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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1823.PDF
No 2754 VOLUME 80 HURSDAY 21 DECEMBER 1961 Editor-in-ChieJ MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBF Technical Editor W. T. CUNSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDE N Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE N THIS ISSUE From AM Quarters 938 Safety, Economy, Comfort 94O Missiles and Space-flight 942 SEASONABLE READING: 1972 Sovietski Aeroplan and Astronautika Rockets and Fizzles Might Straight and Level The Barnstormers More "Local" Flying 947 95O 952 954 956 957 958 Sport and Business 960 Flight System Survey 962 VTOL Assault Transport 963 Air Commerce 965 Service Aviation 971 Correspondence 972 Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, DorsetHouse, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137).Telegrams Flightpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s.Overseas £5. Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorizedat New York, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street: telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Dcausgatr 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595 Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street Cl; tele-phone Central 12t>.r>-(>. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd.1961. Permission to reproduce illustra- tions and letterpress can be granted onlyunder written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with dueacknowledgement. Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical WMkly in the World Founded in 1909 Industry and Government •REPRESENTATIONS by British aircraft constructors to the Ministry •^ of Aviation have provided extensive Fleet Street copy in recent days. "Aircraft firms ask for backing" reads one headline. Another raises the temperature by declaring that aircraft builders are "angry over lack of orders." A third sends the thermometer to the limit by apprising its readers that air- craft manufacturers have given "revolt warnings." These new manifestations of the grave uneasiness now felt by the industry about its future follow recent utterances which have not commanded such prominence in the national Press. Notable among these were those by Sir Roy Dobson at the Boscombe Down dinner last month. Sir Roy stressed that some companies' financial commitments are far bigger than they should be asked to carry without support; that foreign customers might ask for five, six or even ten years' credit: and that the lead that the British aircraft industry had established could not be maintained without assistance. The Government should be persuaded, he said, to tell the industry what it wanted seven ormore years ahead. Lack of development projects in particular is causing anxiety, linked with a sense of frustration occasioned by laggard decision-making and by the grow- ing realization that British Service requirements might approximate more closely to those of NATO. These feelings are heightened by the consideration that the industry has played its part—or has gone far towards doing so—in amalgamating, but that the Government has failed in its forward planning to the extent that employment is dangerously threatened. In particular it is feared that valuable design teams may have to be dispersed. The true extent of Government culpability for this worrying situation will no doubt emerge as the new year unfolds. Meanwhile, the industry is seeking to help itself by continuing heavy expenditure of its own money and by bold and imaginative—indeed now quite bewildering—industrial alliances with other countries. The newest of these, the agreement between de Havilland Aircraft of Canada, Bell Aerosystems of the USA, Avions Fairey of Belgium, and Nord Aviation of France,for collaboration in a NATO design competition for a V/STOL transport aircraft, is one which would have seemed truly fan- tastic even a year ago. It must be added that the industrial and political considerations implicit in present planning are rendered the more difficult by technical problems which may not prove as tractable as was formerly hoped. Thus, the whole concept of supersonic airliner design could be changed by the growing recognition that the supersonic bang may dictate a basically new approach. Here the challeng- ing and promising principle of variable geometry could come into its own. These are serious thoughts for the festive season: but every new year should be filled with hope, buttressed by effort and resolve. In this regard the British aircraft industry has no reason to be daunted. * " jflig&t" toisfje* its; readers; a JHerrp €(jrt£tma£ anb a ^rigljt Mtto
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