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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1688.PDF
• • '•'•'.*• -. • 498 FLIGHT International, 19 September 19ft St raig ht and v e I " K%OLLS-RO YCE has won its long duel m% with Bristol Siddeley to get the £60 million contract to build the engines for the HAF's new Whitworth- Gloster jet transport."—Sunday Telegraph. So that's that. Or is it ? How in heaven's name did the Sunday Telegraph get such a hot scoop ? Well, you know we Press chaps never reveal our sources. But don't be so naive as to jump to the conclusion that it must have been a Rolls-Royce source. This Press leakage business is more subtle than that. The appearance of this report in the Press could have infuriated the Ministry so much that they decided, immediately on reading it, most definitely not to give the order to Rolls-Royce. Hence it could have been leaked by Bristol Siddeley specially to antagonize the chaps in the Ministry against Rolls-Roy ce\ Thinks: On the other hand, it could have been leaked by Rolls-Royce to make the chaps in the Ministry think that it had been leaked by Bristol Siddeley to antag onize them against Rolls-Royce, thus antag onizing them against Bristol Siddeley. Get it? • Here's another Machiavellian progres sion of thought. You know how the British have conceded rather a lot to the French on the Concorde—much of the design itself, that "e," special Press coverage, etc, etc? Well, this may not be such a sad business after all. What we British are doing, you see, is building up a great Backlog of Inequality on unimportant things, so that when the time comes for bargaining on the really impor tant matters we're swinging. Get it, eh? Ces anglais, ils sont fourbes. • " Within a very short space of time, possibly within weeks, there will be trans ferred to the exclusive control of the Southern Rhodesian Government the most powerful air force at present existing on the African continent."—Mr Quaison-Sackey of Ghana in the United Nations Security Council, as reported in the national Press. According to my information the Air Forces of Egypt and South Africa are more powerful, much more powerful, than that of the RRAF, which has 12 Hunter 9s, 18 Canberra B.2s and T.4s, 20 Vampire 9s, and about 20 Vampire and Provost jet trainers. In addition there are five Alouette 3s, and a transport group comprising eight C-47s, two Pembrokes and four Argonauts. That is certainly formidable. But the Egyptians have got 21 Tu-16s (Badgers), about 40 Mig 21s, about 100 Mig 17s as well as Mig 15s and Mig 19s, and about 50 Il-28s. There are in all about 360 Russian You may have read in last week's issue about all the light aircraft that visited Rochester airport, Kent, England. There is also an airport at Rochester, New Hampshire, USA, where you can see this unique light aircraft. Just to get things into perspective, it is a one-third-scale non-flying S.E.5. Very popular with the youngsters, it brings families from miles around to visit the airport aircraft in four fighter wings, one light bomber wing and one heavy bomber wing, making a total of 20 squadrons. In addition there are four transport support squadrons of An-12s, Il-14s and C-47s, and a number of Mi-4 and Mi-1 helicopters. The South Africans have two squadrons of Sabres, each with about 18 aircraft; 20 Mirages either delivered or on order, six Canberra B.12s on order, 20 Buccaneer 2s on order, 50 Alouette 2s or 3s in service or on order, 20 C-47s in two squadrons, seven Hercules C-130s just being delivered, and 25 Cessna Skywagons operated for the Army by the Air Force. Also available, I believe, are about 750 Harvards which, each armed with eight 191b anti-personnel barometrically fused fragmentation bombs, would theoretically constitute more "power," in this political context, than any thing else in Africa. Mr Quaison-Sackey of Ghana may or may not be right when he says that the RRAF is a threat to black Africa and that Britain ought to do something about it. But, assuming that he was correctly reported, he is perhaps going a bit far in saying—assuming he was correctly reported —that it is the most powerful air force on the African continent. • "The Fairey Aviation Works band won the £2,000 Gold Challenge Trophy in the British Open Brass Band contest for the third year in succession at Belle Vue, Manchester, today."—Press report. There's no Fairey Aviation Works any more, but the band plays on. It just wouldn't make the same music if it were renamed the Amalgamated Consortium Works Band, or something. • Look where I will, I seem to be sur rounded by disclosures, leaks and guesses. One eminent British daily reports that a jet successor to the Shackleton is being planned by Hawker Siddeley design staff in Manches ter. The paper announces that it would be "strikingly similar to the Trident." An American journal has printed a full and detailed account of the mission per formance of the Buccaneer, including 114 items of data which were (and still remain) restricted on British security grounds. Just now everyone is having a field day on TSR.2. One national daily discusses its new Triplex windscreen, and the IMJ titanium alloys for parts of the fuselage Another describes a TV-guided missile said to be under development for I™5 aircraft. A third quotes the TSR.2's pr« (inaccurately, say BAQ. Yet a fou™ discusses the "two-key" system of contra under which the RAAF would be allowed to have two (named) nuclear weapons associ ated with the aircraft. To cap it all 01* paper has now printed a side elevation»i the head of a TSR.2 story. But all is weu- we find the drawing to be a harn» doodle published in this journal I January 9, 1959. • The Raytheon Company Pllb'^vl. "space-age glossary" entitled "Ab ^ ations and Related Acronyms AsS(*'a!1<j with Defence, Astronautics, Business Radio Electronics." It is known, of c° as ABRACADABRA. ROGER BACff»|
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