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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1862.PDF
FLIGHT International, 17 October 1963 (j^ Straight 669 and Le ve I ( HOPE nobody thinks I am deliberately trying to "knock" the British Press. Though I often have a good old tilt at Fleet Street, I have a lot of respect for it too. At the moment I feel a slight knock coming on. Consider this:— On September 17 the Press was invited to see the BMEWS Station at Fylingdales. Everybody was given the same package of written information. Everybody's questions were answered promptly and, presumably, correctly. But the newspapers of September 18 gave us four different periods by which the station has slipped from its original schedule (all of them less than the truth), four different values for the cost, and four different values for the diameter of the giant radar domes. And I don't mean the dia meters were a few inches out: the reader can choose between 100ft, 116ft, 140ft (correct) and 180ft. • "A [BEA\ domestic fare increase is both inevitable and overdue."—from an article on increased MoA airport charges in The Economist. Inevitable? Is it inevitable that an airline which makes a loss on a 68 per cent domestic load factor and a fare levej higher than US domestic should increase fares? Would it not be better to see whether costs can't be cut first—even more than they have been in the last year—to absorb the higher airport prices? Overdue? BEA increased domestic prices by 5-20 per cent at the beginning of the summer. If an increase is overdue, when would it have been timely? Sir Charles Boost, chairman of Plummet Ait Lines, comments: "I remember one day a couple of years ago old Blackie and I went to the Club for lunch. Admittedly it went on a little longer than usual because we had serious matters to discuss—he had a super pigskin-bound brochure on his new Mach 3 plasma-jet airliner project. Anyway, believe it or not, when I got back to the office our fares were still the same as they had been when Blackie and I left for lunch! I shoved 'em up 20 per cent at once and sacked the entire commercial staff on the spot." • Seven d.c. motors will be used for the aircrew feathering pumps and windscreen wipers.—Equipment manufacturer's press release on the Belfast. This modern technique of aircrew feather ing reminds me of when I was doing some dual with Pit Off Prune during the war. He had recently come off operations, having been credited with destroying two Spitfires, three Hurricanes, a Defiant and an Aira- cobra, and was having a twin conversion. We were about to practice some asymmetric flying when Prune, who tended to be ham- fisted, struck me a smart blow which feathered me for the rest of the sortie. After waking me up with his landing, he explained mildly that what he thought I said was "feather the aircrew," and responded promptly. • I am content to print this news-agency item exactly as received:— "NEW YORK. To help keep aircraft and hangar floors clean from roosting pigeons and sparrows, the US Air Force is employ ing two great horned owls. The owls are in a cage high in a B-47 jet bomber mainten ance hangar near Columbus, Ohio. After they are acclimatized, they will be released and patrol the premises. Great horned owls are creatures of the woods, however, and may head back for their quiet home. Barn owls would perhaps be more content." IDIOT! I told you not to open up to full throttle with the chocks on • From a news agency report: "AIRLINE HIRES JEST TO BEAT STRIKE," From The Daily Telegraph: "The pilot, Captain Daleford, did a brilliant job in saving the pet from going over the end of the run way." • I liked Allen Wheeler's story of the Fwl90 and Lt Robinson in . . . that nothing failed them, reviewed in our pages last week. A Naval pilot at RAE, the lieutenant was briefed about the engine of a captured example being "indescribably rough." At 3,000ft he thought to himself, "I am glad I was told about this engine"; at 5,000ft, when it was getting worse, he reiterated this comment; and at 6,000ft, after a loud explosion, slight smell of fire and "a horrible silence," muttered: "Well, they certainly didn't tell me about this"—signing-off these unspoken comments with a magnificent deadstick landing, in an enemy aircraft which was not easy to land even with a live engine. ROGER BACON "Yes, I'm all right . . thanks"
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