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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1732.PDF
838 FLIGHT, 30 November 1961 FAIR SHARES FOR ALL is the goal behind the far-reaching agreements discussed on this page. Pictured at the signing of the earlier, six-nation agreement at Kingston on November 17 (left to right): Mr E. G.Rubython, Hawker Aircraft general manager; Sir Roy Dobson, Hawker Siddeley Group managing director; Mr Tony de Graff, representing Breguet; Mr Frits Diepen, Fokker; and Mr J. T. Lidbury, HSA chief executive FROM ALL QUARTERS End of the Suspense AFTER almost four months' suspense, Britain's airline industrywas told last Friday the terms of the Air Transport Licensing Board's decisions in the major European case heard last summer.Broadly speaking, the Board gave away about one-half of what had been requested. The biggest applicant, British United, came off bestwith 12 approvals as against ten rejections. As most of the approvals were granted in the terms asked for, and as these included t'ie twoplum routes in terms of capacity—Paris and Genoa—this means that BUA have scored rather more than evens. The second main applicant, Cunard Eagle, did less well with ascore of nine approvals versus ten rejections. Because the frequency of the CEA approvals was on average only half that granted, itappears that CEA get perhaps a third of the requested capacity. BEA scored two successes in being awarded Marseilles andMalaga (these were unopposed) but lost out on Madeira and Genoa, both these important new routes having gone to BUA. All applica-tions by Silver City were rejected, apparently because of their unreadiness to invest in modern aircraft. Also rejected were theapplications by East Anglian Flying Services. Of Tradair"s nine applications for scheduled inclusive-tour services, four would havebeen successful but for the company's financial resources. The full list of approvals is as follows: British United. London to:Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona. Basle, Genoa. Madeira, Malaga. Milan, Palma, Paris, Tarbes and Zurich; Cunard Eagle. London to:Belfast, Copenhagen/Stockholm. Dublin. Edinburgh, Geneva. Glasgow, Venice, Dublin, and Manchester - Birmingham - Nice;BEA, London to: Malaga and Marseilles; Starways, Chester/Isle of Man. All licences are for restricted frequencies and cover sevenyears starting on April 1, 1963. We hope to analyse these decisions in more detail next week. Realignment in Europe INCREASINGLY since 1958 the idea of international collabora-tion in aircraft design and manufacture has appeared to be a good one, and announcements bv the two principal UK aircraft-manufac-turing groups on November 20 and 22 indicate that months of sometimes frustrating discussion have been brought to a successfulconclusion. The aircraft industry of Europe is on the way to be- coming partly unified, in order to meet NATO requirements butprincipally because thismakes sound commercial and technical sense. Details of the November 20 announcement by Hawker SiddeleyAviation were given last week. The second consortium was announced by BAC on November 22, in the following terms:— "'British Aircraft Corporation announces that it has reached agreementwith four European aircraft firms for collaboration in joint projects. These firms are Sud Aviation (manufacturers of the Caravelle jet air-liner) and Marcel Dassault (manufacturers of the Mirage sunersonic fighter) both of France; Finmeccanica of Italy (a large industrial com-bine including the aircraft company Aerfer of Naples) and Dornier- Werke of Germany. Marcel Dassault The collaboration between British Aircraft Cor-poration and General Aeronautique Marcel Dassault concerns the Dassault Mirage 3V. This aircraft is a VTO version of the highly suc-cessful family of Mirage fighter, ground-attack and reconnaissance aircraft. The basic Mirage ?C is well proven M2+ aircraft and Insalready been ordered bv the air forces of France, Australia and Swit- zerland. The Mirage 3V will use Rolls-Royce lift engines to provideVTOL. In this form it becomes a highly suitable solution to the NATO requirement for a fighter and reconnaissance aircraft. British Aircraft Corporation and Dassault believe that their jointproposal for the Mirage 3V is a practical step towards two important needs, the standardization of NATO equipment and co-operationbetween major European aircraft companies. Dassault already have a collaboration agreement