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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1181.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 July 1960 153 Straight and Level ILITTLE thought when I wrote lastweek about perpetuating errors ofmilitary fact that I should be presented with such a glaring exampleas the following (perpetrated, I regret, by a distinguished Battle of Britainfighter pilot, equally distinguished as a journalist, writing in a famous Londonevening newspaper): "Its [the MelO^s] armament wasformidable, as many of us were to dis- cover. There was a cannon, firingexplosive shells through the propeller hub. And there were four or six heavymachine-guns, of which two were mounted above the engine cowling." The distinguished author will pleasewrite out one hundred times: (1) No Battle of Britain Me 109 had a cannonfiring through the propeller hub. (2) No Battle of Britain Me 109 had four or sixheavy machine guns, either in addition to, or instead of, cannon. (3) No Battleof Britain MelO9 had six machine guns. (4) No Battle of Britain MelO9 had heavymachine guns. (5) All Battle of Britain Me 109s had one of two armamentschemes—four rifle-bore machine guns or two of these and two cannon. I can't imagine a brighter bevy of besoms than this one, symbolizing the same number of pilotless sorties (28 to save you counting) by a target Meteor, operated by Short Bros & Harland at Llanbedr. (Gert, as formation leader, just can't help showing off) development and purchase of the air-craft, Victor, Vulcan, TSR2, NA39, Lightning, Javelin, Scimitar and SeaVixen respectively. "Mr Rippon: It would not be in thepublic interest to give so much infor- mation on the progress of our weapondevelopment programme." Back to square one, Mr. Davies. QPitk ike of ffk 3Ll far (Arm 31evue 1960 "Show a leg there,myhearties! You can't be in the FAA chorus-line for 1960 if that's the best you can do. We're on the swept-wing band-wagon now, and the stringbag days are over."—Thespian ideas prompted by this nice com- pliments slip received with a copy of the Fleet Air Arm Review 1960 • Since my comment three weeks ago on Ministerial evasion on the grounds of security, our leaders have been at it again. Hansard, July 11: "Mr Harold Davies asked the Minis- ter of Aviation how much has been spent on the development of each of the fol- lowing missiles, namely, Thunderbird, Bloodhound, Firestreak, Blue Steel, Seacat, Seaslug, Blue Water and Black Knight; when these weapons [sic] will be ready; and what has been spent on • Tex Johnston, a good friend of mycolleagues, has for quite a while been one of the most famous test pilots in theworld. As chief of flight test for Boeing he has logged 14,000hr, nearly all of itin big multi-engined aircraft. Bearing in mind Boeing's imminent preoccupationwith the Dyna Soar manned hypersonic space glider, I have been wonderingwhether Tex would achieve the greatest of all "firsts" by being at the controls onthe first launch. But this palm seems Where were the boys of the Old Brigade on July 19? As my picture suggests, they were hurtling around in the cerulean aboard an RAF Comet. And what were the lads of the new brigade up to on the same day . . .? likely to go to somebody from NASA orthe USAF, because Tex has just been appointed an assistant programmemanager on this project. In his new assignment he will be responsible fordesign and test; but the company announcement carefully refrains fromsaying whether he will actually be required to drive it. Remembering Tex'sbarn-storming days, and the way he can roll a B-52, I have no doubt he wouldbe game to try. • As far as I can determine, the onlyreal missile deterrents in the West are the Atlas ICBMs of Strategic Air Com-mand, and SAC is putting them on to launchers as hard as it can. I was sur-prised therefore to see that the USAF have given one to the Smithsonian Insti-tution in Washington. Plenty of dummy Atlas missiles have appeared at variousState Fairs, dragster meets, World Con- gresses of Flight and similar junketings,but the Smithsonian's is real, from the tip of its GE Mk 2 nosecone to thenozzles of its Rocketdyne engines. It is just as if, instead of sending it toWoomera, we had given a Blue Steel to the Science Museum. • No longer is a co-pilot in Transport Command aircraft the man who sits in the right-hand seat and says "under- carriage down and locked" or "flaps coming up." According to the defini- tion I heard last week at one of the RAF flying training schools (where they clearly have the right line in sales talk), he is now "the executive vice-president in a million-pound concern." • My thanks to "Aerius," writing inThe Log, official journal of the British Air Line Pilots Association, for puttingon record this latest mergerism: "A group of representatives of famous BACfirms whom I met in June in a foreign capital claimed that they never leavetheir offices without instructing their secretaries: 'If the boss phones, ask himhis name.'" : :: ROGER BACON
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