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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0115.PDF
.- CHT Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 International THURSDAY JANUARY 24 1963 Number 2811 Volume 83 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GU NSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE In this issue World News 104 Air Commerce 107 ign Trends in Airport Buildings 110 Straight and Level 115 Fiercer Vixen 116 Furnishing: and Finishing:, Special Feature 117 "Air-Cushion Vehicles" Supplement Letters 125 Industry International 127 Sport and Business 129 Fully Tropicalized for Winter Flying: . . . 130 Service Aviation 131 Missiles and Spacefllgrht 136 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 Mail privileges authorized at New York, NY. Branch Offices: Coventry, 8-10 Corpora tion Street: telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham, King Edward House, New Street. Birmingham 2; telephone Mid land 7191. Manchester, 260 Deansgate, Manchester 3; telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow, 62 Bucha nan Street, Glasgow CI; telephone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6: telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1963. Permission to reproduce illustra tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Follow the Van IN an issue wherein Mach 3 passenger travel is the subject of inquiry we also record a happy event of less Olympian proportions—the first flight of the Short Skyvan. Just how successful this little pantechnicon will prove to be as a type we cannot foretell, although its pedigree is much in its favour and Denis Tayler reported the first flight as being "entirely satisfactory." What we do believe very strongly is that this is one class of aircraft for which there is a very definite need, and not some vestigial or merely imaginary application or requirement, as is not infrequently the case with new, and more especially novel, aeroplanes. We share the manufacturer's belief that the Skyvan has great potential in all parts of the world. Shorts report that the project is being closely followed by a number of operators, and among those who have visited Belfast to see the prototype are Mr Sigurd Wien of Wien Alaska Airlines and representatives of Trans-Australia Airlines. Both operators are said to have indicated their readiness to place orders if flight development proceeds satisfactorily. This is excellent news; and our own sentiments concerning this world- leading project are those of the music-hall song: "My old man said follow the van, Don't dilly-dally on the way ..." Co-ordinating the Angels ALTHOUGH aircraft are internationally regarded nowadays as angels of mercy, as well as instruments of destruction, it is still uncommon to record a message of gratitude from one nation to another for airborne operations. The Greek Charge d'Affaires in Cyprus recently expressed "warmest thanks" to the AOC-in-C Near East (see page 131) for two rescue sorties by the RAF—lifting to safety the crew of a Greek vessel off the Lebanese coast, and parachuting RAF medical personnel onto a Greek island to succour a woman seriously ill. The parachutists have been invited to Athens to be made honorary members of the Greek Parachute Regiment. Such operations, coming at the same time as the missions by RAF. Royal Navy and civilian pilots in snowbound Britain, emphasize to what extent aircraft—and especially helicopters—have become part of the 20th Century's social fabric. So ubiquitous are they, in fact, that we now wonder how we ever got along without them, especially with daily news of dramatic rescues all over the world. Yet do we, in the United Kingdom, make the best use of our resources ? A letter in The Times recently from Mr Basil Arkell. executive of the British Association of Helicopter Operators, suggests that we do not; and he instances Canada's use of commercial helicopters to assist the RCAF and fire-fighting services in combating forest fires. Mr Arkell suggests that there has been a lack of co-ordination in helicopter employment in the recent winter weather. Some helicopters performed rescues unnecessarily far from their bases, while locally based machines answered distant calls: and, although Service helicopters were able to go into action immediately, commercial machines remained in their hangars throughout the emergency because there was no authority empowered to requisition them. The matter deserves consideration. We do not always have blizzards in Britain, but we should be prepared to deploy aircraft resources, military and civil, according to the scale and nature of an emergency.
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