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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2305.PDF
310 FUGHT International, 27 August WORLD NEWS HAL Preserved The all-India aircraft-industry grouping now in the process of formation is to be named Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and not Aeronautics India Ltd, when Hindustan Aircraft Ltd, the largest component, merges with it in October. HAL has been reluctant to join the consortium, resulting from a merger in June of the embryonic organiz- ation set up to manufacture Mig-21s under licence and the IAF Aircraft Manufacturing Depot at Kanpur. The name-change is made to maintain the HAL identity. The Kanpur factory is completing the fourth HS. 748 Series 1 it has built under HSA licence and has five 748s, Series 2, on the line. To date the IAF has placed firm orders for only 16 aircraft, against the original commitment for 29. But the State- owned Indian Airlines Corporation, the domestic operator, is understood to have indicated a requirement for 15 Series 2s, (despite its already operating ten F.27s of similar payload/range capacity) and the first Kanpur-built Series 2 is to be delivered to the airline for evaluation in December. Kanpur is also engaged on the manufacture of 300 Rohini gliders for State-assisted Indian clubs. The Mig project, for which airframe, engine and electronics factories are to be built at Koraput, Nasik and Hyderabad respectively, is now the subject of discus- sions in Moscow. Preparing for the visit to Moscow of the Indian Defence Minister, Mr Y. B. Chavan, this month was a team comprising Mr S. S. Khera, Cabinet Secretary, Mr H. C. Sarin, Special Secretary in charge of Defence Production, and AVM Ranjan Dutt, managing director of HAL, who will head the new all-industry group. Full-scale Mig-21 production in India is unlikely to materialize before 1969 and the IAF is definitely anxious to have super- sonic all-weather capability before then— the Mig-21 has only limited night and all- weather capability and is essentially a day fighter. The idea seems to have been abandoned that the Mig-21 s should be built with the minimum of imported components; it now seems certain that they will be assem- bled in India from about nine-tenths- imported components, leading eventually to aircraft built from largely indigenous assemblies. An Indian-assembled Mig, it is estimated, will cost about £260,000 against the imported-complete cost of £275,000 and it is reported that the USSR will shortly begin the training of Indian workers in Mig assembly in Russian factories. Rather than the three Indian Mig-group factories being brought into operation at about the same time they may be phased over a period, with the Hyderabad electron- ics factory not being launched until 1972. The IAF is recently reported to have accepted Soviet modifications to make the Mig-21 a more effective weapon carrier. Unsafe in Asia but Safe in Africa? The US Department of Defense announ- ced last week that a small number of Douglas B-26 Invader bombers is being sent to the Congo, at the request of Mr Tshom- be's Government, to aid the Governmenfs forces in countering insurrections there. The Pentagon emphasized that the aircraft would not be flown by USAF crews but by contract mercenaries—mainly white South Africans and Cuban exiles, some of whom formerly served in Mr Tshombe's short-lived Katangan Air Force. The DoD's decision to send the B-26s is surprising as it follows the recent total grounding of all B-26s being flown in South Vietnam by American and Vietnamese crews. The grounding order was made after several disastrous in-flight mainspar failures among the Second World War veteran B-26s, which cost several lives and were bitterly condemned in letters (to h»s wife) by a USAF captain killed in Vietnam. The letters were published, posthumously, in Life and provoked a public outcry in the USA, for they spoke of B-26s simply falling apart in the air. The grounding order was applied by the FAA even to civil executive conversions of the B-26, despite their being virtually total rebuilds. unless they were fitted with completely new mainspars. Regardless of international complications the US Government is unlikely to risk a further public outcry at home by ordering USAF pilots to operate B-26s again, particularly in an election year. USAF crews are, however, already engaged in transport operations in the Congo, flying four C-130s which have been placed at the disposal of the Leopoldvilfc Government. Detached to the Congo with these aircraft are 50 troops to fly in and guard them wherever they operate. Executive One-Elevens First sales of BAC One-Elevens for executive or corporate use have been announced by British Aircraft Corporation. One aircraft has been purchased by the West German company Helmut Horten GmbH, which operates a chain of depart- ment stores; it will be used for carrying purchasing and sales staff between the various branches and supply sources. The second One-Eleven has been ordered by "a large industrial undertaking" in the United States. These orders, which are for delivery in 1965, bring total One-Eleven sales to 65, 45 of which are in the USA. Atoms for Peace? Men of USS "Enterprise" spell out Einstein's basic equation of energy M symbolize the nuclear power which since July 31 has been driving tj« mighty carrier, the mis- sile cruiser "Long Reach' and the missile frigatt "Bainbridge" on a non- stop 30,000-mile trip round the world. The frigate mounts twin Tar- tar missiles fore and aft; the cruiser has two i^n Terriers forward and twin Tabs aft; and "Enter- prise" is carrying F-ot Crusaders, F-45 Phan- toms, A-4E Skyha«k- ASA Vigilantes ana " pair of E-/B Tracers
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