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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1233.PDF
FLIGHT International, 11 July 1963 61 Letters When last seen the aircraft was in the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield. Swanton Morley, Norfolk 'museum" at the L. BENNETT 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 Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters.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. BOAC's "Excess of Capacity" SIR,—It was recently reported in certain national newspapers that BOAC's overall load factor had fallen yet again to 41 per cent although assurances still flow from BO AC that prospects are brighter. The main cause of this crisis in BOAC's operation is a vast excess of capacity swallowing up the annual 10 per cent increase in business enjoyed by I AT A airlines. At this point in the proceedings, I feel BOAC could well follow the example of more efficient or luckier airlines, such as Seaboard World, Lufthansa, Pan American and Japan Air Lines, all of whom co-operate—Seaboard with Luft hansa, PAA with JAL—in the disposal of capacity. Canadair CL-44s have a certain proportion of the available space permanently allocated to Lufthansa, and a similar arrange ment exists between PAA and JAL, to fill Boeing 707-32OCs. In this way, the owner/operator has less capacity of his own to sell, leaving the lease operator his own block—to fill or carry the loss himself. Could not BOAC, then, sell 40 or 150 seats in its Boeings to an airline which has not the capital to purchase big jets and which is suffering commercially from this sad lack ? The 50-odd passengers which BOAC, on average, attracts would still be there, but would be a percentage of the hundred seats for Btf»AC to dispose of. Thus BOAC would have an increased load factor, and the second operator would reap the benefits of competitive aircraft, without incurring any of the disadvantages involved. This seems to me an eminently logical solution. In the long run, it might have unfortunate commercial consequences; but BOAC has a very, very short-term problem. Seacroft, Leeds COLIN TAYLOR [Ch Tech Bennett is quite correct; the type-number of the aircraft—which is still at Cranfield—was Supermarine 545, and we commented upon its apparent absence from the list in the article referred to.—Ed] "The War Lover's" X Certificate SIR,—Some time ago your excellent journal depicted some scenes of Captain John Crewdson's B-17s performing for the film The War Lover. My son, now 11, also enjoys Flight International and on seeing these pictures made me promise to take him to see this film. But, as you comment, it is unfortunate that the X certifi cate debars him. And the reason for the X certification, according to the film critic in our local evening newspaper, is because The War Lover has some love scenes of a candour only recently permitted. So, for the sake of a bit of box- office sex, the younger generation are going to miss seeing a piece of military aviation history. Yet I could take my boy to see The Longest Day, wherein men were mown down by machine-gun fire, five Germans were blown twelve feet into the air from a gun emplacement by a neatly lobbed grenade, a German officer was propped up on a wall having been shot hours before, and our para chute boys hung dead from power cables. But no Fortresses —if there is a love scene or two. I recall my earliest encounter with cinema. My father took me to see Hell's Angels as the result of a promise made to me. Unfortunately I cannot fulfil a promise made to my son. It seems that no picture made today can pull 'em in without a bedroom scene. Everything else seems quite secondary. And I regret this would appear to be true of The War Lover. Caerleon, Newport, Mon H. w. WEST [Mr West has subsequently written to say that he has seen "The War Lover" and rates it "excellent" With it was a film about an escaped prisoner in which he is shown with another man's wife; he has already "slugged a policeman and goes on to kill two more men—one by busting his skull with a revolver butt then pushing him over the quarry and the other by shooting him at point-blank range." This film, Mr West reports, has an "A" certificate.—Ed] Crescent-winged Swift SIR,—On the World News page of your issue of June 27, under the title "Terminated Projects," mention is made of the "Swift crescent-wing research fighter." The news-item states: ". . . it is curious that the 'Swift crescent-wing re search fighter' should be included because this was a single research aircraft never intended for operational use." In the accompanying table, against "Swift crescent-wing research fighter" is shown a cancellation date of December 1955, and in the remarks column we see "H.P.88, research for Victor." There would seem to be a cross-reference here between two different aircraft. The H.P.88 was in fact an Attacker airframe modified to take a wing of the same crescent plan form as intended for the Victor. Modifications also included a high-set tailplane. The aircraft, of which there was only one, was, I believe, modified by Blackburn. Its career was fairly short-lived, if memory serves me correctly, and terminated in a fatal crash at Cranfield, whilst engaged in a PE calibration run, some time in 1952. The Swift with the crescent-wing, however, is another story. This aircraft originated from the same stable as the Swift, but had a nose intake similar in shape to the F-100 and a wing of varying sweep-back similar in plan form to that of the H.P.88. The Type number of this aircraft escapes me, but how about 530 ? This aircraft never flew, and the cancellation date of December 1955 would seem to fit this particular project. FORTHCOMING EVENT8 Royal Na val Air Station, Lossiemouth: Open day. Rushden Round Table and RAF A: Flying display, Sywell. Kronfeld Club: Film, "Salute to Flight." Royal Naval Air Station, Brawdy: Open day. Tiger Club: Air display, Rochester. Kronfeld Club: "The Aircraft Recognition Society." by E.G. A. Wilton. Royal Naval Air Station, Culdrose: Open day. London Gliding Club: Regional competitions, Dunstable. Kronfeld Club: Film: "Salute to Flight." National Air Races and Lockheed Trophy Competition, Baginton Airport, Coventry. Tiger Club: Air display, Fair Oaks. International parachuting competition, Spa. Kronfeld Club: Aviation colour slides by John Blake. Royal Naval Air Station, Lee-on-Solent: Open day. Kronfeld Club: Film, "Target for Today." Tiger Club: Air display, Shoreham. Kronfeld Club: "Bomber Command during the Hitler Regime," by Vivian Varcoe. Aviation Union of Yugoslavia: International parachut ing competition, Portoroz. Waveney Flying Group: All-day fly-in, Seething, Norfolk. Kronfeld Club: "History of the Glider Pilot Regiment" by Philip Cooper. July July July July July July July July 13 13 17 20 21 24 27 27- Aug 5 July Aug Aug 31 2-5 5 Aug 5-11 Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug 7 10 14 n 21 Aug 24-31 Aug Aug 25 28
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