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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0533.PDF
, 20 April 1961 541 Straight and Level RUSSIA'S achievement may be thegreatest in the history of man,. and there are greater ones to be recorded—perhaps before we are five vears older. ' But 1 couldn't help feeling mildly embarrassed by the oscular exchange of greetings, Continental-style, between Mr Krushchev, the Soviet Prime Minis- ter, and the gallant Major Gagarin. ] felt as I feel when Tottenham Hotspurs dance and smother one another in kisses after scoring a goal. Here is a more seemly exchange, for use when the first British spaceman, perhaps Mr Peter Thorneycroft's great- great-grandson, lands with a bump near Radlett gravel pits:— Prime Minister: A good show, Thorney- crofi, a good show. Have a cup of tea and take a day off. Thorneycroft: Thank you, sir. It was nothing really. Just another job, you know. Prime Minister: Did you keep the Earth under active review, and can we have a full and frank exchange of views ? Thorneycroft: Yes, indeed, sir. Prime Minister: Splendid, splendid. I will tell the Science Minister at once. I am sure he will be interested. • BEA and BOAC seem to be tread- ing on each other's toes rather. BEA is gateway-crashing BOAC in the Middle East a bit, and now BOAC is applying to operate inclusive tours to Zurich. I wonder whether BOAC have heard of BEA's latest coup—as reported by the Daily Telegraph in its News From All Quarters on April 6:— "BEA Service to New York—British European Airways opened its Comet services between London and New York . . ." • Since a recent move of offices Flipping through the pages of a new book recording 75 years of Piaggio I did a double-take at this strictly-for-the-fishes-type picture. It shows the remarkable P.7 of 1929, an exercise in hydro- dynamics as well as aerodynamics. It took part in the Schneider Trophy race. There were two propellers, one of them—strictly marine—at the back. It must have been fun to fly and, like Piaggio's P. 166 today, to whizz about on the water Flight has The Autocar as a next-door neighbour. Everyone feels at home, for not only does our sister journal have an editor with 3,500 flying hours in his log-book, but the Midlands editor has just bought Hawker's Whitney Straight and two other members of the staff are pilots also. The technical editor helped in developing the Napier Sabre, and one of the assistant editors had quite a bit to do with the undercarriages for the Britannia and Lightning. In 1903 The Autocar owned a balloon; and now I find that our neighbours entered the space business well ahead of Flight—as long ago as February 1941, when they published this Gordon Crosby drawing with the comment "The possibility of the whole idea lies in the use of the rocket principle as a method of propulsion . . ." This 20-year-old notion puts Super- car strictly in the dodgem class. Now for a man on the moon (see last item, column one) • According to Dr W. Fliess, a German physiologist and psycholo- gist, everybody—including pilots—goes through three different, but overlapping, cycles. First there is a 23-day cycle of physical strength, resistance and endur- ance. Then there is a 28-day cycle of nerves, moodiness and creative ability. Finally there is a 33-day cycle of intel- ligence, memory and mental alertness. Each of these cycles has its high and low points depending on the person's date of birth. When all three low points happen to coincide, as they do occasionally, a pilot for example has an accident-prone day. A New York computer firm says it has analysed 15 accidents involving US Navy pilots. It was found that 10 happened on pilots' off-days. Accord- ing to the Sunday Express the firm is soon to receive from the US Federal Aviation Agency a list of civil pilots' names and birth dates so that their off-days can be predicted. Meanwhile a Swiss firm is manufacturing pocket "Fliess devices" costing £12-£16 to enable people to predict the days when things will go hopelessly wrong. Perhaps Dr Fliess was having one of his off-days when he invented his theory. Did They Say Spaciousness? According to a Reuter report from New York, two Convair engineers suggest that millions could "hop across the Atlantic in supersonic airliners in just under two hours" if passengers— and here's quite an if—passengers would accept motor-car seating arrange- ments "instead of the spaciousness of present-day aircraft . . ." ROGER BACON
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