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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0667.PDF
FLIGHT, 18 May 1961 677 (£) Straight and Level FOR more than a year now proto-type Blue Streaks have stoodforlornly in their test towersnea; Astwick Manor at Hatfield. Work goes on, in bottom gear, at a COst of £3^m since April 13 last year(when the project was cancelled as a weapon) up to April 30 this year. This is exactly the amount of money, £3!rn, that the Government proposes to give Cunard for the construction of a new Queen. The Government is also prepared to lend a further £15m. The opposition to this project, which the Government is pushing through with tremendous vigour, is considerable: the Press and everyone you talk to are hos- tile, and there are many rebels on the Government benches. Meanwhile Cu- nard is putting its own money into air transport and into a fleet of American jet airliners. The taxpayer could be forgiven for calling that a bit much. The cost of the new Queen cannot, of course, be compared with the cost of Blue Streak, which is so expensive that the Government is trying to bring other European countries into a com- mercial-satellite launching partnership. But, oh, the thought of all the energy and money that the nation is expending on a vanished status symbol of the 'thirties, while space, where Britain should be, beckons the neglected Blue Streak. • A great number of tests carried out at a Ministry of Planes experimental establishment have confirmed beyond all doubt that frogs possess a much higher capacity for resistance to high g than do human beings. The experiments were carried out on a large wheel in East London and have shown that these amphibia suffered no ill effects from loadings as high as 25g for periods up to five hours. These encouraging results [writes Straight and Level's technical expert Dr J. Nit] have caused the authorities to give serious thought to a British- flag space programme using frogs as subjects. Special training and condi- 46 GREAT CLOSING-DOWN ALL STOCKS MUSI BE CLEARED *> REIMKHKUE (Witt* RKFlMSil M CRIA7 VtCfttflft JAVELINS ADEN GUNS REDUCED TO CLE4S RADAR SETS SPK'Wl C'HIR COFFEE BAR AIRCREW MAKiSS Rfc-jEtT* UN GOOD WORKfU. OROIS 1DLAL KJR tHI SPOHTLNIJ WAN urat AMERICAN srttiivi* WIU, PK.A t'f At I fltttMAIN ntOdttMMff) CWMPIBW WiTM WHYMStAN fi\- TIJRB & HA at ART PHOIOi FUJI HU. HIRE Oft RE WASH ,NO MOM1 COMPLETE WTTMOMT tWVfc afcova tfeCTa, 3jus many Q&GI Bargains, w ta* gefin a SPECIKI. PREVIEW on SATURDAY. 22ad APRIL aad S0NDM. 23id SPBH,, J«5) « ROYAL AIR FORCE. WATEKBEACH As this reproduction of a poster shows, when the station is about to close you can get away with anything, metaphorically speaking tioning would have to be given, but so far experiments in this direction have lacked success—due, it is thought, to a lack of interest and co-operation from the subjects. These creatures are particularly suit- /t rains in New Zea- land too, especially —os in the Old Coun- try—when there's an air show on. Hats off as well as um- brellas up to Ft Lt 6. D. Gordon, RNZAF, for this display in a Canberra 8./ 2, the only one of four to get airborne. Hats off, too, to the photo- graphic artist who prepared this (I hope) fake picture able also because of their low metabo- lism; this, combined with a capacity to endure low temperatures, will simplify environmental engineering problems connected with outer space. Contracts will soon be awarded for genetical research aimed at breeding frogs capable of sticking the British flag in any kind of planetary surface. • 1 don't know how people really feelabout taking business aircraft into London Heathrow. 1 imagine thereare very few people who would really gain anything by it. But permission forlimited use of the London Heathrow has now been given and the heat is off. London Gatwick is different. Solong as you have the appropriate radio frequency, H9.6Mc/s, the people thereare delighted to let you in and they bend over backwards to make youwelcome. Full marks to Gatwick. An amusingarrival must have been that of the radio - equipped Rollason Turbulentwhich can have required little more than two per cent of the runway lengthavailable. 1 can imagine the approach controller saying: "You are clear toland, number one . . . correction, number two behind the Viscount . . .correction, number three behind the Viscount and the Ambassador . . .correction, number four behind Vis- count, Ambassador and Dakota . . .you are clear to take off and fly on 270 for three-quarters of a mile to the firstintersection, report short final for the first high-speed turn-off . . . park nextto the lamp-standard beside stand fourteen ..." It takes much more than this toruffle an MoA traffic controller. • "Some cylinder heads may besalvaged but still the cost runs about §12,000 for parts, plus a prematureoverhaul which more than doubles that figure. How many seats do we have tofill to pay for this? "At average per-passenger profit—about as many customers as we can cram into our entire fleet for two averagetrips apiece. This approximates to one whole day's work for the entire airline. "One lousy little piston pin in back-wards and over twenty-three thousand company people spin their wheels justto stay in the position where we left off yesterday. Some days it doesn't evenpay for an airline to get out of bed."— Flight Safety Foundation. • BOAC and BEA will need plenty of good arguments if they are to con- vince the new Air Transport Licensing Board that their business must not be pinched by the independents. How about not saying to the chairman: "We're all right, Professor Jack" ? ROGER BACON
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