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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1940.PDF
446 FLIGHT, 16 September 960 MILITARY COUNTERPART of the Soviet An-10 airliner has s r-«r. loading ramp and tail gun position reminiscent of the little-used •'•• V This photograph, newly received, shows an example with •>;/ registration FROM ALL QUARTERS The SBAC Dinner THE new President of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors,Sir George Dowty, said at the SBAC annual dinner in London on September 7, "As a representative of the equipment industryI am proud of the success of this side of British aviation, which perhaps tends to lose its identity in an industry primarily thoughtof in terms of complete aircraft or aero-engines." Sir George warned that we may have to face a decline in our aviation exports,however, for everywhere we saw a downturn in orders for military aeroplanes. It was fortunate at this time when we wanted toexpand our civil business, he said, to find an increasing demand for people and goods to be transported more quickly and with greatereconomy. There were many matters to be resolved before we could start a supersonic airliner project. Of air freighting Sir Georgesaid, "So far we have only scratched the surface of air freighting of cargo, a field where great opportunities he, for although I havereferred to the recent expansion that has taken place in this business, yet it is interesting to note that only 5 per cent of ourcountry's total exports are currently being airfreighted." Sir George went on to refer to the new structure of the industryin these terms: "Our first Minister will be remembered as the architect of our new industrial structure which, we hope, is nowbetter able to withstand the stresses of a highly competitive market. In a short time he effected a remarkable transformation but itmust be said that this was made possible by the full and ready co-operation he received. . . . "Tonight we welcome our new Minister. He takes over hisimportant office with our good wishes. His record is a most distinguished one and we have great confidence that he will bean inspiration to us all and follow up the work of his predecessor by giving us that help and encouragement so necessary for thesuccess of this important industry." Sir George thanked the Minister for the hospitality providedby Her Majesty's Government on the previous evening—a further indication, he said, of the keen interest of the Government inSBAC affairs. Replying, Mr Peter Thorneycroft, Minister of Aviation, said:"I was once the guardian of the public r>urse and t now find myself head of a great spending department. All are familiar with the poacher turned gamekeeper, the man with a shady rs«twho has become a figure of honour and respectability The game- keeper turned poacher is a situation requiring rather more delics,'vin explanation. In these circumstances may I say first a word""? encouragement to the British aircraft industry. You are assuT--~iof our continued support. Do not despair, a little money mav still trickle through to you. I recognize that what the Minis rvof Aviation does will remain and rightly remain expensive. W' must rid it of the label of being extravagant." Of spaceflight the Minister said: "For the United Kingdomalone to seek to compete in the field of manned space vehicles with Russia and the United States would certainly be imprudentand probably impossible. There are, however, spheres of space research, commercial, technical and scientific, which fall far shortof this. If such research and development, whether in the field of satellites or launchers, is to be carried on outside the UnitedStates and Russia, let us at least make an effort in the Common- wealth and in Europe to find a co-operative basis for it. If we areto look towards the stars let us look a little beyond our own national frontiers first of all." The Minister said of supersonic transports: "There isapparently a limited market for supersonic commercial aircraft. If one of us goes into it, we may well all attempt it, and I am boundto say that I believe, in this country, we would do it very well. There is, however, in this supersonic field, a powerful case foi allof us agreeing what to make, when to make it and then making it together. Our studies of a supersonic civil aircraft are indeedwell advanced and will soon be advanced still further. We are very ready to consider how we might collaborate with the Americans,the French, or other overseas friends who are interested." C. F. Uwins for Shorts THE MoA announces that Mr C. F. Uwins has been appointedto take charge of Short Brothers & Harland Ltd as chairman and managing director until December 31, pending a permanentappointment. For several years Mr Uwins has been a director of Shorts and he is also a deputy chairman of the Bristol AeroplaneCo Ltd, an office which he will continue to hold. In the earlier years of his career Mr Uwins was one of the mostnoted test pilots, not only of this country but in the world. US Navy's 500km Record A NEW speed record of 1,216.78 m.p.h. over a 500km closed circuit (about 313 miles) was set uo by a US Navy McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II over a triangular course at Edwards AFB, Cal, on September 7. If accepted by the FAI, th;s will exceed by more than 400 m.p.h. the current world record for a 500km course, set up by Capt George Edwards of the USAF in an RF-101 Voodoo on April 16, 1959. The Phantom II was piloted by Lt-Col Thomas Miller. Russian VTOL Projects ACCORDING to a recent Moscow radio broadcast, Soviet aircraftdesigners are now working on a number of VTOL projects. OrK of these, described as a coleopter, first rises to a height of about100m (330ft) before making its transition to horizontal flight. Another "takes off like a helicopter, then moves forward on aseparate engine." A third design is apparently of the tilt-wing type, and a fourth is a variant in which only the engines are tilted.The broadcast concluded by saying that these projects would go into serial production "in a very short time." RIVER HELIPORT: On the Westland stand at the SBAC Show last week was this model of a proposed London heliport, built out over the Thames between Waterloo and Black- friars Bridges. Note the two "/ong-sp" Rotodyne models a close-up of one of r--em appears on page •»«
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