with Sud Aviation. The preliminary agreement envisages a joint sales programme and alicensing arrangement. Design and development work under this agree- ment will be carried out by the aircraft division of English ElectricAviation at Warton, Lancashire, under the direction of Mr F. W. Page, the chief executive there. Sud Aviation Sud Aviation and British Aircraft Corporation arecurrently making collaborative arrangements which cover both existing and long-term aircraft projects. Sud Aviation is assisting in the produc-tion of the VC10 long-range jet transport by constructing some impor- tant subassemblies. Among the long-term projects being examined ispossible collaboration in the field of a supersonic transport. Finmeccanica and Dormer British Aircraft Corporation. Finmec-canica and Dornier are associated in a joint submission which they are making for a tactical STOL military transport aircraft to a NATOspecification. The Bristol design team, led by Dr A. E. Russell, of British Aircraft Corporation has been co-operating with the Italianand German members of the consortium on this aircraft. Should the contract be awarded to this consortium, the work will be shared." These far-reaching links have come about partly by the pressureof ministers and partly by a natural wish to avoid duplication and to make the most efficient use of Europe's limited facilities for pro-ducing future aircraft. It will be realized that the BAC agreements cover both NATO and civil projects. In the case of the latter, thedeal with Sud stems from initial discussions some 18 months ago, and from the fact that the MoA study contract for a supersonicairliner placed in the summer of 1960 stipulated that BAC should explore the possibility of overseas co-operation. The NATO arrange-ment seems to be a simple case of BAC agreeing to act as UK foster- parents for the design which they feel has the best chance of meetingboth the NBMk-3 specification and the anticipated Air Ministry Requirement for such a machine. The Mirage 3V is a firm Dassault/Rolls-Royce project sponsored by the French Government; BAC will see to it that it is properly presented to the RAF and RN. andsuitably Anglicized where necessary. Unlike the Hawker Siddeley consortium, the BAC group alsoembraces the NBMR-4 NATO tactical transport project. Bristol Aircraft, a BAC member, are known to have done much work onthe Model 208, a four-Pegasus S, VTOL transport to meet a known RAF need. Such a machine would be too large for NBMR-4.and one must conclude that BAC already are at work on a smaller version. Finmeccanica will assist them in design work. As for civil aircraft, it now seems clear that BAC and Sud are onthe way to sharing the available business in a manner which should be an object-lesson to companies or countries suffering from anexcess of prestige. Sud have now received the assurance of their government's backing for the Super Caravelle. as noted in thenext news-item; and it is not too difficult to deduce that they will probably not proceed with the Baby Caravelle (as we forecast onNovember 16). In return they will share in the manufacture of BAC airliners, and may well make the VC10 tailplane. The following is a preliminary list of projects and companies atpresent likely to make submissions in the NATO Basic Military Requirement -3 (strike) and -4 (transport) competitions: NBMR-3 Group I: Hawker . Focke-Wulf (P.I 127 development); Fokker Republic (D-24 Alliance); Fairey/SABCA; and Breguet. Group 2: Dassault — British Aircraft Corporation (Mirage 3V). Group 3: Lockheed Aircraft - Short & Harland (F-104 development). In addition, Nord-Aviation. SNECMA, Entwicklungsring Sud. MAN, and Fiat are all known to have been working in this field. NBMR-4 Group I: British Aircraft Corporation Dornier -r- Finmeccanica (scaled-down BAC-208). Group 2: Canadair r de Havilland Aircraft of Canada. Group 3; Ling-Temco-Vought - Ryan — Hiller - European firms (said to include Sud and/or Fiat). Group 4: Hawker Siddeley Aviation • Continental firms, prob- ably including Focke-Wulf (several designs). RIG • TESTING the thrust reverser of the Bristol Siddeley BS. 75 on a slave Olympus, preparatory to the first run in January. A second BS.'/'5 will be completed in Feb- ruary, and engines for flight installation will be available early in 1963. The 7,5501b- thrust turbofan is under consideration for a variety of mili- tary and civil aircraft
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