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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1471.PDF
flGHT, 26 August 1960 307 Straight and Level 1-^ODAY I can reveal the names ofthe men whom the Minister ofPlanes, Mr Hugh Strangeways,has appointed as part-time members of the new British Planes Board : — Sir John Feckless: chairman, East Smithfield Fruit and Linoleum Com- pany; Minister of Football, 1910-12. Aged 87. j. T. Snonng-Smith: president, Federation of British Bicycle Growers. Formerly works manager, Beetroot Processing Ltd. Aged 89. Cliff Beat: managing director, Wobble Board Music Industries Ltd. Aged 92. Sir James Cardboard: chairman, Slothley Bowls and Croquet Club; past president, Leather Distillers Licensing Board. Aged 81. Dr J. Nit, British air expert (adviser to the Board). Aged 88. Other appointments, I understand, may be made by the Minister from a number of other suitable candidates now on his department's short list. • Retiring in disposition and now,alas, in fact, is Dr A. A. Griffith, chief scientist to Rolls-Royce. "What a shygenius—this man behind jet history," writes John London in the NewsChronicle; and he is correct in both assessments. Above all, Dr Griffith is a man ofvision, and realization of the jet-lift narrow-delta supersonic transport aero-plane may yet be his apotheosis. Dr A. A. Griffith's initials stand forAlan Arnold. These names, I find, were taken from a book published in 1895—a book which foretold a giant aircraft described by the author in these terms: "The air-ship, on which all eyes werenow bent with such intense curiosity, was a beautifully-proportioned vessel,built chiefly of some unknown metal, which shone with a brilliant, pale-bluelustre. Her hull was about two hundred feet from stem to stern, not counting a I was just settling down to a quiet game of peek-a-boo when I felt the tech- nical editor panting down my neck, mut- tering hoarsely about variable stators on the GE93 for the B-70. He eventually wrenched himself away to calculate mass flow at Mach 3, but I'm expecting him back shortly ^ , NIII^^^ long, ramlike projection which stretchedsome twenty-five feet in front of the stem." It is not uninstructive to compare thisdescription with the photograph of a Griffith supersonic delta project appear-ing on an earlier page. The author of the book, incidentally,was one George Griffith. He had his son christened Alan Arnold. • Extract from Sabena's annual report for 1959, page 17, under the heading Assets: — Flat in Paris .. . Fr. 389,729. • Bestowing upon Walter Tye, chieftechnical officer of the Air Registration Board, its distinguished service award,the U.S. Flight Safety Foundation says: "He combines the excellence of amaster technician with a magnificent talent for defining complex air safetyproblems in terms so clear and simple that they either tend to solve themselvesby virtue of his definitions or enable the The fairyland in my picture is the domain of the Nut Tree Restaurant, midway between San Francisco and Sacra- mento. So confident were the owners of the future of general aviation that they put down a 1,900ft runway to attract fly-in customers. And they got them. In 1957 4,153 aircraft brought 11,555 cus- tomers. Next year there were 6,716 air- craft, bringing 18,805 customers. In 1959 8,734 aircraft and 24,455 customers problems to be considered by a vastlygreater number of interested specialists. "Also his leadership in the develop-ment of the objective type of airworthi- ness requirements tends to stimulaterather than restrict the imagination and skills of aircraft designers in the achieve-ment of greater safety." Which, to spare Mr Tye's blushes, isquite a compliment to the ARB. • Did you hear about the club pilotwho had to put his bedraggled Tiger Moth down at a mammoth USAF base?His response when required by a for- midable member of the Air Police to"Git outa that airplane Buster" was neat and to the point—"Mach Buster, if youplease." • Pointing out that Prestwick's tem-perature is slightly higher than that of Renfrew and Abbotsinch, an AyrCounty Council report avers: "This is important for jet aircraft, as coldertemperatures require a longer run on take-off." There may be a good many argumentsfor developing Prestwick as Glasgow's airport, and some of them are well ex-pressed in the council's report. But— forgive me for being clever at someoneelse's expense—I'm not sure that the argument is too well founded on fact. • "I do not see any prestige value in running jets unless they are operated by Ceylonese crews. The prestige lies in flying jets with our pilots."—Mr P. Nadesan, chairman of Air Ceylon. • "United Air lines is now theworld's biggest airline without any reservations." ROGER BACON
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