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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1405.PDF
CHT Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 International THURSDAY AUCU8T 15,1963 Number 2840 Volume 84 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUN8TON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CA8EY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE In this issue World News 224 ..lr Commerce 227 Nice Day for the Races 235 SPACE SPECIAL.: British Space Science 239 Pierres Precieuses 2 4 1 Eldo Third Stage 247 US Motives in Space 250 Spacecraft Scoreboard 1963 253 Geocosmic Transport 25 7 Missiles and Spaceflight 25 9 Service Aviation 260 Straight and Level 2 6 1 Letters 262 Industry International 2 64 llifle Transport Publications Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London, 8E1; telephone Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137). Telegrams Flightpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £5 5s. Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Hail 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 Blaokfriars 1412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow, 62 Bucha-aan 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 eff comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Two Sides . . . FOR some years we have been recording and discussing the increasingly fierce competition experienced by British aircraft manufacturers in the export markets, and the comparative slowness with which some national products are being accepted overseas. We have had the chastening task also of reporting cancellations, annulments and disappointments on a scale which could have daunted a less well-tried and consequently less resilient industry. Prominent among those disappointments was the failure of both the Britannia and the Comet to penetrate the American market, although at one time there seemed every hope of their providing a sequel to the classic success story of the Viscount. The prospect has not been enlivened by the spectacle of foreign con structors building aircraft which closely follow the pattern of pioneering British designs (we know better than to make the accusation of plagiarism); and certainly we can find no blame in this course of commercial conduct. The selling of aircraft in world markets is a very tough business indeed, and success is not attainable merely by building the best aircraft and promoting them aggressively. Politics, financial circumstances, vested interests, prejudice—all these have influenced the course of events in a degree the full extent of which may never be known. Disappointments are regrettable, but they happen, and will continue to happen. Very much in mind at the moment is the order of Douglas DC-8s instead of VCIOs by Tasman Empire Airways Ltd; the selection of the Dassault Mystere 20 by Pan American instead of the Hawker Siddeley 125; and Linea Aerea Nacional de Chile's purchase of Sud Caravelles instead of Hawker Siddeley Tridents. Roger Bacon this week makes reference to these happenings and applauds a British national newspaper for not playing them up to the extent of denigrating recent successes in the export field. ... to the Penny Which brings us to the other side of the penny—and a bright one it is. with Britannia gazing serenely, though far from smugly, above the date 1963. By bringing to the nation's attention the fact that United States airline orders for British aircraft already total in value some £45m (a total larger than previously placed with British aircraft manufacturers by US carriers) the Society of British Aircraft Constructors has done a national service, and the newspaper to which Roger Bacon alludes was far from being the only one which spread the good news. The heartening facts are that 31 BAC One-Elevens and nine BAC-Sud Concordes are on order by five US international and domestic airlines: Braniff Inter national Airways, Mohawk Airlines and American Airlines have ordered One-Elevens, and Pan American World Airways and Continental Air Lines are acquiring Concordes. Of these operators only Continental had previously purchased British aircraft—Viscounts, it goes without saying. In addition, the US Army has placed a second order, amounting to the best part of £11m, for 53 de Havilland Canada Caribous. As already implied, there is a large element of luck in the exporting business. But that the SBAC is leaving as little as possible to chance was made clear by the Society's Director in his recent interview with Frank Beswick. "One or two ideas are in mind," he said. And that—quite rightly—was as far as he would go.
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