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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1221.PDF
, IJGHT International 19 July 1962 4S (T) Straight and HOW nice to be the chief of the air staff of a neutral country. All he has to do when he wants, let's say, a new fighter is to leak simultaneously in Washington, London and Paris the news that he is going to buy Mig-17s. The British (being of course the best salesmen) imme diately leap in with an offer of Lightnings. Then it is a fair bet that the French will offer Mirage Ills in exchange for the Light nings, and that the Americans will offer F-l04Gs in exchange for both the Mirages and the Lightnings. With a little bit of co-operation and good will all round, I imagine, the neutral air force could end up with F-104Gs, L'Armee de 1'Air with Lightnings, the RAF with Mirages, and the USAF with Mig-17s. • Mr G. D. Pexock, technicd director of Cunard Eagle Airways:— "1 would like now to speak as an in dividual, and the points expressed are my own and not necessarily those of the manage ment. I, myself, have not seen any evidence that trade unionism has advanced the aviation business in this country, and this particularly applies to the operating field. "Many expert observers, both in this country and abroad, have stated that British enterprise, which needs to be par ticularly aggressive in the public transport side of aviation, has not kept pace in the international sphere, due to the restrictive effects of trade unionism . . ." The notice in which this forthright statement appeared was sent to me by "A Well-wisher of BOAC-Cunard." I have, needless to say, checked its authenticity. The notice was distributed to Cunard Eagle workers (who have up to now been largely non-union) following a call from the BOAC shop stewards committee for a "mass meeting" to discuss "unity." This young chequered black and white gamecock—mascot of No 43 Sqn, The Fighting Cocks—has just arrived in Cyprus. The bird is the latest in a long line of cockerel mascots which the famous black-and-white-chequered squadron has had since it first flew Gamecocks in 1926 This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a responsible voice in British air trans port has put into words what many people in BOAC and BEA, have thought for a long time. For this reason—and 1 am not trying to be funny—BOAC and BEA should wel come a strong independent industry, run by people like Mr Peacock who are not afraid, as they must be, to voice such opinions—though I'm told that Mr Peacock, in recent negotiations with responsible unions, has recognized that the fault is not with them. • The procedure for appeals against decisions of the Air Transport Licensing Board has now reached such a crescendo Whot is it? First of all I'll tell you where it is: in a children's playground in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. It is basically a Fairchild Argus rebuilt by Central African Airways apprentices who replaced missing parts with scrap items including a Viscyunt powerplant cow/ing and the tyres and wheel struts of a Beaver of absurdity that the time has come for the system to be changed. If he agrees, 1 suspect that the Minister of Aviation may be tempted to say that, henceforth, the appeals commissioner will be dispensed with and all appeals submitted direct to him. This of course would eliminate the ab surdity of an ATLB case being virtually re-heard by one non-expert, with all the waste of airline money and man-hours involved. But it might also bias the balance of power yet mare towards the Minister of Aviation. There would be a check against this, I feel, if the grounds of appeal were restricted to purely procedural or legal matters; and if the appeal and the Minister's reasons for his decision were published in full. • As every year goes by, writes Dr J. Nit in the current edition of British Air Power Gazette, the airlines produce mare and more ton-miles. As ton-miles go up, he says, efficiency goes down, because so miny mm-hours and so much ink is spent on writing down thousands of figures like 211,320,497,243,861,000 ton-miles. Nit therefore suggests the "early intro duction" of the units megaton-miles and kiloton-miles. • Congressman Raps Mobile Lounge —headline in Aviation Daily I envision as of now a contract for 524,252 awarded to Flight Falsies Inc of Keyhole, Penn, to develop on a crash program basis a chromium-plated door knocker for mobile lounge doors. It would be speciality stressed to withstand the raps of angry Congressmen. ROGER BACON
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