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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1276.PDF
128 FLIGHT International, 26 July 196: Q) Straight and THE news burst on an amazed world: Plummet Air Lines had joined forces with Chocolate Blancmange (Ly- tham St Annes) Ltd to form Plummet- Blancmanges Ltd to further the development of British chocolate blancmange. Choco late Blancmange shares wobbled. Plummet-Chocolate Blancmange will serve chocolate blancmange to all its passengers and repaint its fleet in an attrac tive chocolate livery. The deal has met with almost unanimous approval, in accordance with the now recognized principle of the Sanctity of Airline Mergers. "To anyone who is not completely doctrinaire," says Sir Charles Boost, chairman of Plummet Air Lines, "chocolate blancmange may well serve a very useful purpose in air transport". Asked whether further mergers were con templated, perhaps with British Linoleum Fruit Industries Ltd, Sir Charles snapped; "Of course, you idiot—size is all that matters in air transport." Sir Charles also announced that, in the interests of economy, Plummet are to limit the number of economy drives _ in the current year. • Release from the FAA: "Applicants for a hot air balloon pilot's rating will be required to demonstrate their ability to handle this craft in solo flight before they can receive their certificates . . . Previously, candidates for a free balloon certificate limited to hot air balloons had only to comply with certain requirements of age, character, citizenship, education and physical condition ... Recent improvements in hot air balloons, however, have neces sitated a demonstration of skill by candidates to ensure safe and proper piloting tech niques." I don't know what Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes would have thought of this new legislation. They were the pilots of the Montgolfier hot air balloon which travelled from the Bois de Boulogne When / started my Life Goes On series I had no idea that I should hear of so many old aeroplanes being used to attract custom to restaurants. Here is the latest, which comes from M. Pierre Sparaco, assistant editor of the Belgian aviation journal "AiRevue." An Oxford, it is to be seen in front of a cafe about a mile away from Brussels National Airport over Paris for a distance of 5 J miles on November 21, 1783. Lasting 25 minutes, it was the first aerial voyage ever made by human beings. Or so we are told in a new book on air transport, due to be published next week, about which I will tell you in the next edition of Straight and Level. • A Vickers spokesman is reported to have said that the blast of the VClO's jets is enough to blow a railway train off the line. Commenting on this, Punch congratu lates the spokesman on the vividness of his expression and adds the thought that trains are already being blasted off the lines, commercially speaking, by airliners. • Mr Jerome Lederer of the US Flight Safety Foundation: "Flying has become so safe that an airline pilot can get life insurance at a cost no greater than for a chess player." But airline pilots are chess players: with the air traffic controllers they play a sort of three-dimensional chess. • Vale Thorneycroft, ave Amery. Minis ters go, Ministers come, but the Ministry goes on for ever. The faster the turnover in Ministers, the greater becomes the power of bureaucracy: the executive tends to take charge of the legislature, and Ministers' accountability to Parliament becomes more and more diminished. What is there, you may well ask, to check and balance the prodigious power wielded by the Unaccountable Ones ? That's a good question. To which I can't think of a good answer just at the moment. ROGER BACON / haven't been so corny as to suggest that BOAC-Cunard jets should have funnels: but you can see from this picture what can happen when shipping companies operate jet airliners. The aircraft is a DCS of the French independent TAI, which is associated with the shipping company Messageries Maritimes
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