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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 0430.PDF
424 FLIGHT International, 16 Alorc/i (V) Straight and Level PARAMOUNT PICTURES has withdrawnits backing for the £3 millionBattle of Britain epic because, it is said, the film was not going to show the Americans winning the battle. Roger Bacon Film Productions Ltd has decided to make its own Battle of Britain film, geared especially to the American market. Opening scene is of the British Embassy in Washington. It is the sum- mer of 1940 and the war is going badly. "Gad sir! eh what old chap?" exclaims the Ambassador, Sir Algernon Ponsonby- Carruthers, typical Britisher with mon- ocle, drinking tea out of his bowler hat and toasting Olde English Muffins on the ferrule of his tightly furled umbrella. "Gad sir," he declares, "we must get help, don't you know." He picks up the telephone and asks for James Stewart. "I say Jimmy old boy, I wonder if you would be a fright- fully decent chap and win the Battle of Britain for us, eh what?" James Stewart, strong, rugged, all- purpose American, picks up the trans- atlantic telephone and orders Spitfire and Hurricane production to stop. Then he tells the Pentagon to invent radar and to ship it to England together with several hundred Airacobras crewed by all-American pursuit-ship fliers. The Battle of Britain has begun. Luft- waffe ace Adolf Galland trembles and twitches in his Me 109 cockpit as the dreaded cry comes over the intercom: "Achtung Airacobrcd". . . • Extract from one of the numerous letters I have had about British aviation, the BBC, and Miss Mary Goldring. It is from a well known aircraft designer who has nothing to do with the Con- corde—in fact he might even be said to be competing for public funds: — "I do think it is high time somebody made a decent BBC-TV film on the Concorde. It is my belief that Concorde should be to Great Britain what the dummy passengers in a US Federal Aviation Agency DC-7 crash test All I cari say about airline seats is thmik heavens we're aot r*al lage. Like normal aircraft, however, the Fill's wings must be extended perpendicu- lar to the fuselage upon land- ing and takeoff. uiHiiiiiiilllllllllllllllllHIl! From the "Fort Worth Star Tele- gram," February space programme is to the United States —a focusing point for the political and technical aspirations of the whole popu- lation. Can't someone be inspired to make it so?" • Mr Peter Masefield, chairman of the British Airports Authority, is a keen antiquarian. Perhaps it was from one of his museums that he acquired the set of ancient British traffic lights now dislocat- ing the circulation at Heathrow. You know the sort—two colours only, red in all directions for ten seconds, fol- lowed by a prolonged green for the muni- cipal refuse lorry, and then a brief green flash for the mighty queue on the inter- secting road. If all the traffic was routed round the control tower, perhaps the lights wouldn't be needed at all. "I always look for the name Morley." RAAF Tomahawk squadron mascot, Western Desert, 1942 • An increase of £5 10s in the cost of the Scruggs Wonderplane was disclosed to shocked MPs by the Minister of Planes, Mr John Glasshouse, in the House of Commons last week. The revelation came in the course of a debate on something else, but MPs did not let the Minister get away with it. Cries of "Oh!" reverberated through the cham- ber, striking a chill into the heart of tough, thickskinned Mr Glasshouse, who burst into tears when the cries of "Resign!" rang out. Our air expert writes: The original cost estimate of the Wonderplane was £250,000,000,000,000,000,000. Costs are being so closely controlled that an escalation of £5 10s could result in serious doubts about the validity of the original estimate. • From a BBC news bulletin, March 8: "A full emergency was called at London Heathrow airport today when an air- liner with the Prime Minister aboard hit a bird just above the runway. It landed safely." . Yes, but what happened to the Prime Minister's airliner? • Mr Chet Holifield, a Democratic Congressman from California, said dur- ing a debate on the US Government's request for $91 million for the space programme: "This money could build 375,000 school rooms. I'm getting a little sick oi this billion here, billion there, only to satisfy intellectual curiosity. After they get to Mars they'll want to go to some other planet, whatever the hell it lS called." ROGER BACON
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