had strong viewson the expression of their art. It is going to be even less easy gettingthe two British groups to work together —as they must, since obviously we can'tafford to do two supersonic transports. Can you imagine us, having got to-gether, then sitting down at the same easel with the French—who are, if any-thing, an artier lot than we, and who have common market obligations toco-operate with the German, Dutch and Italian aircraft industries? And can youfurther imagine us, having somehow succeeded in doing that, drawing upanother stool for the Americans, who don't need European help anyway andwho would certainly want to master- mind the masterpiece? The result wouldbe as inchoate as an action-painting by Jackson Pollock. So what do we do—go it alone? Well,at any rate we have already unfurled our canvas and got started on the broadbrushwork of our own design. Let's press on; if anyone wants to join in, theywill be very welcome. Passing thought: In all the recent top-level supersonic airliner discussions has anyone remembered to ask the airlinesfor their views? • Six DC-8 airlines have decided topool DC-8 spares at 25 airports around the world—KLM, PanAm, SAS, Swissair, Alitalia and Japan Air Lines. This cost-cutting trend towardsspares-pooling is most sensible. But I wonder how kindly the manufacturerstake to it. They make money on spares. Production programmes are costed onthe expectation of so many units sold plus, let's say, 25 per cent spares. Thiscosting may have to be re-adjusted. Is it any comfort to manufacturers tosuggest that efforts by airlines to cut costs must eventually result in lowerfares, which will expand traffic and hence increase the demand for aircraft? Well, anyway, spares managers can atleast try that argument on their manag- ing directors when they are called toaccount for their diminished sales. • I don't want to precipitate an argu- ment about which nation, Britain or America, is quicker at discovering the cause of an aircraft accident. It would be rather an unseemly discussion any- way. But the record needs putting straight, in view of the following from the US journal Airlift: "Lockheed's feat in pinpointing the source of the [Electra] problem in less than two months has been little short of phenomenal. The British Comet epi- sode, which it matches in significance, required 6-8 months to find an answer." The difference between the two Electra mid-air disintegrations and the two Comet 1 mid-air disintegrations was that the latter took place over the ocean. The recovery of the scattered pieces of Comet 1 wreckage from the bed of the sea was probably the most dauntingly difficult salvage job ever attempted. Nevertheless, the Royal Aircraft Establishment found the cause of the accident in their test tank in June 1954, two months after the second Comet 1 tragedy on April 8, 1954. The full in- quiry wasn't until October, but the cause had been established—in two months. This is not to suggest that the Electra investigation was not "little short of The small boy, who perhaps owns a model Bloodhound, is already concen- trating on the next item. His mother wears a look of classical resignation; his father studies the missile, or the RAF police, or the Al- satian. The girl and the youths seem in- different. This might have been an urn- worthy Grecian frieze, with hoplites trundling past the Athenians, instead of part of the Royal Tournament proces- sion through a leafy Hyde Park phenomenal." It certainly was. But it was no more phenomenal than the Comet 1 investigation. And in any case, shouldn't every accident investigation be done at a speed that is little more than phenomenal? Here's another chap I feel sorry for. His dodgem is a long way from Butlin's and he's fresh out of candy floss. He has cramp, claustrophobia and frostbite, so it's not likely that he's going to be able to get out of that thing. And even if he does he's going to find himself up to his Plimsoll line in freezing water. There's water, snow, rock and tundra as far as the eye can see, so, even if he manages to get a tow, with that rear wheel the shape it is he's going to be knocked cold. I can't imagine what he's got to wave about.* • I hereby award the Bacon flitch forthe snazziest convention, symposium, colloquium or conversazione toAmerica's National Aeronautic Associa- tion. I quote the Association's journal:"Fred Waring and his entire orchestra will present a special 'Salute to NAA'concert on the first night of NAA's 1960 annual meeting in Indio this fall . . .The concert will be played in a beautiful $100,000 outdoor stage located on theRiverside National Date Festival Grounds. It seats 4,700 people ... Inorder to take advantage of the oppor- tunity presented by Mr Waring, the pitbarbecue scheduled for the Cochran- Odlum ranch has been moved up to5.30 p.m. on Monday ..." Which should give the chaps a littletime off for business. • "Don't worry—our design office isworking on just that very point at this moment ..." Thinks: That's another snag wedidn't reckon on. ROGER BACON *The technical editor tells me it's an escape capsule undergoing environmental testing to check on predicated data and dedicated crewmen.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
