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Aviation History
1968
1968 - 0084.PDF
86 LETTERS. .. our pockets. I believe the problem is rather more complicated. That is the point I wanted to raise, but evidently 1 did not put it sufficiently clearly. As the subject is delicate I decided it would be better to leave things as they were. In relation to Mr Baltensweiler's views on standardisa- tion, I am fully in agreement with the advantages: lower costs of equipment; possibilities of aircraft and crew interchange without expensive adaptation training; more efficient common use of simulators and other training facilities; more efficient use of spares pooling; and easier re-sale of aircraft and use of aircraft as debt instruments, etc. However, the higher the degree of standardisation the greater will be the economic difficulties accompany- ing the introduction of new ideas—although the rewards will be higher for those with something new but really good to sell. We have seen the former happen in aviation (the case of navigation aids is an example). Accordingly, what I meant to say is not what you have reported as my view in the first paragraph of the second column on page 1023 (viz, "Mr Avelar thought this all very well, but the competition between manu- facturers slowed the development rate") but "Mr Avelar thought this all very well, but that there was a danger that lack of competition between manufacturers might slow the development rate." A happy mean must be found in this problem of standardisation, and that is what I was trying to drive at. Lisbon ROGER DE AVELAR, Head of Central Planning, Transportes Aereos Portugueses Recorder Recovery SIR,—I am delighted that your correspondent Mr D. R. Perryman (January 4), when commenting on Geoffrey Scott's excellent article "Saving the Record," excludes the "tumbling aerofoil device" from his generalisation that "ejecting a recorder package at relatively high velocity is likely to cause more damage to the recorder than leaving it in the structure." At a recent demonstration to the US Air Force a fully instrumented aerofoil containing an accident data tape cassette and a locating radio beacon was safely ejected at 590kt on to a concrete runway. The data obtained from the tape was processed and reflected in detail the performance of the CF-104 executing a complex flight pattern. Over the past several years, this company has con- ducted innumerable tests of this nature in various types of aircraft, proving the practicability of the aerofoil delivery system in flight recorder applications. Woking, Surrey D. G. GRAINGER, Leigh Instruments Ltd Escapers' Glider SIR,—During the last few years many fervent and energetic historians have been busily engaged in locating and rebuilding old aeroplanes that have contributed to the history of British aviation. It is good to read of their successes. Every time I re-read P. R. Reid's The Latter Days, a sequel to The Colditz Story, I wonder what became of the glider that was constructed in one of the attics of Colditz Castle. In Chapter 21 of his book, Mr Reid tells the story of this unique "one-off" and even gives us the plans of the machine, the originals of which I believe are still in existence in Kenya. When the inmates of Colddtz Castle were released by the Americans in 1945 the glider was brought down from the attic and was put on view for the benefit of the 1,300 "innocent" prisoners, their astounded German guards and the Americans. A photograph of the aircraft was taken by an American girl news correspondent, FLIGHT International, 18 January 1968 The two-seat glider "The Colditz Cock" in the attic at Colditz Castle. It was built by would-be escapers, who planned to launch it from an adjacent roof (see letter from Mr H. F. Cowley). The photograph is from Michael Cummings' book "The Powerless Ones: Gliding in Peace and War," published by Frederick Muller after which the machine was returned to the attic and locked up. Is it still there? If not, what happened to it? The recovery of this famous glider would be of immense interest to a large number of people. After all—"it is one of ours!" Dittisham, Devon H. F. COWLEY Domestic Link-up SIR,—Mr J. W. E. Newby of BKS Air Transport writes (Letters, December 14) on inter-airport flights within the UK and with special regard to Leeds and Manchester. I suggest a possible use for one of his BKS HS.748 aircraft:— Tuesdays and Thursdays (days when BUA does not fly from Manchester to Southampton): Newcastle-Leeds-Man- chester-Southampton and return. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: Newcastle-Leeds-Man- chester-Bristol and return (or perhaps Cardiff on Wednesdays). Saturdays and Sundays, May-October: Newcastle-Leeds- Manchester-Exeter and return. If, as seems desirable, the flights left in the mornings and returned in the evenings, then they might fill in the middle of the day by flying to Tees-side and back from their terminal points via Heathrow. One aircraft could thereby provide quite a lot of connections, and fast transit over routes which make for long journey times by rail or road. Application might be made for the same landing-fee terms as have been granted to Channel Airways for their "bus-stop" route. Chelmsford, Essex A. H. SCOTT Lost Shackletons f SIR,—A paragraph on page 34 of your January 4 issue states that the three RAF Shackletons lost in recent accidents were Mk 3 Phase 3 aircraft. This is incorrect, as the aircraft which crashed into the sea 500 miles west of Singapore was a Mk 2 Phase 3 and was not equipped with Vipers in the outboard nacelles. Manchester HARRY HOLMES DIARY Jan 18 RAeS Bedford Branch: "Observing Earth Satellites," by D. G. King-Hele (jointly with RAE); Guildhouse, Harpur Street,Bedford, 7.45 p.m. Jan 21-24 Helicopter Association of America: Annual meeting and helicopter showcase," Las Vegas. RAeS Graduates' and Students' Section: "Advances in EngineTechnology, by G. Dobson; 4 Hamilton Place, London Wl, /.JO p.m. Jan 23 Jan 24 eVening: 74 Eccleston Square,
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