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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1688.PDF
792 FLIGHT, 23 November 1961 Correspondence The Editor of " Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Monospar MemoriesT HE article Vintage Twin in your issue of October 12 was mostinteresting and Mr Cazalet's letter (Correspondence, November 9) prompts me to amplify your editorial comment. InJune 1933,1 was employed by General Aircraft Ltd at their Croydon factory as what the Croydon Employment Exchange subsequentlydescribed as an "improver aircraft bodywork assembler," and am fairly certain to have riveted up cither the tailplane or the innerwing folding trailing edge assemblies of G-ACHU, which, as he says, was an ST.4. In June and July 1933, the first ST.6 (G-ACGI), with retractableundercarriage, was being prepared for the King's Cup Race, but great difficulty was expsrienced with the redesigned cowlings for thePobjoy engines, which persistently overheated. It was possibly because of the prevailing panic at that time that delivery ofG-ACHU was made from Hanworth instead of Croydon, but I do not think the new Feltham works started production until the earlymonths of 1934. In September 1933 all but a few of the Croydon employees were laid off and I do not think the others moved toFeltham much before Christmas. I remember an extra ST.6 landing gear being made for an ST.4 but did not see it installed. I may mention that Capt J. W. G. James (who I see is mentionedin Dennis Powell's letter on the same page) had then just joined Imperial Airways as a pilot on probation and I used to see himaccompanying Capt O. P. Jones up the long ladder to the cockpit of Helena and other Handley Page 42s operating the evening servicesto Paris during the summer of 1933. The late Keith Seth-Smith, Hawker's test pilot, was then an apprentice at General Aircraftalso. No doubt Mr F. F. Crocombe or Prof S. C. Redshaw, who for a time comprised the sole design staff at Croydon under MrStieger, could confirm the date of transfer from Croydon to Feltham. Bristol SENRAB Coventry's Airport I HAVE noted, from recent issues of Flight, the increases recordedin traffic at various smaller airports, such as Portsmouth andLuton. However, I would like to point out that no mention has been made of Coventry Airport, whose traffic has increased by over 400 per cent this year, to approximately 5,000 passengers. These have been carried in Jersey Airlines' Dakmasters and Heron, Air Safari's Hermes and Vikings, Trans-European Airways' Rapides and Bristol Wayfarers, and Executive Air Transport's Dakotas. I would just like to mention, as a closing note, that there are eight ex-Overseas Aviation North Stars awaiting sale at Coventry Airport. Coventry J- A. REEVE [Flight looks forward to chronicling the continuing traffic growth atCoventry Airport and congratulates the airport manager and the Coventry City Council on their enterprise in issuing an attractive andinformative pamphlet, a copy of which our correspondent encloses.—Ed.] Supersonic Rat-Race? AS a technician in an aircraft design office, I have taken more thana layman's interest in recent pronouncements about the pro-posed supersonic transport aircraft, and 1 find myself immensely saddened by the prospect. My concern is increased on two counts: firstly, the unwarranted intrusion threatened into the privacy and well-being of millions of people who have no stake in the operation, and secondly, the immense cost of what will be primarily an international status symbol. The gain to be expected in reduction of overall journey time willbe small, even on a transatlantic flight, and the gain to be expected from cruising at M3 in preference to M2 seems ludicrously minute.Journey cost to each passenger we can expect to be some 20 per cent higher than that by present-day transports. The supersonictransport will not open up new markets; it will provide marginally increased convenience to the usual run of politicians, film-stars andexpense-account businessmen. For the sake of pandering to the delusions of grandeur of thesepeople, the general public is expected to endure the disturbance of unexpected thunderclaps by day and night, spreading in a bandsome 60 to 80 miles wide under the track of the aircraft. Already, in the best Orwellian manner, a start is being made on educating the. populace to accept these unwarranted disturbances as a normalpart of their lives. Many advocates assure us that all supersonic flying will be carriedout over water. But it has also been stated by an eminent authority that "it would be literally impossible to assume that one could livein an area that at some future date will not be