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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2135.PDF
NO 269O VOLUME 78 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC FRIDAY 3O SEPTEMBER 1960 AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1»09 Editor H . F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GU N8TON Production Editor ROY CASEY IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 524 Missiles and Spaceflight 526 Airport with Ideas 531 lATA's a.g.m.: a Postscript 532 Flight Systems 533 Doctors and the Air 534 Blue is the Sky 537 Straight and Level 538 Mannock's Men 539 Sport and Business 540 Auster D.6/18O in the Air 542 The industry 544 Correspondence 545 Air Commerce 547 Service Aviation 552 Iliffe & Som Ltd, Dorset House, Stam-ford Street, London SB1; telephone Waterloo 3333. Telegrams FlightpresSedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5. Canadaand USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, NY. Branch Office* Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191, Man- chester: 260 Deansgate, 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street, C.I; tele-phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe <fe Sons Ltd, 1960. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress can be granted only under written agree-ment. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Present IndicativeF IRST and top. Attainment of these distinctions is one of man's most compulsive stimulants; and should performance fall a little short, then historical recognition can sometimes be secured by a little judicious cheating or amnesia. Thus the latest, and by far the most exciting, book of aeronautical history* is especially remarkable for the neatness and thoroughness with which it demolishes long-standing "claims," many of which had become dogma. But it is one thing to play little games with history and quite another to bungle and contort the making of history. Consider the principle of variable geometry, the re-arranging of an aeroplane's wing-form in the manner of the Barnes Wallis Swallow. A claim that Dr B. N. Wallis of Vickers invented the principle would hardly be supportable, though to name him as its greatest proponent would be to give him his place in history. But it now appears that it will be the Americans, with the forthcoming Boeing fighter/bomber, who will go on record for the first realiza- tion and exploitation of "v.g." The issue following that in which we announced the Boeing project gave details of Northrop's plans for using boundary-layer suction to reduce drag, whereas we in this country had come to regard the rightful fosterparents of b.l.c. as Handley Page Ltd, of Cricklewood. And thirdly we have spokesmen for Short Brothers, constructors of the first flat-rising jet-lift aircraft in history, expressing concern that others than ourselves—who put the principle to the test—will be the first to put it to work. Bob Hotz, who edits Aviation Week and knows his business, told us at Farnborough that Britain must stay right with jet-lift and not fritter and fiddle away her pioneering efforts. Such matters as these involve great questions and great sums of money. Above all, they demand great courage. How will Britain show up in future editions of Mr Gibbs-Smith's book? Clouded HorizonT RY as it may, light aviation in Great Britain cannot properly get under way without Government encouragement. Some sort of overall policy is needed if there are ever again to be a light-aircraft manufacturing industry and a home market for some of its products. Business-aviation enterprise, as Mr Peter Masefield recalls (see page 525) has in little more than a year sold in this country American light aircraft to the value of £1 million. But notwithstanding the renewed interest in private flying that these sales have engendered it seems doubtful if they have even been officially noticed. In this issue is advanced a plea (pages 540 and 541) that instrument-flight safety be brought within easier reach of the business and private pilot. Also reported is the threatened closure of yet another airfield in the vicinity of London. These items typify the frustrations with which private flying is faced. The problems are not insuperable but the Minister's guiding hand is needed if they are to be solved in more than piecemeal fashion. If the future of general aviation in this country were a little less cloudy, and tenure of airfields a little more secure, private enterprise would be more willing to aid in their development. Likewise a reassessment of the air traffic control system from the standpoint of its respon- sibilities to the private pilot would hasten the development of equipment and stimulate pilot training. Yet absent still is an effective executive body before which such matters can be voiced and by whom ideas can be translated into action. * "The Aeroplane: An Historical Survey," by Charles H. Gibbs-Smith. Her Majesty's Stationery Office; £1 15s net.
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