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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1378.PDF
482 FLIGHT, 21 September 196 Straight and Level BRITISH United's new Britannia"Safari" services to Africa, dueto be introduced on October 1, will go non-stop from Gatwick to Entebbe, cutting out the whistle stops made by the Viscount. To promote these new services, British United's advertising boys have hit on the slogan "Thru-Liner Safari." The new service will, they say, be flown by "All- Star Britannias." I, Roger Bacon, Defender Of Our Mother Tongue Against The Onslaught Of Americanese, am thru with adver- tising copywriters who copycat Madison Avenue. Thru-liner—ugh. It really is a bit off. And what in Heaven is an All-Star Britannia ? It is dreadfully un-British United of British United. Why don't they really go thru with it—like this, perhaps: "Folks, You Will Love Our New Golden Deep-Fried Safari Service. Fly The Amazing Astro-Flite 75 Oven- Fresh Real Tree-wood Britannia ..." • Here is another airline advertising slogan which is good English but, it seems to me, not very good business. "Be Pampered By Pakistan International Airlines," it reads. Throughout the world, airlines em- barrassed by over-capacity are desper- ately trying to find people to fill up seats. The only way they can do this is by appealing to the masses of would- be air travellers who, for cut-price fares, don't want to be pampered—new passengers who will increase the airlines' volume of business and . . . well, every- one knows the argument. Actually, PIA have just made a profit for the second year running (see page 488). Perhaps if they are to con- tinue to do so their commercial manager ought to have a word with their ad- vertising manager. / press the middle valve W down, f And the Skeeter goes round and around . .. • Further details are now available of the new Crimson Leak surface-to-air missile designed by Scruggs Aircraft to be fired from horseback by officers of the Household Cavalry, riding side-saddle. After trial rounds of a private-owner surface-to-surface version for fox-hunt- ing (code-named Blue Blood and equipped with a guidance system of blinkers and reins) have been fired over Sir John Blackout-Jones's Yorkshire estate, the definitive version will go into production. A new type of bearskin will be issued to the Household Brigade, externally the same but incorporating a stiffening of plastic foam filler inside to enable the guidance system computer to be accommodated underneath with- out the soldier losing both his bearskin and his composure on ceremonial parades. On top of each bearskin is a delight- fully chic little rotating dish-type scanner, designed in co-operation with ... I flap my wings up and down, But she won't get off the ground . . . [Mr M. Walton, 23, of Taunton, attempting to make a man- powered flight with his flapping wing machine at Creech Barrow on September 10] Hamish Haute-Mode, Straight and Level's fashion consultant, which is guaranteed to give a time-honoured uni- form an extremely modish touch that not even the most blase debutante is likeh to ignore. • As part of a "resourcefulness con- test," 17-year-old Michael Whittier of Highgate School recently wrote to Air France in London and asked for a round- trip ticket to Paris. In exchange he promised to write an article about his trip and get it published in the British press. If it were not published, he offered to work without salary for a week in Air France's London office. I quote Air France: "The deal was made, and Michael had his short fling in Paris . . ." I imagine that a burly IATA enforce- ment officer will shortly be flinging himself at Air France's door. Because, as gents of the Press are so often told by airlines, free trips in exchange for write-ups are, in the eyes of IATA—and I think quite rightly—a deadly sin. Thinks: If I could write I would ask Air France for a free trip too. • More people went to the National Gallery to see the blank space on the wall where Goya's Duke of Wellington had been than went to see the actual portrait before it was stolen. Tut tut for public values. More space was devoted by the newspapers to reporting that the Avia- tion Traders Carvair prototype had been damaged by a carelessly driven lorry than was devoted to the firsi flight of this aircraft. Tut tut tut for newspaper values. ROGER BACON
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