saturated with sonic booms" (J. C. Floyd, Journal of the Royal AeronauticalSociety, September 1961, page 621). One can well foresee how this will occur. At the start overland flights will be tried. Publicclamour will demand that they be confined to overwater routes only; but soon the airlines, saddled with immensely costly machines, willprotest that they are being crippled by this restriction, and the power of big business will prevail over the interests of the generalpopulation. As a parallel, one can quote the example of the operation of thebig jets at London Airport. At first, to mollify the local inhabitants, movements were not allowed during the night, but now they takeplace throughout the 24 hours, with no consideration for the neighbours. The problem we are now facing will not be confined to an areaaround an airport. It is likely to be nation-wide, and if I seem to be exaggerating the problem, remember the disturbance that wascaused one night some years ago over a large area of north London when a Victor [actually a J::velin, we believe—Ed] exceeded Ml.By the-standards we are now considering, that aircraft was very slow. In the paper already quoted, Mr Floyd states: "The humanear responds to the sudden pressure-rise in much the same manner as it would respond to thunder, except that the boom from anaircraft is of sharper intensity. Therefore, the shock effects would be more marked; and. while lightning usually precedes thunder andprepares the victim, no warning is available for the sonic boom." We are in danger of committing our industry to squanderingwealth on a project about as useful as the Pyramids, but not nearly so durable. It has been stated that if the industry is to survive itmust develop the supersonic airliner. With that I cannot agree; but if it were true, surely it would be in the national interest todivert the skill and brain-power tied up in the industry into more useful and worthy channels. It would be tragic to allow such alarge portion of the nation's valuable talents to be engaged in an occupation of less value to humanity than the manufacture ofcosmetics. The airlines are not really anxious to start operating thesemachines. They are all nervously eyeing their rivals, unwilling participants in a rat-race which makes them discard good equipmentbefore it is paid for. There is obviously a case here requiring early action. TheGovernment should declare unequivocally that no supersonic flights shall take place over this country, save from the direstmilitary necessity; and airlines which flout this ruling, or attempt to have it altered for their own commercial benefit, will have onlythemselves to blame when they burn their fingers. Birmingham PHUGOID Dakota G-AGKF IN reply to Mr Dennis M. Powell's request for information onBOAC Dakota G-AGKF (Correspondence, November 9), this aircraft was sold in June 1949 to SCA Air Nolis as F-BEFQ and written-off in a crash during May 1950. Odiham, Hants. G. J. CRUIKSHANK FORTHCOMING EVENTS Nov 24 RAeS Graduates' and Students' Section: Winter Dance. Nov 27 RAeS Historical Group: "The Society's Library and Aeronautical History," by F. H. Smith. Nov 29 Institute of Transport (West Middlesex Group): "A Pilot's View of Air Transport," by Capt O. P. Jones. Nov 29 Society of Environmental Engineers: "The Response of Dynamic Systems to Shock Excitation," by B. H. Venning. ' Nov 30 Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators: Professional Licence Holders Meeting: Annual Service and a.g.m. Dec I RAeS Rotorcraft Section: All-day Meeting. Dec 2 British Interplanetary Society: "International Law Extra-terres- trially Applied," by Bin Cheng. Dec 6 BritIRE (West Midland Section): Conference on "New Electronic Techniques in Non-destructive Testing." Dec 12 RAeS Astronautics and Guided Flight Section: "Military Require- ments of Guided Missiles," by Brig E. W. Denison. Dec 13 RAeS (Main lecture at Manchester Branch): "Airlines'Approach to Aircraft Selection," by M. Nivet. Dec 13 RAeS Agricultural Aviation Group: Symposium on "The Uses of the Aeroplane in Agriculture." Dec 13 Royal United Service Institution: "Some Reflections on the Strategic Air Offensive, 1939-45," by Dr Noble Frankland. Dec 14 British Interplanetary Society: Symposium on "Auxiliary Power Generation." Dec 15 RAeS Man-powered Aircraft Group: "Problems of a Man-powered Rotorcraft," by R. A. Graves. Dec 17 Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences: Wright Brothers Lecture, Wajhington DC. RAeS Branch Fixtures (to Nov 30): Nov 29. Weybridze, The R,K, Pierson Memorial Lecture, given by Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Tuttle.
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