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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1689.PDF
:."3ii _t|s,^r,» FLIGHT, 23 November 1961 793 (T) Straight and Level I DO admire foreigners for theirtolerance of British weights andmeasures. Bravely they try to play along with our illogical systems. My heart goes out in particular to the Frenchman who filled in our question- naire for this special issue of Flight about the Sud-Aviation Caravel le. He entered the wing span of this aircraft as 112ft 6gm, and length as 105ftttin. Perhaps it was just a French joke, in the same high class as the announce- ment in Les Ailes a few months ago that BEA had decided to order Cara- velles instead of Tridents. For how much longer our friends in France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, etc, etc, are going to tolerate our sys- tem, let alone pull our legs about it, is a matter that should be weighing heavily, in kg, on British—and American —minds. Anyway, thank you Sud-Aviation for a very complete reply to our question- naires. It was one of the best replies of the lot. The other good ones—as last year—were those from the British Aircraft Corporation and from The Nihon Aeroplane Manufacturing Co of Japan. Air Transport News News-agency messages on my desk this week include the following: Washington. Capt Edward Bech- told, an American airline pilot, said recently that it was about time "we stopped asking pilots to appease the public." He was referring to pro- cedures designed to reduce noise, some of which "skirted the borderline of potential danger." Since then his phone hasn't stopped ringing. "We finally had to take it off the hook," he said. "I have never heard such abusive and filthy language." Suva, Fiji. An airliner had to swervewhen attempting to land at the Nadi International Airport, Suva, because ayouth was asleep on the main runway. He told Suva magistrates that he wasdrunk and wanted to sleep it off. Washington. In future passengers who may just look drunk will not be allowed to board American airliners. Moscow. An Aeroflot pilot, Igor Bakhshumyan, has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner for courage and valour in preventing an attempt to hi-jack his aircraft. When three pas- sengers demanded that he alter his course for Persia he refused and was stabbed several times. However, he managed to radio his base and make a forced landing, during which he was injured. / remarked the other week on the im- portance of sorting the apocrypha of British aviation from the facts. One of the most charming stories I hove heard re- peated over the years is how Sir Geoffrey de Havilland's first wife Louie sewed the cover- ing for the first D.H. aeroplane (1909). I always wanted to be- lieve it, and now I can —with the publica- tion, in Sir Geoffrey de Havilland's new book,* of the delight- ful photograph I re- produce here • Into sleepy Popcorn, Nebraska (pop. 832) last week blazed a man with a mission—tough, bluff, gruff Sir James Mildew, boss of the Interline Air Travel Association which master- minds 184 of the world's most important airlines. Grated jet chief Mildew: "I've been talking with the British Minister of Airports, Fred Quagmire, about his latest 66f per cent increase in landing fees. I said anyone could see this was a damfool measure, business- wise. He snapped back: 'Get the hell outta here. Do you think we want a lot of lousy limeys busting up our racket?'" Quipped air chief Mildew: "I pre- dicate as of now that Quagmire will be kicked upstairs, as they say, to Britain's aristocratic House of Lords. Promo- tionwise, he's had it." • Jimmy Dell has told a colleague what happened when he took a Light- ning to the Paris Show. After Warton had telephoned Paris and Dell had filed a flight plan, he took off and started calling Le Bourget as soon as he crossed the south coast. Although he had all the frequencies, and used them, there was no answer. Eventually Le Bourget approach came up, but did not seem to know who he was. They said: "Stand by, Monsieur." Then they asked him to orbit for 45min. Eventually, with only lOmin fuel left, he had to say that either they received him or he went back to the UK. Whereupon he was court- eously wished "bon voyage." He landed at Boscombe and from there phoned Le Bourget, who politely explained that they had had a 45min stack of civil aircraft. They added: "It *"Sky Fever: The Autobiography of Sir Geoffrey de Havilland." Hamish Hamilton, 25s. is a pity you are not still standing byas there is a gap in 15min." Dell dashed out, took off, whippedacross Northern France at M1.4 at 36,000ft, and 14min later was over LeBourget. Again no answer to his calls. Hedecided to make his own letdown. On finals, Le Bourget came up loudand clear, and as he taxied round the perimeter track after landing hailed"the latest British supersonic fighter." Surely les motsjustes. • I regard Air Cdre Banks as one ofBritish aviation's more valuable assets, and his Sir George Cayley MemorialLecture on aero-engine development was a master's memory-sketch of his sub-ject. But I challenge him, from a respectful distance, on one point.He says of the Rolls-Royce Condor: "Though fitted in one or two militaryaircraft, it was not eventually made in quantity." Now I know that the Condor wasnot one of Rolls-Royce's best efforts, but I can think of at least sixteen typesof aircraft that had it (not including variants); and, of course, there wereseveral squadrons of Condor-powered Horsleys in the RAF. 1 suppose if I keep on challenging the pundits like this there will soon be a Roger Bacon Memorial Lecture. • At the end of his recent Henry Royce Memorial Lecture Mr Peter Masefield lightheartedly displayed, to illustrate the future of British aviation, a picture of a sunrise. The discussion opened with the question: Are you sure it isn't a sunset? Mr Masefield was quite sure. He had taken the picture himself, and it was definitely a sunrise. ROGER BACON
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