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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0060.PDF
fLIGHT International, 9 January 1964 Stretched Commander First in-flight picture of the prototype Jet Commander since its fuselage was lengthened by 30in to 50ft 11 in. Certification flight-testing under CAR 4b began last month; the second Jet Commander is scheduled to fly during February Sixth for Safir The Austrian Air Force recently be- came the sixth air force to adopt the Saab Safir basic trainer with an order for 24 of the Saab 91D four-seat version. Twelve of these are for elementary pilot training while the other dozen will be extensively equipped with radio and other navigation aids for navigational training. The first of the 24 aircraft will be delivered this summer. This latest order brings to 320 the number of Safirs now sold, in 20 countries. Jeremy Brock We regret to record the death, in a flying accident at Lasham Aerodrome on January 1. of Mr Jeremy Brock, a well-known glider pilot who had taken up an appoint- ment as manager and resident instructor at London Gliding Club, Dunstable, only the previous month. Mr Brock was piloting an Auster 6A (G-ARDX) and was taking off from Lasham with a Skylark 2 sailplane on tow, the direction of take-off being almost directly into-sun. The Auster dived into the ground from a height of 2OO-3OOft after the tow-rope had broken (reportedly after the sailplane had risen to an unusually high position on tow). The pilot of the sailplane made a safe landing. Mr Brock was a member of Surrey Gliding Club at Lasham, where he obtained his Silver C in 1956 and became a part-time instructor in 1957. He was an experienced tug pilot, having officiated as a tug aircraft manager at National Gliding Champion- ships from 1959 to 1963. For part of 1963 he was a full-time instructor at Lasham Gliding Centre. Capt Duncan Davis A memorial service for Capt H. Duncan Davis, late chairman, and a founder, of Brooklands Aviation Ltd, was held at St Mary's the Virgin Church, Byfleet, Surrey, recently and was conducted by the Rev H. F. Jones, Rector of Byfeet and chaplain of 11(F) Sqn, ATC. Among the many people attending were representatives of major companies in the aircraft industry, the RAF and ATC, the Royal Aero Club, the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators and past and present employees of Brook- lands Aviation. Capt Duncan Davis's death occurred on December 5. Dire Forecast for Canadian Industry That Canada's aerospace industry is beginning to disintegrate because of inadequate defence procurement planning and restrictive export policies is the warning given by the Air Industries Association of Canada in a memorandum to the Canadian Government. The memorandum notes that Canada's industrial achievements in the aerospace field "have ranked among the highest in the Western world." It warns, however, that the industry is already in "a precarious position" and that, unless drastic action is taken by the Government immediately, "this situation will deteriorate immeasurably within two years." The association has informed the Govern- ment that a survey of the affairs of its 27 member-companies suggests that the 28,000 skilled personnel now employed in the industry will drop to 14,500 by 1965, unless remedial action is taken. The memorandum says bluntly that by 1965 the industry will have sagged to the point where "it will have lost its skilled engineers and techicians; it will have lost a major part of its capability to supply the requirements of Canada's armed forces; it will be without products and skills to export (exports were valued at |238m in 1962); it will be a drag on the national economy; it will be financially and technic- ally incapable of conducting research and development programmes; and it will be compelled to carry out massive laying-off which will aggravate the nation's unemploy- ment problem." The Air Industries Association contends that in such circumstances it will be virtually impossible to obtain production-sharing agreements from the USA despite willing- ness to facilitate such agreements. The AIA points to the recent cancellation of a whole series of defence procurement programmes and the steady decline of Canadian military procurement orders from $400m to an estimated $138m in 1963, with further sharp reductions forecast for this year and 1965. The Canadian Government's restrictive export policies in the field of military equipment are held partly responsible for the rapid decline in the health of the industry. "The Canadian Government has frequently prevented the sale of Canadian equipment to other Western countries desirous of buying from Canada and has found that the sale was subsequently made by another NATO ally," the memorandum states. It urges that restrictive policies be replaced by a programme of active support "for exports to any Western country to which our NATO allies export." Aerial Crane A Czechoslovakian civil transport helicopter, of Russian Mi-4 design, was used recently to lift four heavy parabolic aerials into place atop a new 160ft radio transmission tower at Hady, near Brno. CSA, the Czech national airline, operates a number of helicopters to tackle such jobs as this
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