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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0847.PDF
CHT International THURSDAY MAY 31 1962 Number 2777 Volume 81 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. CUNSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAM8DEN Production Editor ROY CASEY H Managing Director N. PRIAULX MBE In this Leader World News Air Commerce Straight and Level What is Wrong: with the Licensing: Act? Trek Airways Man-powered Aircraft Gliding- 1962 Missiles and Spaceflight Service Aviation i.000 m.p.h In a Lightning T.4 Letters Industry International issue 845 846 849 856 857 859 861 866 871 874 875 878 879 Ilifle Transport Publications Ltd, Dorset House, 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 authorized at New York, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, New Street, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man chester: 260 Deansgate 3; telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street CI; tele phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1962. Permission to reproduce illustra tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Official Organ ot the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1989 A Fine Industry EXPLICITLY entitled "A Review of the Aero Engine Industry in the West Since the End of the Second World War," the Fiftieth Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture was given before the Royal Aeronautical Society in London last week. The lecturer was Mr J. D. Pearson, chief executive and deputy chairman, Rolls-Royce Ltd. As becomes the leader of one of the most progressive teams of aero engineers in the world, Mr Pearson probed not only the past and present but the future also. He summarized the present position in a few words: "Airlines and private operators are providing us with steadily increasing business. The industry is currently feeling the effect of a temporary pause in its sales of engines for civil transport aircraft. This is the product of unusual fluctuations in airline buying patterns, brought about by the widespread introduction of jet aircraft. On the military side we are in the hands of the politicians but, even if serious disarmament took place, I believe that the need for inter national policing would still call for very large numbers of military aircraft, although the majority of these might be transports." The remarkable trend towards increase in engine overhaul periods (Avons are doing a million miles between overhauls) evoked from Mr Pearson the wistful comment that, although aero engines did wear out, and needed spare parts and attention, constructors were working very hard in this regard to put themselves out of business. Perhaps the most significant idea put forward by the lecturer (though a number of successive Ministers have shown interest in it) was that of setting up a Minister's Advisory Committee in order to improve the understanding which exists between the Government and the aero engine builders. In a highly technical industry, Mr Pearson remarked, it seemed wrong that the Minister was not able to consult an advisory committee made up of individuals outside Government service and having mature views based on long experience in the business world. They could con tribute towards solving the many problems which beset the Minister by complementing the advice he receives from his own experts. In this we would only be following the practice of other industries and other countries, and it seemed odd to the lecturer that, in an industry where such a committee was badly needed, it had not so far been brought to life. The publicity accorded the lecture may well produce the desired result. Consolidation, Internationalization Mr Pearson believed that foreseeable technical developments, such as a supersonic transport and vertical lift, were not likely to have any unique effect on the development of the engine industry in the West, except to hasten its consolidation into an even smaller number of large units, based on international groupings. The industry must be conscious, he said, of the stage it is reaching in the basic development cycle of its product and concentrate increasingly on improving the efficiency of its designs from the standpoints of production and overall economics, rather than the narrow one of technical efficiency alone. Mr Pearson could not over-emphasize the international character of the aero-engine industry. The market which an individual company served, he said, was more than ever a world-wide one and, as emphasis on civil aero engine business increased, this situation became reinforced. These are big thoughts by a man at the very forefront of technical and industrial progress—one who, in his own words, considers the aero-engine industry a fine one to be in. Yet he ended by expressing the belief that there was a long way to go in improving the efficiency, reliability and life of that industry's products. 'Twas ever thus.
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