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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0107.PDF
I LIGHT International, 17 January 1963 95 Straight and A LOT of hard things have been said about BOAC in the past few months, particularly over the way in which they have only now revealed the true value of their under-depreciated equip ment. As you may recall. BOAC wrote off more than £3Cm of propeller equipment in their 1961-62 accounts. Among the hard words were those by the Minister of Aviation, Mr Julian Amery, in the House of Commons in December. He said: "What I cannot accept so easily is that the depreciation in the value of BO AG's fleet has only been fully revealed this year. This is not a situation which has come upon us in the night. It has been building up for two or three years past, and in any business efficient management must call for a clear understanding and a clear presentation of the balance sheet." It now comes to light (Flight International, January 3, page 8) that BOAC told the Government in 1958-59 that it wanted to write off £15-16m, and that the then Minister, Mr Harold Watkinson, "invited" BOAC not to do so because it would show a "needlessly unfavourable result." Clearly, BOAC's management did call for "a clear presentation of the balance sheet." I feel sure that Mr Amery will put the record straight, because it seems that he has done a grave injustice to BOAC. • TIMBER! Another wooden-aircraft wing goes crunch in the night on to the han gar floor. Recently the Australian Depart ment of Civil Aviation took the drastic step of notifying owners that it will not renew the registration of 28 older types of glued aircraft at the end of this year. The basis of their decision: tests con ducted by the British Department of Scien tific and Industrial Research, which show that the deterioration in the strength of glue is progressive with time and does not stop at any particular stage. I know that our Air Registration Board is well stuck into this problem too. • For years I have marvelled at the lobby ing which goes on in Washington between generals, admirals, politicians and manu facturers. Little of the huffing and puffing that goes on also in Whitehall and West minster ever comes to the notice of the public, but it certainly has in the last month or so. The trouble began when President Ken nedy said that Skybolt presented problems "in a sense beyond us." Retort by Douglas Aircraft: the difficulties had been no more than usual and quite capable of solution. The US Air Force and the Skybolt team fired a missile as a parting shot to the Ken- nedy-Macmillan talks in the Bahamas, and claimed a perfect hit in the target area. Retort by US Defense Department: the No 2 in my series "To think it all started with LIFT HERE' Skybolt had no ablative nosecone, burnt up on re-entering the atmosphere, and in any case would have missed its target by a wide margin. On January 8 "authoritative sources" in Canberra claimed that Blue Steel mis siles flown at Woomera had already proved this weapon "could have a minimum operational range of 500 miles." It had, said the sources, shown "remarkable accuracy over 200 miles," and subsequent testing had "greatly increased this range." Retort by the Ministry of Aviation: "This looks like another example of the intense lobbying that is going on over the future of airborne weapons." But the most extraordinary business of all concerns the raid "last October" by RAF Bomber Command on the United States, when the Air Ministry at first confirmed that V-bombers—not even using all their elec tronic countermeasures, because they are "too secret to employ in practice missions" —penetrated beyond New York and Wash ington. Retort by the US Defense De partment: the last RAF exercise over the USA was in October 1961. "No it wasn't," said another spokesman in the Pentagon —"it was in 1960." Then the Air Ministry explained that we had not sent any V- bombers after all. They may not frighten the enemy, but, as Wellington said when reviewing his troops, by God, they frighten me. • Directly I read in the Daily Telegraph about the Ministry of Aviation's "deterrent charges" for long-term car parking at London Airport I sent one of my reporters down to Heathrow to interview Senator Edwin Probe, chairman of the Senate Misappropriations Subcommittee, who had just arrived in his personalized custom- styled Boeing 707. "Sure," said the Senator, "this new deterrent will increase the free world's nuclear second-strike credibility posture. I guess you aim to fire these deterrent charges from that long tunnel under the airport over there, right? Now can you tell me where the heck I can park my auto mobile?" Tabulae Volatorum • To help clergy travelling to Rome for the Ecumenical Council, Pan American published a brochure with all kinds of useful flight information—in Latin. • You may recall my grumble a little while ago about those uncivilized notices outside the entrances to London Heath row's new passenger terminal. I am glad to say that they have gone the way of the whisky bottles. Well done, Heathrow's airport commandant, and con gratulations too on your profit last year. I would also like to say what a very civilized place, in every respect, your new terminal building is. • From an airline press release: "Two days after our first Viscount is delivered it will be flying Welsh rugby supporters to Edinburgh for the Scotland v. Wales match. Already we have 1,100 supporters booked. . ." Scrum down, chaps. • Six-year-old son of Flight colleague in a London - Rome Comet: "This aero plane does a good lunch." ROGER BACON
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