FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0832.PDF
FLIGHT International, 26 March 1964 473 munications held in London in May last year. The work therefore forms an up-to- date handbook on the airborne and ground station equipment as well as on the theore- tical and operational aspects of this impor- tant new field. Copies have been sent to all organizations who participated in the symposium, but additional copies are avail- able at a cost of £2, post free, from the company's head office at Aeradio House, 40 Park Street, London Wl. Marconi Director EEA Vice-Chairman At the recent annual general meeting of the Electronic Engineering Association, Mr R. Telford, general manager of the Marconi Co, was elected vice-chairman. Mr Telford has been general manager of Marconi since 1961 and was elected to the board last July. Interior Designers Move Mrs Gaby Schreiber, FSIA, FRSA, the well-known design consultant recently responsible for the interior decor of BOAC's VClOs, and now working on the interior design of the HS.748s for the Queen's Flight, has opened new premises for her consultancy, Gaby Schreiber Associates, Convel De- signers Ltd, at 15 Radnor Walk, Chelsea SW3. Mrs Schreiber has created ultra- modern premises from what were London's oldest coachworks, wherein the first London motor taxi was built. The Duke of Edinburgh was among guests who attended the opening. USA Atlantic Simulators ordered in USA The French Government has awarded General Precision Inc a definitive contract worth about $7.5m for two flight simulators for the Breguet 1150 Atlantic, acting on behalf of the NATO committee managing the maritime patrol project. The simulators will be built by GP's Link group, of Binghamton, New York. ACF Industries' electronics division at Riverdale, Maryland, will supply the tactical portion of the simulator. European companies participating as sub-contractors in the programme are: SECBAT and Societe d'Electronique et d'Automatisme of France; Precitronic of Germany; and Audium N. V. and Handels- compagnie N.V. of Holland. Contacts are also being made with Belgian suppliers. The Atlantic simulators will provide training in the operation of the aircraft and associated anti-submarine weapons for the entire crew, from take-off through a com- plete tactical mission to return. Bendix Lands Luftwaffe Contract A $5.5m contract for PHI/Doppler radar navigation systems for West German Fiat G.91 fighters has been awarded to Bendix International. The PHI—precision homing indicator—will be manufactured by the Bendix Canadian subsidiary, Computing Devices of Canada, and the Doppler radar by the Bendix radio division. The system gives the pilot immediate range and bearing information for as many as 12 pre-programmed destinations at the flick of a switch. New GD Directors Mr W. C. Bolenius, Mr D. Packard and Mr J. A. Sargent have been elected directors of General Dynamics Corp. Mr Sargent, formerly executive vice- president of General Foods Corp, has also been appointed a vice-president and senior financial officer of the company. Mr Bolenius retired last year as vice-chairman of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. Mr Packard is president of the Hew- lett-Packard Co of Palo Alto, California, manufacturer of precision electronic equip- ment. France Agents for GE Light Jets General Electric CF.700-2B turbofans, fitted in the Dassault Mystere 20 light business jet, and the similar CJ.610-1 turbojets used in the German Hamburger Hansa business air- craft soon to fly, are to be supplied and maintained in Europe by the French Hispano-Suiza Co. The CJ.610-1 also powers the American Jet Commander and Lear Jet, for both of which European sales are anticipated. A SUPERSONIC SPY? (continued from page 469) producing the stuff of atomic bombs; (3) Helped American intel- ligence officials reassess and downgrade previous estimates of Soviet ICBM strength; that is, to show that the so-called 'missile gap' was non-existent; (4) Enabled American officials to feel more than reasonably certain that they know the extent of the Soviet missile arsenal and its placement; and (5) Cast doubt on the Soviet man-to-the-moon project, because no evidence has been seen that the Russians are building the kind of super-rockets that American experts think are needed for a lunar landing." Returning to the A-ll, it is worth commenting on why President Johnson chose the moment he did to disclose its existence. Several possibilities have been explored. The first is that with the existence of the aeroplane becoming more and more widely known, it had become impossibly difficult to curb the various publications who knew of its existence from breaking their pledges not to print anything. Rather than allow an unseemly release, the President chose to reveal the details to capture the headlines and, in an election year, to attempt to still some of the critics who assert that he does not have an adequate interest in aircraft (as opposed to missiles). A further influence on timing might have been the current competition for the US supersonic transport programme. One can imagine that Lockheed, being one of the three airframe bidders for the new project along with Boeing and North American, repeatedly urged the Government to reveal the existence of the A-l 1 to enhance their technical proposal. The Government has stated that Lockheed will not receive any extra credit because the other competitors will receive all pertinent A-ll data; however, having been a participant in the evaluation proceedings on a number of multi-million-dollar contracts, I can appreciate that it is unavoidable that Lockheed's chances have been measurably improved by their association with the A-ll. Having built and flown an aircraft at 2,000 m.p.h. is a tremendous asset to Lockheed and a monstrous technical hurdle for Boeing and NAA to overcome. The evaluation boards cannot overlook this fact. A last possibility on the question of timing is the severe criticism which has arisen in some quarters about the Government's partici- pation in the SST programme. In a leading editorial several weeks ago, The New York Times called for the termination of all Govern- ment support of the project, reasoning that if a new aeroplane was worth building, private industry should fund the project by them- selves. These and similar comments have tended to cast doubt on the technical ability of industry to construct 2,000 m.p.h. aircraft. Those voices will obviously be stilled by the presence of the A-l 1. If one were permitted to be cynical—and there is much reason to be in this day and age—I might append the observation that it was secrecy which probably saved the A-ll from a life of harassment. If the A-ll had been unclassified there would surely have been more than one public official who would have demanded its cancellation on the grounds that its cost/effectiveness was inferior. Others would have predicted—if not clamoured for—its early demise on the grounds of excessive costs. Even after the A-ll had flown there would have been sarcastic critics who would vilify its weight and performance, and at least one Congressman who thought he had the programme rigged ("wired" in America) for award to his district's aerospace firm would demand an investigation. Nothing can be more frustrating to a worker than to discover his project is being criticized by officials who know ziltch (to use the American vernacular) about the subject. I believe the British industry has Jo suffer the same treatment. On the cheerier side, let us rejoice that news of impersonal missiles and spacecraft has for the moment been cast aside in favour of a new 2,000 m.p.h. aeroplane. No matter how long one has been in the industry one always feels special pleasure on viewing for the first time a photograph or a model of a new aircraft.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
