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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0635.PDF
FLIGHT International, 25 April 1963 609 Letters The Editor of" Flight International" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Brief letters will have a better chance of early publication. Carrier-borne Deterrent ? SIR,—With reference to the Government's decision to build four Polaris-carrying submarines to constitute Britain's strategic deterrent from 1970 onwards, surely this is not nearly good enough, for assuming that at most times only three vessels will be on patrol (due to leave, maintenance, etc), Britain will be left with only a 48-missile deterrent. Since the accuracy of Polaris is not as good as that of other missiles (Skybolt, for instance), two will have to be aimed at each target to ensure that it is hit. Thus at any one time, only 24 targets can effectively be covered by the British Polaris system, for a total expenditure on 64 missiles and their guidance systems. Would it not be better to build four heavy aircraft carriers, each carrying 50 improved Buccaneers ? Thus with three of these on patrol, potential attacks can be made with 150 weapon systems, each probably more accurate than Polaris. These carriers could have an escort of further County class destroyers (one each) and Leander class frigates (two each), built specifically for the purpose. For its own defence, the carrier could carry P.l 154 VTOL fighters and Gannet AEW aircraft. The escorts would carry anti-submarine helicopters, and all ships have Seaslug or Seacat guided weapon systems. These groups could be widely spread throughout the world and besides costing no more than the Polaris programme would have a dual nu clear strike/conventional ability for brushfire wars and emergencies such as Brunei and Kuwait. The groups could be kept at sea for months on end by replenishment tankers, and nothing short of a simultaneous, determined attack by an enemy on all four groups would prevent most of the strike Buccaneers from getting away. Other readers might care to comment on this idea, which seems on the face of it far better than the more vulnerable, less useful (in the Cold-war) Polaris system. Plymouth, Devon D. A. HOBBS Assorted Engines From Marshal of the RAF Sir Thomas G. Pike, GCB, CBE, DFC Sm,—I was interested to read the letter from Maurice Austin (March 28) about mixed powerplants. There must be many examples of these in British aviation, but I think one of the earliest was the Lancastrian fitted with two Merlin and two Nene engines. I remember this because I travelled back from Paris in 1947 in this aeroplane, piloted by Mr Shepherd, after the Paris Aero Exhibition. The flight made history in that it broke the then record from Paris to London, taking, as far as I remember, about forty minutes. London SW1 T. G. PIKE SIR,—In his letter of March 28, Mr Austin asks about aeroplanes flying with mixed powerplants. In 1924, Imperial Airways took delivery of a Handley Page W8f Hamilton, fitted with two Siddeley Puma engines and one Rolls-Royce Eagle IX. Registered G-EBIX, it made its first flight on June 20, 1924. It may well be that this aeroplane was the first to appear on a register with mixed powerplants. However, it was preceded into the air by a W8e, which was delivered to Sabena, and which was the prototype of five others later built in Belgium. If Mr Austin wishes to know of other aeroplanes with mixed powerplants, perhaps only a complete survey would suffice. In it would have to be included the Airspeed A.S.4 Ferry of 1932, the Lancaster and Lincoln test-beds of the late '40s and early '50s, the Lockheed Neptune, Convair B-36, prototype Comet G-ALUG and the Saunders-Roe SR.53, to name only a few. Such a survey would prove extremely interesting. Bristol ANDRFW R. c;. IX)w Rolls-Royce Eagle From Air Cdre F. R. Banks, CB, OBE, RAF (Ret) SIR,—Your footnote to Air Commodore Wheeler's letter in the April 11 issue is correct. The design of the Rolls-Royce Eagle was completed and the "bits and pieces" were being manufactured early in 1915. whereas the Hawk came some two years later, early in 1917. I had this confirmed by Mr A. G. Elliott, who worked with Sir Henry Royce and was later Director and Chief Engineer to Rolls-Royce until his retirement a few years ago. London SW7 r. R. BANKS MoA and Flying: Tiger SIR,—In your edition of April 4 you published a letter from Mr R. J. Clark, European Representative of the Flying Tiger Line. In it he concluded that it was a strange thing that the Ministry of Aviation had not considered it worth while to follow up the complaint made by Mr Dempsey, MP, in the House of Commons on February 18. Mr Marten, Parliamentary Secretary of this Department, wrote to Mr Dempsey immediately after the questions were asked in the House of Commons, seeking further details so that the matter could be followed up. The correspondence with Mr Dempsey continues. London WC2 DONALD GRANT, Chief Information Officer, Ministry of Aviation The Time Has Come . . . SIR,—Surely the Vickers Supermarine Walrus, stable companion of the Spitfire, was one of the most versatile aircraft ever built—noisy, unmistakeable, comical, fright ening, commodious, docile, maddening, endearing. . . . Primarily for naval reconnaissance, it was used for rescue work in one role, dive-bombing in another. In the latter function, where its TV barely exceeded its top speed in level flight, it might have been likened to an undersized Dutch barn harbouring a monstrous marrow falling down the sky—a crate if ever there was oni! Yet it fought off Messerschmitts on at least one occasion during the Norwegian campaign; it carried out an historic sailing feat in the South Atlantic after a forced landing; nominally a three-seater, it put down on the sea during the North Africa landings to pick up over a dozen torpedoed sailors and taxy them to safety. It carried out photographic reconnaissance of Pacific atolls in pre-war days as a pre liminary to extending the old Imperial Airways route across that vast ocean, and it was the first aircraft ever seen by some of the adult descendants of HMS Bounty on Pitcairn Island. It was catapulted off battleships and cruisers, lurched aloft off breaking seas or staggered into the air from jungle strips; it landed on ice floes, desert sands, blue lagoons, on smooth beaches and among virgin scrubland. It ditched commanders- in-chief and gave the first air thrill to eastern potentates. Though it was a devil to land in a cross-wind on a runway because of its high e.g., the writer has managed to lower it down safely by its pusher prop on a dark night in Sydney's famous harbour by the street lamps lining Rushcutter Bay— and even, on one heart-thumping exercise during a midnight rainstorm, on to the completely black waters of Scapa Flow inside the balloon barrage. The time has come, the Walrus said . . . As one who flew the Walrus for over eight years before and during the war, and as an old CO of 700 Sqn when we once mustered over 40 aircraft, I am gathering material for a
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