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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0594.PDF
THURSDAY MARCH 5, 1964 Number 2869 Volume 85 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. P. KINO Mee Technical Editor W. T. QUN8TON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX M«e In this issue World News 344 Turbo Skyvan for Production 346 The Defence Debate 34 7 Air Commerce 349 Airline Profile: Euravia 355 Transatlantic SSBs 36O Straight and Level 3 62 Sport and Business 3 63 Letters 364 Missiles and Spaceflight 366 Service Aviation 371 Industry International 3 72 •IHh Traittfort PiiMieattoits Ltd, DorsetHouse, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137).Telegrams FUghtpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s.Overseas £5 6s. Canada and USA 115.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorizedat New York, NY. Branch Offlcw: Coventry, 8-10 Corporauon Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham, King Edward House, New Street, Birmingham 2; telephone Mid- land 7101. Manchester, 260 Deansgate, Manchester 3; telephone Blackfriars4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glatfow, 123 Hope Street, Glasgow C2; telephone Central 1265-6. Bristol, 11 Marsh Street, Bristol 1; telephone Bristol 21491/2. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner A Co(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © IUffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1964. Permission to reproduce illustra- tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extractsor comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Ofllcial Organ ol tM Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical WMkly in the World Founded in 1909 Aircraft for the 1970sL AST week's Defence Debate has cleared the air, enabling the three British Services and the aircraft industry to plan on a reasonably firm basis—at least until the forthcoming General Election. Mr Thorney- croft has outlined the next generation of British military aircraft. One is of our own design: the Hawker Siddeley P. 1154 tactical strike and interception aircraft for the RAF. This weapon system should prove highly competitive with its contemporaries in other countries; so, for that matter, should the RAF's new tactical transport, the Hawker Siddeley 681. But the Navy and Army are to adopt foreign equipment, which, in the 1970s, will look decidedly dated. We in Britain have not infrequently bought military aircraft from abroad; but this is the first time that we have done so in order that we might delete a whole generation of aircraft ourselves. This sort of thing is bad for our industry, and especially for our design staff; but it is forced on us by simple financial arithmetic. The Navy's choice is the McDonnell Phantom. Although designed in 1955-56, this is undoubtedly the most outstanding fighter/bomber— carrier-based or not—of its time. Moreover, with Rolls-Royce Spey engines it will have a performance—and especially range—even greater than that of the versions now serving with the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. There is no doubt that a real effort was made to achieve a common design with the RAF, and our failure in this regard is in no way due to ill-will or inter-Service rivalry. The Army will receive a completely standard, and thoroughly proven, piston-engined helicopter of US design. The fact that this has been in service with the US Army for a dozen years, and is now about to be replaced by the entirely new turbine-powered "LOH," should not greatly affect ths issue. The Army needs to learn to think in three dimensions as the US Army does, and any unit light helicopter is better than nothing. To sum up: although the British Services are likely to be well equipped in the years ahead we seem to be rushing headlong into a design decline. As the years go by it is becoming increasingly difficult to produce equip- ment for ourselves; and if we fall back on the easy answer of buying from abroad we shall find the next generation of aircraft—and there will be :ven more difficult.one Safety Height IN just over six years no fewer than seven British independent airlinershave come to grief because they have flown below their safetyheight, with the loss of 213 passengers and 32 crew. High ground is now the biggest single killer in air transport: last year alone the circumstances of 13 out of all 39 accidents to public transport aircraft throughout the world were "hit high ground." The latest tragedy at Innsbruck raises, not for the first time, many serious questions about the subject of safety height, to which this journal has devoted much space in the past two or three years. No pilot will ever wittingly descend below safety height; most of these tragedies seem to happen either because the aircraft is not where the pilot thinks it is, or because he has the wrong height information. It would be in the interests of the British airline industry, and of the independents in particular, if Britain were to take the lead in a really organized effort to eradicate or pinpoint all possible causes—be they shortcomings in ground aids, maps or crew experience—of this most elementary of air navigation mistakes. Seven British independent safety- height accidents and 245 lives lost in six years is a shocking record, and it calls for the most searching inquiry.
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