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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1309.PDF
NO 2740 VOLUME 8O THUR8DAY 14 SEPTEMBER 1961 Editor-in-ChieJ MAURICE A. 8MITH DFC Editor H. F. KINO MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N . PBI A U LX MBt I N THIS ISSUE Prom All Quarters 412 Missiles and Spacer! ight 414, 452-453 Air Commerce 415,456-460 Farnborough Week 416 Round the Stands 423 Tripartite Conference 442 Visiting Kitty Hawk 445 Service Aviation 447 Bristol 188 448 Correspondence 449 Straight and Level 451 Sport and Business 454 Flight System Survey 455 Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, DorsetHouse, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333. TelegramsFlightpres London SKI. Annual sub- scriptions: Home £4 lfts. Overseas £5.Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at NewYork, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- cheater: 260 Deansgate 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street Cl; tele-phone Central 1265-8. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197.© Iliffe Transport Publications ltd, 1961. Permission to reproduce illustra-tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extractsor comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 Britain's ShapeI F it is admitted that Farnborough 1961 was not a vintage year for aircraft it must equally be allowed that it was not altogether a year of vintage aircraft—notwithstanding broadsheets glimpsed along the road proclaiming "Old Time Flying Display." (These were variously attributed to agents provocateurs in the pay of one of Flight's American contemporaries and—a more plausible ascription—to a recent function of the Tiger Club.) Above all, this was the year of the Beagles and H.P.I 15; and upon the inward eye that is the bliss of solitude that now ensues, the shape of the Handley Page slim-delta flashes as something arresting and portentous. For while the Americans pour their treasure and their trust into the bottomless bucket labelled "Mach 3 at any price," and while the Russians declare that the supersonic airliner is "still a question for investigation," we in Britain are content to be flying a long-considered, and now tangible.. Shape. E-66 and All That WE recently had something to say on this page about the game of In-telligence, a cat-and-mouse affair which has humorous aspects as well as grim. Anyone who has been engaged in this business, especially where aircraft are concerned, is only too keenly aware that one of the most essential requirements is that of being able to put a name to a machine. Thus, because the Western Allies have not discovered the true designations of the principal Soviet military aircraft, or because they do not wish to disclose that they have discovered them, they apply an awkwardly funny system of code-names. A new zest has been added to the game now that the Russians have (or appear to have) adopted an entirely new system of nomenclature, forsaking the contrac- tion of a designer's name (e.g., Yak = Yakovlev) in conjunction with a type number, for mystifying combinations of letters and figures, e.g., E-66. Among the possible explanations are (1) that the new designs are so much the work of consortia that it is considered invidious to ascribe a particular name; (2) that the Russians are deliberately cheating a little by "leaking" bogus, and hence confusing, designations. When the Soviet delegation to Farnborough was asked last week who designed the E-66 there was notable hesitation before the answer was given as "Mikoyan." And there was some obvious hedging when the Russians were asked to identify a photograph purporting to depict the E-66. Now comes a new twist in the game with the issue of the latest bulletin of international records by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. An item in this document, the contents of which were officially provided by the Russians, reads: "Records Internationaux. ClasseC. Groupel. Altitude (URSS). Gueor- gui Mossolov sur monoplan E-66 A, a aile triangulaire, entierement metallique. 2 moteurs a reaction, unT D R Marque R 37 Fet un moteur G R D, marque U 2 —Puissances 6000 et 3000 kg. Aerodrome de Podmoskovnoe, le 28 avril 1961. 34.714 metres" Thus are our Intelligence services gratuitously provided (apparently) not only with the true designations of more-or-less secret aircraft and powerplants (the G R D is presumably a rocket) but also with figures for thrust. This may be all very fine. But we are wondering if there was not a twinkle in somebody's eye when he formally declared to the International Aeronautical Federation the designation "U 2".
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