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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1444.PDF
262 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 Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters.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. TSR.2 and the Carriers SIR,—Some months ago I wrote to ask you if Flight Inter national was yet in a position to apprise its readers of the TSR.2 project. You kindly replied that as the weapon system was still security-classified, very little could be pub lished at this time. Now I see from The Times for August 2 that Mr Wigg (Dudley) has said in the House, with his usual fervour, that in his opinion this aircraft project is now doomed to be yet another expensive experiment. I hope very much that you will find it possible to make your usual valuable assessment, and not "spare the rod" if there are the slightest good reasons to believe that Mr Wigg is on the right track! Incidentally, will you also be dealing soon with the Fleet carrier situation as revealed in the Defence Debate ? I have been waiting to see some intelligent public comments on the new outlook for Naval Air since Mr Thorneycroft's speech. Alas, I have yet to see it critically analysed, as surely it must be. It seems to me that with a fleet of three big carriers by the early 1970s, two of which will be ageing more than somewhat, either the Naval strategic role has yet again to be revised "downwards", or an almighty large gamble is being taken, deliberately, on the requirements of maritime strategy in the next decade. Finally, why the amazing reluctance of the Government towards nuclear propulsion for large surface craft ? Has the US Navy building programme with carriers, cruisers and Bainbridge class frigates not yet convinced the Admiralty that there is something in this nuclear power after all? I imagine Flight International is directly interested in these questions too. Glasgow S3 A. J. WEIGHT [The British Aircraft Corporation TSR.2 is a very firm pro ject and the Government has stated that a production order will shortly be placed. The fleet carrier situation was referred to in a World News item last week and an artist's impression of the new carrier is published on this week's Service Aviation page, p 260.—Ed] Taran and Falcon SIR,—I would like to call to your attention certain erroneous information which recently appeared in your June 13 issue, page 904 ("Paris Report"). You report "that there is consternation in the Swiss camp concerning the matching of the Hughes Taran fire control system with the Mirage Ills and with the existing Swiss ground control system. There is also some doubt about the ability of the radar-homing Falcon missile, which the Swiss are obtaining, to avoid homing on mountains instead of on airborne targets." The relationship that exists between our organization and the Swiss military procurement agency is one of com plete cordiality and confidence. In any programme where there is the marriage of compli cated electronic components into an existing airframe, technical problems are bound to arise. When problems have arisen they have been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of both the Swiss Government and Hughes International. The statement regarding the ability of our Falcon missile to differentiate between mountains and airborne targets is completely erroneous. When the original Falcons were designed, more than ten years ago, this problem was taken FLIGHT International, 15 August 1963 into consideration and at that time appropriate measures were taken to eliminate this possibility. Falcon radar homing-missiles are guided to their target by a semi-active system wherein radar signals from the launching aircraft illuminate the target aircraft. The missile guidance system is positioned and "gated" prior to launch by the aircraft fire control system such that the missile is able to guide on only the particular target signal which appears in the gate at launch. Automatic tracking systems in azimuth and range provide continuous range tracking and target angular position error signals based on the re- radiated echo information received by the missile during flight. A high degree of target resolution and discrimina tion has been a long-standing feature of the Falcon missiles. Culver City, Calif HUGHES INTERNATIONAL John T. Corser, Public Relations and Advertising No ATLB Severity SIR,—I was surprised to read in Flight International for August 1 that the Air Transport Licensing Board "with unusual severity" had refused an application of ours to vary a Lympne - Barcelona licence. If we had made such an application the severity would have been understandable— we don't have such a licence. I might cautiously admit that we do not intend to abandon Lympne because we have nothing there to abandon but was pained to learn that we intend making Luton a secondary base—it has been our primary base for the past year. Can Flight International have confused us with our good friends of Skyways Coach-Air? Luton Airport, Beds J. E. D. WILLIAMS Managing Director, Skyways Limited [The Air Transport Editor writes: "Sorry, Mr Williams. As the Board said in its decision, Skyways Ltd, which is associated with your company Euravia, is a company quite distinct from Skyways Coach-Air Ltd."—Ed] UFO Over Hertfordshire SIR,—At about 8 p.m. on Thursday, August 1, I saw a stationary object in the sky and at first this appeared to be roughly the shape of a barrage balloon in a pronounced tail-down attitude (see Fig 1). I assumed that one had broken loose and thought little more about it, except that it was still in the same relative position ten minutes later, when I examined it through binoculars. It still appeared to have "fins" as in the sketch, but soon assumed a more delta form. However, this apparent change of shape could have been due to a declining sun which might have altered the parts visible from the ground. In delta form it resembled a Vulcan, and if it had been moving I would have been happy to accept it as such. Fig I Fig 2 In a second sketch (Fig 2) I have endeavoured to include the various features I saw. Under the nose (?) was a pod and just in front of the trailing edge (?) a long protrusion most easily described as resembling full-span flaps. Behind the trailing edge there appeared a red glow, although it was not present all the time and could have been some form of reflection from the (by then) very low sun. The object itself appeared to be white all over. Assuming that the pod was at the nose, the "machine"
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