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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0060.PDF
58 FLIGHT, 13 January 1961 Straight and vel PORTSMOUTH has quite a num-ber of rather unpleasant-soundingstreet names, and the council wishes to eliminate them. One of theseis Rat Lane, which leads to the old Air- speed works (now D.H. Portsmouth). The street has just been renamedNorway Lane in memory of the late Nevil Shute Norway, a founder of Air-speed and famous also for—well, there's no need for me to tell you well-read lotwhat Nevil Shute is famous for. Anyway, there's a nice little rat's-tail-piece to this story, for which I am indebted to the Portsmouth EveningNews. The brownish-grey rat, which has largely exterminated other species—notably the black rat (rattus rattus)—in this country is none other than theNorway rat (rattus norvegicus). • Last week the Daily Telegraph pub-lished a feature article by Air Cdre L. G. S. Payne, who is the newspaper'sair correspondent, about the future of British private flying. It was good to see such prominencegiven to this subject. But nowhere in the article was there any mention ofBeagle. "In recent years the only British firm designing small single-engined civil it • * effective October 10.1960MS LIGHT planes and selling them in appreciablenumbers," said Air Cdre Payne, "was Auster Aircraft. It is now a subsidiaryof the Pressed Steel Company." The next paragraph began: "Thereare about 23 United States com- panies . . ." and listed the numbers oflight aircraft producers in France, Italy and Western Germany. Many readers may have been excusedfor thinking that, as the author went on to say, British manufacturers are doingno "more than dream about a new golden age for private flying." And thatthere are "few signs of reasonably priced vehicles of this kind being available forprivate flying in the foreseeable future." To write an article about the future ofBritish private flying without mention- ing Beagle is like listing Britain's leadingnational newspapers without mention- ing the Daily Telegraph. • I remember suggesting when Shortsnamed their big new SC.5 freighter the Britannic (this column, February 20,1959), that "if we want to sell our goods in neutral-country markets we shouldacknowledge the psychological import- ance of neutral nomenclature." I wonder whether it is for this reasonthat Shorts have renamed this aircraft the Belfast? It doesn't really matter,because I don't think that names sell aeronautical products anyway. I am sure there is no harm in thenaming game, except perhaps that time is wasted dreaming names up. But it issignificant that our chief competitors manage to sell their aircraft withoutnaming them all—Boeing 707, Con- vair 990, Douglas DC-8, Boeing 727, toname (or number) but a few. I am sure that the D.H.121 wouldhave sold just as well as the Trident, and that the Rolls-Royce RB.163, its power-plant, would have sold just as well as the Spey. Passing thought: Surely a tridentalways has three tines? • Talking about names, the Irishappear to have one name for their airline for every day of the week. A press release I saw lying on a col-league's desk the other day was headed Aer Lingus Irish Air Lines, though thesubject matter concerned a new appoint- ment in Irish International Airlines.This, it seems, is the name of the marketing company in North America,but it appears on the fuselages of their Boeing 720s—though on the wings it iswritten as Irish Air Lines, a name which in some official publications is, however,rendered as Irish Airlines. The whole thing is quite simple really.Overseas they are known as Irish Inter- national Airlines (alternatively IrishAir Lines or Irish Airlines), while in Europe they are Aer Lingus, a companyowned by Aer Rianta. And one mustn't leave out Aerlinte Eireann, which occu-pies a very important position in Ireland's civil aviation set-up, as indeeddoes Aer Lime Teoranta. Anyway, good luck to the Irish, underwhatever name they may operate. They may not know their name, but they knowwhere they're going, as an article else- where in this particular issue of Flightsuggests. • Do you remember the statementabout 18 months ago by Mr Aubrey Jones, then Minister of Supply, to theeffect that Britain's aircraft industry would have to contract, in terms of workforce, from about 250,000 to about 150,000? I publish without commentthe following extract from a recent SBAC news letter: — "The industry's labour figures during1960 (January-September) showed an increase from 279,600 to 283,500. Thepresident of the society said during dis- play week that 'the difficulty will be toget enough people' to fulfil the industry's commitments." ROGER BACON A few weeks ago I recorded with pleasure a new "Victorian Gaslight" DC-3 service between Buffalo and Boston being operated by Mohawk Airlines. The aircraft cabin, I noted, is decorated with antimacassars, red velvet curtains, brocade wallpaper, gilt framed pictures and carriage lamps, and the stewardess is dressed in Gay Nineties costume. Subsequently sent to me, and presented herewith, are pages from the timetable P READ DOWN ruwm vm I . Km* cam nwm im 4t*f 3 MS A»A>IUABkK FOE CHAfcMSK READ UP j) tu&m imi I rusai BILL 0* FARE «reaa or coca., iAmn. wavnuatat rtcxuxa LA&EB BEEB -iJJ J _l_l ML*!!!- PRETZELS sort t 4C rara* *o «jwr>* ax MomAvmtt taetf '.,.%» U<>HT HUUHT&
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