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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2355.PDF
No 2693 VOLUME 78 FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER I960 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H . F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. QUN6TON Production Editor ROY CASEY IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 628 Translating into Service 630 Streetcar Satellite 631 PIA Profile 632 Radar and Research 633 Missiles and Space-flight 636 Aerodrome Owners Confer 638 Prospects for the Airline Helicopter 639 Sport and Business 640 New Tunnels for Warton 641 Correspondence 645 Into the Sun 647 The Industry 648 Straight and Level 649 Flight System Survey 65O Air Commerce 651 Service Aviation 656 Miff* & Son! Ltd, Dorset House, Stam-ford Street, London SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333. Telegrams FlightpresSediat London. Annual subscription* Home £4 15s. Overseas £5. Canaiiuand USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York. NY. Branch OfficM Coventry: 8-10 Cnrimri-tion Street; telephone Coventry &V2IO. Birmingham: King Edward House, Ni'wStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deansgate, 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 35».">. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street, C.I; tele-phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner A Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © IUffe & 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. AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1909 Open Challenge, Open Columns AT the recent Court and Livery Dinner of the Worshipful Company ofL Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers of London, Lord Brabazon toldthe assembly that he had written a letter to "one of the aeronautical journals" concerning the kerosine v. JP.4 fuel controversy. The journal was Flight, and the letter appeared in the issue of October 7. Most readers will recall that it issued a challenge to a "fuel duel" between Lord Brabazon and protagonists of JP.4. While air safety, particularly where the fire hazard is concerned, is not the most suitable topic for sensational or emotional publicity, Lord Brabazon's letter was calculated to attract public attention to a situation which must increasingly concern all who operate, or travel by, turbine-engined airliners. Curiously, neither the air correspondents of the daily Press nor the BBC took notice of Lord Brabazon's challenge, though one writer admitted a personalized version to his column. Certainly the literature of the subject appears one-sided and inadequate. Perhaps the first contribution to discussion, and certainly the best known, was an article in Flight of June 10 last, described by Lord Brabazon as "unanswerable." Since that time we have reported successive developments in the situation, the latest being an MoA order reducing from fourteen to eleven the number of aircraft permitted on the London Airport North apron at any one time, by reason of "the increased danger of fire from mixture fuels." This Ministerial allegation is described by Pan American as "quite ridiculous." Our columns are at the disposal not only of the apostles of kerosine but also of the increasing band of converts to JP.4. Into Orbit Modestly BEHIND the recent clamour for and against a major all-British spaceprogramme, a group of scientists at three Redbrick universities have beenquietly getting on with the job of designing, developing and refining equipment for a modest set of orbital experiments. The object of their attentions is revealed, for the first time in any publication on either side of the Atlantic, on page 631 of this issue. It is the first Anglo-American satellite—in effect a United States satellite carrying British instruments—which has been made possible by the enlightened international policy of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Nobody would wish to suggest that the orbital rides now being offered in America's satellite streetcars are in any way a substitute for a thriving rocket tech- nology in this country, embracing launch vehicles and spacecraft. But the modest efforts of the university physicists in London, Birmingham and Leicester are dedicated to a more basic and worthwhile ideal than that of the obsessional nationalism shown by many of the go-it-alone, regardless-of-expense brigade. From the scientific viewpoint it does not matter one iota who makes the important discoveries in the exploration of space. What matters is that these dis- coveries shall be made. And the most effective way of ensuring this, simply because space is an expensive place, is by international co-operation. Sooner or later this will happen on the widest scale. Most scientists, and others who take a far-sighted view, realize this now. International 1 is a worthy first step as far as this country and the United States are concerned, and the indications are that the initially planned trio of launchings under this scheme will be followed by others. But, what- ever might be achieved in the future, International 1 is being achieved right now. Science, and this country, will be the better for it.
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