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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0230.PDF
232 FLIGHT International, 15 February 1%2 WORLD E W S The Industry Debated Speaking in the House of Lords on Tues day of last week Lord Stonham referred to "the rundown, possibly the destruction, of our once-great aircraft industry." He asked if the Government were aware that workers becoming redundant at Christ- church and Belfast were accepting engage ments with Fokker and what steps were being taken to maintain an industry "cap able of utilizing British skills in Britain." What he regarded as a tragedy sprang, in his view, from "unparalleled muddle by the Government, the inefficiency of some managements, and the apparent disregard in some quarters for the well-being of the industry and the men employed in it." Lord Stonham averred that statements by Fokker that they had taken on a few dozen men, not 80, and had not offered ten-year guarantees, did not disprove that a small country like Holland had more aircraft orders than her workers could cope with— whereas we had so few, comparatively, that we were shutting down plants. He referred to closures or redundancies at Squires Gate, the Isle of Wight, Broughton, Portsmouth, Christchurch and Gloucester, asked whether it were true that Handley Page had been denied the opportunity to demonstrate the Herald to a Government department and whether no new development and research contracts had been placed for two years. He argued that the Government should decide on the future size of the industry, to enable redundancy to be handled in an orderly way, and be prepared to apply the equivalent of a development area procedure to redundant plants. Lord Mills, Minister without Portfolio, said Lord Stonham's questions had given him the opportunity of "putting matters into perspective and perhaps dissipating some of the gloom which he seems to have spread." Referring to Fokker, he said that the com pany was "part of the European situation." The British industry, occupying a dominant position in Europe, had increased its labour force to 300,000; the French aircraft indus try employed about 85,000 people, West Germany some 15,000 and the rest of free Europe some 40,000. The British industry was the most advanced technologically. He considered it wrong to think of the industry as having to be of any predeter mined size. Direct Government support was "on a massive scale," expenditure on mili tary aircraft production running at the rate of some £200m a year. Large sums were being spent on research and development of military aircraft, and we were supporting transport projects to the tune of some £10m a year. His information was that not more than 20 workers had been recruited for Fokker from Northern Ireland and none yet from Christchurch. (Lord Stonham in terrupted to say that his information was that 20 men at Christchurch had accepted contracts.) The Government welcomed the Hawker Siddeley decision to give up Christ church as part of their plan to rationalize productive capacity. Beagle's request to take over the factory and airfield would result in the best use in the national interest of the assets and skills available. The general situation arose from the in dustry's decision to streamline itself. Our aircraft industry was much too valuable for us to let it slide away. Corridor Demands Soviet requests for exclusive use of two of the Berlin air corridors up to an altitude of 2,500m (8,200ft), during the morning hours of last Friday and last Monday, were countered by the RAF's continued use of the cor ridors. The Russians had earlier demanded, at the Air Safety Centre in Berlin, use of the Piaggio's Military P.I66, one of the first of which is shown here, has a double door to port and can carry a Bristol Siddeley Orpheus. This and its tactical colour scheme suggest its use as a support transport for Fiat G.9I squadrons southern-most corridor—from Frankfurt- last Thursday; their requests for Friday and last Monday concerned the central and northern corridors, from Bfickeburg and Hamburg respectively. U-2 Pilot Home Capt F. G. Powers, pilot of the Lockheed U-2 which came down in the Soviet Union on May Day 1960, arrived home in the United States last Sunday after having been released by the Russians after serving only a year and a half of his ten-year sentence on charges of espionage. The US authorities allowed no Press interviews with Powers until he had been seen by Government officials. Hammarskjold Accident "Pilot error" has been given as the reason for the DC-6B accident near Ndola last September in which Mr Dag Hammarskjold, UN Sec retary-General, was killed, according to the Rhodesian Federal Inquiry Commission report published last week. This says that the aircraft "was allowed to descend too low, so that it struck the trees and was brought to the ground." Engines were under power and landing gear locked down; the aircraft was fully serviceable. Spirale III Selected According to an announcement by Dassault dated February 8, their Spirale III has won the competition for a light STOL support transport. During the past year the French Ministries of the Armed Forces and National Defence have been evaluating this aircraft against the Breguet 945, HD.151 and Potez 880. 150hr Test On PT6 Engine Canadian Pratt & Whitney Aircraft announced on February 6 the successful completion of a company 150hr test to military require ments on the turboprop version of the PT6 (T74). Specific consumption is seven per cent below the estimated figure, and military (or max cont) rating has been raised from 450 to 520 s.h.p. Doppler for the Trident Decca Navigator Co Ltd has received an order for Decca Type 62 Doppler and pictorial presentations to be fitted in all 24 BEA Tridents. The Type 62, which conforms in unit distribu tion, size and outputs to Arinc character istic 540 and weighs 701b, was designed by Decca Radar; and Decca Navigator are providing a pictorial display based on the Flight Log. It will be mounted in the central
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