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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0097.PDF
Prince Philip recently flew Smiths Industries' HS.748 to gain ex perience of the SEP.6 autopilot and flight sys tem. He is seen ofter the flight talking with Mr A. P. W. Cane (left), operational ad viser, and Mr J. G. Cruse, assistant chief pilot. The SEP.6, which is fully approved for Cat 2 weather opera tion, may replace the SEP.2s in the Andovers of the Queen's Flight which also visited the West Coast (Flight, April 1.8, 1968, page 566). During their first week the mission "members met representatives of 24 US companies including Bell Helicopters, General Dynamics, Collins Radio, Varo Inc, McDonnell Douglas and Rocket- dyne. In the second week, contacts already established on the West Coast, including those with Boeing and Lock heed, were renewed. In addition to the increase of Scottish Aviation business and the Cossor con tract, Ferranti (Bracknell) have estimated total sales of $1 million p-a. over the next five years as a result of the trip and Page Engineering have received six requests to tender for contracts. The BNEC is sponsored by the Associ ation of British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industries, the Committee on Invisible Exports and the Trades Union Congress. Shorts' Loan Opposition? Short Bros directors, meeting in Lon don next week, may express opposition to the £6 million loan offered jointly s by the UK and Northern Ireland Governments (Flight, December 26, 1968). The company is still awaiting capital reconstruction, promised in 1967, and this is what the board wishes rather than to be lent money which has to be repaid at commercial interes't rates. Meanwhile, negotiations with the US Rohr Corporation are hanging fire. The American company would prefer to dis cuss a financial shareholding in a capi tally reconstructed Shorts; but the UK Mr Wedgwood Benn- who, as Minister of Technology, is the offi cial "owner" of Beagle— made his first visit to the Rearsby, Leicester, and Shoreham, Sussex, factories last Friday. Seen in the Shoreham drawing office are, I to r, \ Mr Peter Masefield, chairman; Mr John Lar- roucau, chief engineer; Mr Wedgwood Benn; and Mr K. N. Myer, managing director. The Minister flew in a B.206-S for the London-Rearsby- Shoreham journey, re turning in a Pup-100 FLIGHT International. 16 January 1969 79 Government, majority shareholder in Shorts, wishes the negotiations with Rohr to continue before making a de cision on capital reconstruction. The Shorts board is likely to indicate in formal terms its dissatisfaction with this anomalous state of affairs. Lockheed 1011: TriStar Lockheed have chosen the name Tri Star for their Rolls-Royce-powered L-1011 due to go into service in 1971. The company has used "star" names since the Vega first flew in 1927: the theme continued with the Sirius, the Lodestar, the Electra and the Constellation, and today the JetStar, C-141 Starlifter and C-5 Galaxy carry on the tradition. Picked from 700 suggestions, the name TriStar brought a $250 savings bond to a Lockheed stenographer. Skyvan Sales Post Mr Alex Roberts, senior Skyvan test pilot of Short Brothers, has been appointed Skyvan sales manager. Mr Roberts, who is 33 and has led several overseas sales tours, will be responsible to Mr Denis Tayler, recently made manager of the company's Skyvan Division (see also page 109, this issue). Prestwkk Post for Ranald Porteus Well known for many years as Auster's chief test and demonstration pilot, and then as sales manager of Beagle Aircraft until that company's re organisation last September, Mr Ranald Porteus has joined Scottish Aviation as marketing manager. SENSOR Powerplant for MRCA will be decided very soon now. While the twin-engine formula is still favoured, using engines each of about I5,000lb with afterburning based on the "parametric" Rolls-Royce RB.199, the MRCA committee has also been directed to study designs using a single 30,000lb thrust engine (20,0001b thrust dry), with "last-date" proposals from P&W and GE due last Friday. The resulting near 1:1 thrust/weight ratio would satisfy German STOL requirements. An order for over 100 Strikemasters for the RAF will be placed in the next few days. The Strikemaster (a version of the BAC 167) is similar to the air craft on offer for light strike duties but retains the Viper II engine of 2.5001b thrust. STOL for MRCA is gradually becoming accepted by the British Government, as a result both of American thinking on FX and also from consideration of NATO deployment of the aircraft in Germany. The need for dispersed operations from rough fields or autobahns is becoming increasingly recognised and the 1,000— l,500ft take-off requirement is now becoming accepted as logical, although this penalises payload-range to some extent. Boron composite produced by the USAF Materials Laboratory is being used on a limited number of Lockheed C-5As to test its usefulness as a weight-saving material on large aircraft, both in construction and operation. MEA was able to finance its purchase of two Boeing 707-320Cs without down- payment or guarantees, repayment being over a period of ten years. The best offer obtained of VC10 finance was a ten-year lease without the option to buy, arranged through London merchant bankers Klein- wort Benson. The price quoted for the VC10 was about 1400,000 higher than for the 707. BAC no longer has a financial interest in the Ghana Airways VC10 destroyed by Israeli commandos at Beirut while on charter to MEA, and it will there fore not be affected by absence of war- risk cover. The loss may fall instead on the British Government under the terms of Anglo-Ghanaian trade agree ments. The Board of Trade hopes to introduce a system for the mortgaging of aircraft and the registration of such mortgages by the end of the year. This will give better protection to aircraft sellers and will help exports. It is uncertain whether the relative international convention can be ratified in that time. BoT recently received powers to act on this matter under the Civil Aviation Act, 1968. Operators are being warned of compressor- icing dangers, especially for turbofan engines, in freezing fog, as a result of the take-off crash of the Boeing 707-320C freighter at Anchorage, Alaska, on December 26. Three engines apparently flamed out following the melting of a film of ice on the compressor blades. This was formed during a long period of taxying.
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