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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1679.PDF
^^^ NO 2 7 5 O VOLUME 80 THURSDAY 23 NOVEMBER 1061 Editor-in-ChieJ MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 784 Southampton's Man-powered Aircraft 787 Missiles and Space-flight 789 Correspondence 792 Straight and Level 793 Air Commerce 794 Service Aviation 798 Commercial Aircraft of the World 799 Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, DorsetHouse. Stamford Street. London. SE1: telephone Waterloo 3333. TelegramsFlightpres London SE1. Animal sub- scriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5.Canada and VSA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New-York, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: S-in Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House. NewStreet. 2: telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 200 Deansgate 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 35(15. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street I'l: tele-phone Central 12()5-ti. New York. NY: Thomas Skinner A- Co(Publishers) Ltd. Ill Broadway 6: telephone Digby 0-1197. © Iliffe Transport. Publications Ltd,11*81. Permission to reproduce illustra- tions and letterpre** can br granted onlymiller written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with dueacknowledgement. Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 Majestic Burdens ANGLO-FRENCH co-operation and France's aircraft exports—themesprominently treated in last week's Flight—were taken up by two national daily newspapers. On November 16 The Guardian discussed BAC/Swd col- laboration on the supersonic airliner, and the corresponding issue of the Daily Mail apprised its readers that France's aircraft industry will "overtake Britain early next year." In its succeeding issue the Mail followed up with a leading article called "Drifting in the Air," relating France's strengthening industrial position to aspects of the British scene: and on the same day, recording the coming closure of the Gloster works at Hucclecote, that newspaper quoted a Hawker Siddeley spokesman as saying: "It was reasonable to read into the White Paper that as soon as there was a smaller number of integrated firms then orders would be forthcoming. The industry has done its piece, but there have been no orders worth talking about." Yet. turning overleaf, readers were confronted with Sir Thomas Sopwith's declaration that order books on Haw- ker Siddeley's aviation side are "large." The facts are, of course, that although orders in hand are substantial, prospects for the years ahead, and in particular export orders, are far from reassuring. Within the context of redundancy they are disturbing, if not distressing. Quite apart from the difficulty of selling our existing aircraft (and they include several of the world's finest), there is the stark absence of new. Government-sponsored projects, to which Sir Roy Dobson, Hawker Siddeley managing director, has called attention. His opposite number in the British Aircraft Corporation, Sir George Edwards, has remarked that he and Sir Roy have in common "some fairly majestic burdens." Even today it is not widely acknowledged that the regrouping of the British aircraft industry (which, when ordained, was commonly viewed as something gravely unsettling, if not disastrous) did, in fact, prepare the way for its salva- tion. Not only has regrouping reassured the Government, but it has facili- tated co-operation abroad and strengthened our trading position. Yet even while this has been taking place the first tremors of global industrial upheavals have been felt underfoot. Not only are rival aircraft manufacturers regrouping and redeploying for new assaults on world markets, but the vast airline in- dustry is itself the scene of massive amalgamations, realignments, pooling agreements and retrenchments. The burdens, as Sir George Edwards remarks, are majestic. But they are the burdens not of this nation alone: and their challenge is itself majestic. Sky Help TWO recent code-names sharply contrast the aeroplane as weapon and asbenefactor. Skyshield II was the test of North American air defences; Sky Help the aid flown to hurricane-stricken British Honduras. The former was one of many such exercises which occur throughout the year; the latter an ad hoc operation, mounted swiftly to save lives. There have been several such operations recently, two of them (British Honduras and Kenya) recorded in this issue. Last week we reported aid flown to flood victims in South Vietnam; the week before, the supplying of men cut off by gales in Nab Tower off Spit- head ; the week before that the Royal Navy's thanks to the RAF for rescuing the crew of the boom defence vessel Barmouth. And so it goes on. No humane task seems too difficult or distant for aircraft resolutely flown.
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