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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0274.PDF
278 FLIGHT, 3 March 196! Straight and Level AS everybody knows, the first all-metal aircraft to enter service"" with the RAF was, as shown in my picture, the Armstrong Whitworth Siskin III. That was in 1924. In those days, unfortunately, Flight had not yet produced the first of its world-famous series of engineering cut-away drawings, and nowhere has a picture been pub- lished of this historic aircraft in skeleton. I am now privileged to render this service to posterity. • "Humane methods of transporting by air live birds such as firefinches, love- birds, canaries and budgerigars are recommended in a new British Standard (B.S. 3149: Part 2) which has just been published. Detailed guidance is given on the kind of cages most suitable for transporting various types of small and medium-sized seed-eating birds . . ." How about a British Standard for air-transporting economy-class humans humanely? Meanwhile . . . • ... "All Australian airliners will carry a baton and two pairs of handcuffs from May 1, the Department of Civil Aviation announced today."—Renter, Melbourne, February 14. • A great deal is said about "natural"indications in instruments, but I am delighted to see that pundits are finallyadmitting that it is extremely difficult to find out what is in fact natural and whatis not. Certainly the trained pilot is no longer able to make any clear distinctionand, worse still, he can quite easily react to a "natural" indication in the wrongsense. And now we have to ferret around inthe pilot's tangled subconscious with the aid of an "applied psychologist" in orderto discover what is really natural and "free from opinion and prejudice." Arenot opinion and prejudice themselves natural? In any case, no one presenta-tion will ever fulfil every operational requirement—and as soon as someonefinds a new natural someone else clutters it up until it becomes impossibly "noisy"and our nature boy is just as baffled as he was before. • From a newspaper report:— "A partial explanation might be the loss of aerodynamic qualities by too great a loss of speed. This could have resulted from a failure in the control gear of the tail mechanism. This is apparently confirmed by statements that the aircraft had its nose raised to an unusual extent just before its turn. "Though this would not explain the breakdown of radio communications with the control tower, it might account for the attempt as a last resort to climb in a spiral to check the loss of speed and "I say there old man haven't you got it a bit too rich?" reach a safe height. A great deal of mystery still remains, however." Yes, indeed—and mysteries are some- times deepened by newspaper reporters (evidently not, in this case, the air cor- respondent) who haven't a clue about what they are writing. • "Last year we earned $8,000,000 in America—not bad for an airline that doesn't fly within 4,000 miles of the place."—Mr Anthony Milward, chief executive of British European Airways. Good for BEA. Speaking on the same occasion, which was his return from a three week visit to the USA, Mr Milward remarked upon the "absolutely fabulous" sums of money that the Americans are expend- ing on their airports. He emphasized that about one third of US airport revenues comes from car parks—the implication being that we in this country should do something to increase revenues from this source. Mr Milward and his chairman, Lord Douglas, will have to clarify their thoughts on this subject, because they recently opened a campaign to persuade people not to take their cars to London Heathrow Airport. • Two more thoughts about London Heathrow, in the hope that something may be done before it is too late. ONE: In this column on May 27, 1960, I begged the Ministry to make London Airport North less of a scandal than it is by displaying posters and pictures and models of the new inter- continental terminal, and apologizing for the temporary chaos at the shanty- town. The Ministry responded, as I was glad to record on July 8, by posting up some friendly notices. Alas, these are few in number and are in any case scarcely noticeable. And they do not appear at all in that terrible Customs shed, where visitors get their first impressions of this country. So, once again, I beg the airport manage- ment to improve its public relations. There is only one more season to go, but it is going to be the most temper-testing ever, and three million first impressions of this country are at stake. TWO: I do hope our eyes will find delight in the interior design of the new intercontinental terminal at London Heathrow. Let the aesthetically offen- sive interior of the London Gatwick terminal stand as a monument to modern airport terminal decor as its least inspired. • Republic Aviation, I am told, are arranging a reunion for former Thunderbolt pilots. Remembering that 15,329 were built and th«t the aircraft was known to its pilots as "The Jug," I predict that this will be quite a party. • Caption to diagram in technical handbook on a certain twin-engined executive aircraft of Continental origin: "Electrical panel and dislocation of other equipment." • I hear that BOAC are to introduce at the end of April commercial radio programmes on their Boeing 707 ser- vices. Called Hi-Fli, the programmes will be "interspersed with quality advertising." "Hello, folks! Here we are again— the same old spot on the dial! Yes, sir, this programme is brought to you by the writers of Straight and Level, the only column with SRS, the secret ingredient that provides VIABILITY! We bring you now another 15 minutes of smooth listening, to remind you—if you need any reminding—that Straight and Level is the SMOOTHEST column on the market! Yes, sir, the only column with a capability posture concept! The onlv column written by—yes, you're so righi he's the greatest, the qualityest—yes, sir here he is, come right in . . ." ROGER BACON
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