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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0883.PDF
•.;.;,.. • ' '»> fMBHT m Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 THURSDAY JUNE 7 1962 Number 2778 Volume 81 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH ore Editor H. F. Kl NG MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE In this issue Leader 881 World News 882 Air Commerce 885 & 915 VTOL Survey 891 Missiles and Spaceflight 910 Straight and Level 913 Service Aviation 914 Sport and Business 917 Letters 918 Industry International 919 lliffe 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 Mall 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 Blackfrlars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street CI; tele phone Central 1205-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Dlgby 9-1197. © Hiffe 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. Air-rider? L AST Thursday's demonstration of air-cushion vehicles in the Solent was the occasion for speculation concerning the nature and nomen clature of these curious and promising craft. "Skimcraft" suggested the helpful correspondent of the Daily Mail. But these craft are not skimmers, for by definition skimming involves contact, however light, with a surface. Neither, in the accepted meaning of the term, does the air-cushion vehicle fly; nor yet, when going about its business, does it hover. What it really does is to ride—on a cushion of air of its own making; and its name, in our own view, could well be "air-rider." Eventually this might be contracted to "airider" or even to "rider." Surely some such name is needed to supersede ACV (air-cushion vehicle) and GEM (ground-effect machine). "Hovercraft," "Cushioncraft," "Hovership," "Skimmer," "Hydroskimmer," "Air Scooter," "Aero- mobile," "Hydrostreak," have all been appropriated by various builders, and in any case are hardly admissible as generic terminology. "Air-rider," shall it be? Our correspondence columns are wide open for a good brisk word-game. Through Confusion Into Space IT was in Geneva last week that the Soviet Union and the United States got down to firm projects in discussing the chances of co-operative space activity by the two big powers. It was at Brighton last month that the European-American Assembly turned its thoughts to the prospects for man and society in the space age. And it is in Paris next month that the second European Space Technology Symposium will be held. Paris will also accommodate the permanent headquarters of the European Launcher Development Organization and of the European Space Research Organ ization. Other European centres where space is now news include Delft, future home of ESRO's space technology centre; Darmstadt, site of the ESRO data processing centre; and Kiruna, where ESRO's northern rocket range is to be established. Certainly Europe's space affairs present a confusing picture. "By intelligent foresight European and American programmes can be devised so as to reinforce each other," the Brighton assembly concluded. But it is clear that, excluding ESRO, these programmes are not so devised at present. The melancholy facts about ELDO, made apparent by European leaders at Brighton (see "Outer Space and Inner Conflict," pages 910-912) render this basic fault obvious, as does the recent news of independent national programmes by France and Italy. As for Britain, the disagreeable fact to be faced is that the next six years will see production of Blue Streak first-stage boosters, reception of signals from US communication satellites by a ground station in Cornwall, two further launches of British satellite equipment by US rockets, and little else—apart from the contribution to ESRO's excellent programme. The shadow of ELDO has fallen over ESRO in that Britain's "large share" of the ELDO launcher was the prime reason why the European Space Technology Centre had to be located elsewhere. History may show that we lost on the deal. A brief note on one further point from the Brighton assembly report is relevant in the wider context of international co-operation. Responsible governments are right to pursue such space applications as surveillance and reconnaissance satellites, says the report, since they "make for an open world" and are "likely to improve the stability of the strategic equation between East and West." Something may be amiss here.
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