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Aviation History
1968
1968-1 - 0211.PDF
1048 W O R L D FLIGHT International, 26 December /96g E W S Britain and the MRCA Britain would consider going ahead on her own if it proved impossible to produce a common multi-role European combat aircraft This was stated by the UK Minister of Defence, Mr Denis Healey, in reply to a Commons question on December 18. He added mat he had every hope that the MRCA venture would succeed. He had also been asked by the Opposition defence spokesman, Mr Geoffrey Rippon (Con. Hexham) whether there was any truth in the report that there were to be two designs, one to be built in the UK and another in Germany. To this the Minister replied that there would no doubt be more than one ver sion of the MRCA; indeed, he added, the name "multi-role combat aircraft" rather suggested that there might be more than one version. When questioned earlier about the gap in Air Force defences in view of the TSR.2 cancellation and "misjudgment by the Government over the Phantom and F-111," Mr Healey said that the Government was convinced that it was highly desirable that Britain should seek to fill the gap in common with her European allies in filling a similar gap in their own air forces. At a meeting in The Hague on the previous day, December 17, the Air Force Chiefs of Staff of Britain, West Germany, Italy and The Netherlands had agreed on a formula for a variable- geometry fighter to replace the F-104G after 1975, the Dutch Air Force announcing after the meeting that under this agreement the MRCA would be of two types, a single- and a two-seater. Aircraft industries of the four count ries were being asked to submit design proposals for the aircraft, which is to have a maximum speed of about 1,300 m.p.h. plus STOL ability. The industries have to complete their studies by Feb ruary 1, 1969, prior to orders being placed by user countries. Britain's Air Exports A confident forecast that exports by the British aircraft industry in 1969 would exceed £350 million was made by the president of the Society of British Aerospace Companies, Mr J. H. S. Green, in London last week. Giving a provisional final total figure of exports for 1968 as well over £250 mil lion (Flight, last week), Mr Green said that exoorts for the first ten months of 1968 had totalled £227,404,000—£10 mil lion more than the previous record for a complete year, in 1966. With November promising to be another high month, the 1968 total was expected to be well over £250 million. Orders for over 900 British aircraft of all types had been placed during the year, including 200 Jaguars, 43 HS.125s, 38 Nimrods, 33 BAC One-Elevens, 26 Trident 3Bs and 26 Buccaneers, 22 BAC 167s and 20-plus Harriers. In the light aircraft field, 300 Beagle Pups had been ordered and over 160 Islanders. Mr Green said that records were also being established in new business being won by the industry in home and over seas markets. Already the total for the year stood at close to £950 million— nearly twice the industry's normal turn over, excluding R&D. When complete figures were available, the total was expected to be over £1,000 million— nearly half of which was for export. Circumlunauts This artist's impression of the Apollo 8 spacecraft in orbit around the Moon (the event scheduled for Christmas Eve) shows the scene from a height of 69 miles above the cratered surface. The three astronauts (Col Frank Borman, USAF, Apollo 8 Commander, Capt James Love//, USN, and Maj William Anders, USAF) inhabit the conical command module at the lower end of the cylindrical service module. The spacecraft is pointed to the Moon so that the astronauts may view and photograph the surface. (Owing to Christmas press arrangements this issue of "Flight" will have gone to press before the scheduled launch date) C-SA Contract Delay No more funds are being allocated by the US Department of Defence to Lock heed C-5A production, and no more contracts placed for a second batch of 62 aircraft, until detailed cost studies have been completed. This follows a report by the USAF that the first 58 ordered would cost $3,250 million, which is more than $1,000 million above the price expected. The cost is also estimated to be $850 million more than the Government is legally obliged to pay the main contractors, Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and the General Electric Co. Neither concern has as yet made any statement on the Pentagon decision on future funds and contracts, and production is continuing. C-5A cost increases were referred to in Flight for November 21, when figures given to the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress by a Pentagon official. Mr A. E. Fitzgerald, were quoted. He said that the cost of the contract could be as much as $5,000 million, a rise of $2,000 million over the price originally estimated. Shorts' New Loans Loans totalling £6 million to Short Brotiiers, announced by the Minister of Technology, Mr Wedgwood Benn, in a written Parliamentry answer on Decem ber 18, are to enable the company to maintain its current programme of work, particularly on pods for RB.211s for the Lockheed 1011 and on missiles. Mr Benn detailed two main loans, one from the UK and the other from the Northern Ireland Government, in the following terms: — "In order to help meet Shorts' need for additional working capital to finance its current programme the Government has decided to offer the company a loan of up to £3 million; this includes the £1 million interim finance about which I informed the House on July 26. A supplementary Esti mate will be presented in due course for that part of the loan which will be drawn in the current financial year, and advances made as necessary from the Civil Contin gencies Fund in anticipation of Parlia mentary approval. "I am able to inform the House that the Government of Northern Ireland propose to offer the company a similar loan of up to £3 million subject to the passing of the necessary legislation by the Parliament of Northern Ireland. The Minister of Com merce of the Government of Northern Ireland is, I understand, today making a statement on this subject in Stormont. I welcome this readiness on the part of the Northern Ireland Government to share the cost of assisting Shorts in view of the importance of the company in the economy of the Province." Shorts is still awaiting recapitalisation and this in turn depends on the outcome of negotiations with the US Rohr Cor-
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