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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1062.PDF
88 FLIGHT, 15 July I960 Straight and Level .JE- PROGRAMMES sold at RAFAdisplays help to raise money fora good cause, so perhaps one shouldn't be too critical of their con- tents. But this effort in one particular recent shillingsworth (I quote verbatim) seemed to strike not quite the right note: — "THE ADVENT OF Flight Re-fuellingrecalls memories of Bombers and Fighters, disintegrating around one, airborne holo-causts, sweeping across the night sky. Plunging vertically into heavy cumulous,fusing the clouds orange and crimson, as they plummet earthwards. The crewsaboard, octained cremations, the night sky, a canvas of searing destruction . . . "HomeJames—lets get to hell out of here" the Skipper calls, but, rich mixture, fullthrottle climb, in those days meant a consumption of 240 gals, per min. . . ." Spelling, 0; punctuation, 0; theme, 0. General remarks: See me in my study after prep. • Princeton University, conferring upon John Cobb Cooper an honorary doctorate of laws last month, delivered the following citation : — "Attorney to the air, brilliant barrister to the wild blue yonder, of him it may be said what John Donne remarked of Bishop Valentine: 'All the air is thy diocese.' If he cannot legislate the light- ning nor adjudicate the winds of Aeolus, he yet knows how to protect the rule of law and right reason against the lower- ing face of the firmament." All of which should make Dr Cooper, who is IATA's legal adviser, feel a very honoured honorary Doctor of Laws. • The story goes that Mr R. M. Ansett and Mr John Ryland were not able to agree which of their two airlines, Ansett- ANA or TAA, should be the first to operate a new competitive service from Sydney to New Guinea after Qantas retired from the route. What happened in the end was that a TAA DC-6B opened the service on July 9, an Ansett-ANA DC-6B follow- ing on July 11. How was this agreement reached? Mr Ansett decided that they should toss for it. He lost. • If you happen to see a BEA Heron with the name Sister Jane Kennedy on it, you will be seeing a memorial to the nurse who lost her life in a BEA Heron ambulance which crashed three years ago while answering an emergency call. The crew of two died also. In a simple ceremony the other day a new BEA Heron was so named by the nurse's sister, Mrs Catherine Maclntyre. Sister Jane and her crew could hardly have wished for a more fitting memorial • "I believe in being frank with the public."—Mr Duncan Sandys, Minister of Aviation, talking to the Press about jet noise. At the possible risk of refuelling my- self with my own exhaust, and bearing in mind the context of the remark (see page 101), I would just like to quote what The Guardian said about it: "However wise, careful and just his policy may be, it is not frank." But I am bound to express pleasure that Mr Sandys says he believes in being frank with the public. Let him now be frank. I have a feeling that public hos- tility to jet noise is being exacerbated by the Minister's defensive public relations policy. If ever there was a case for really frank Ministry public relations, this is it. • From a Canadair paper, "Modern Cargo Aircraft Design," May 1960: "We have often been questioned about the origin of the swing-tail. We knew the idea had been generally discussed in On my right, an air viee-marshal in un-Brass Hat-like attitude: AVM Peter Wykeham, who commands the Group whose aircraft drop the Army parachutists, is being hauled in after trying out the dropping business for himself from a Twin Pioneer off the t)orset coast. But why did he fall into the sea? Surely all dropping zones are on land? Anyway, I applaud the AOC's initiative and award him this week's Bacon flitch the industry since the end of World War 2, but after a little historical re- search we were surprised to discover the concept goes back at least 38 years. [Slide No 9: 'Gloster Swing-Tail, excerpt from 1925 Flight'.] "Three years after the original pro- posal, as you can see, Flight was becom- ing somewhat impatient at the delay in applying what was obviously an excel- lent idea to a production aircraft. As it turned out, they only had another 35 years to wait." • A Vickers Vimy which first flew toAustralia in December 1919 has been reconstructed with the aid of technicaladvice from the manufacturers. "It was easy," says a Vickers spokes-man. "It didn't have to fly again." • "US living standards are so high that when workers go on strike they have to picket the factory in their private aircraft to prevent blacklegs getting to work in their private aircraft." Ha, ha, that's quite a funny story to tell at a Soviet Embassy cocktail party. It happens to be a story that's coming true. Downtrodden missile workers at Convair Astronautics recently on strike for more pay had to picket the plant with aircraft towing banners in order to dis-suade would-be scabs from trying to get in by helicopter. • • Outspoken Dr J. Nit, controversial British air expert, last week commented on the recently published Flight des- cription of the Ilyushin 11-18. "I would say it appears to be a pretty workmanlike job—yes, a pretty work- manlike job," he conceded, polishing the cursor of his slide-rule. "Mind you, I think the pattern on the cabin carpet is bit behind the state of the art. The Russians have obviously a long way to go before they catch up with the state of the art, you know. And I must say that I find all that funny lettering on the out- side of the aircraft, and in the cockpit, too, difficult to understand — which might not be a good safety feature. "Of course, we know nothing about Russian safety standards. For instance, it appears that the Il-18's cockpit can be sealed off from the passenger cabin, as in the Tu-104 and the Tu-114, to give the crew an extra margin in the event of a pressurization failure. This is an air- worthiness standard that British pilots suggested long ago—but what a weight penalty, what a weight penalty! It's all a question of the state of the art, you see, and of course we know nothing about Russian safety standards . . ." , • "Some of the lies in that brochure just simply are not true." Security We know.The Ministry know. They know that we know.We know that they know that Foreign Powers know—but Flight can't writeanything about it. ; ROGER BACON
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