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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0452.PDF
The Camel's Back Reminiscent of those First World War photographs taken in France, the picture above, left, illustrates Slingsby Sailplanes' latest product, a fine replica of a Sopwith Fl Camel built for World Film Services' forthcoming production "Biggies Sweeps the Skies", based on the character created by the late Copt W. E. Johns. Powered by a Warner Super Scarab, the aircraft will be flown by Vivian Bellamy (shown above with actor James Fox, who will portray Biggies) when the aircraft is taken to the film locations in Tunisia, Spain and Belgium. Slingsby also expect to fly, this week, two reduced-scale reconstructed Rumplers for the film Collaboration Committee's twenty-first anni versary dinner, when he was able to meet again Frank Whittle and many of the team technically responsible for the first flight of the E.28. All who knew George and had the privi lege of working with him will, I am sure. join me in extending our heartfelt con dolences to Mrs Cafrter and her son. in all, £2,437 million in the coming year on arms. The Opposition Amendment states that this is far too little. The 96 Labour members who have now signed the second Amendment [not selected by the Speaker] say that this is far too much. It will be noted that these Mem bers come from Left, Right and Centre of the Labour Party." Left, right and centre indeed. . . . from Mr Allaun and Mr Philip Noel- Baker advocating diminishing defence expenditure to Mr Rippon and Mr Reginald Maudling saying that Britain's defences were being unwisely dismantled. In between, a Labour member, Mr Roland Moyle (Lewisham. North), sug gesting that an embryonic British presence should be maintained in the Far East and criticising the policy of "putting all our eggs in the Western European basket"; and being supported in his general view by Conservative Sir Fitzroy Maclean (Bute and North Ayrshire) and Mr Desmond Donnelly (Lab, Pembroke), who no longer accepts the Government Whip. Then there was Mr James David son (Lib, Aberdeenshire. West), who put the Liberal view that Britain's nuclear forces were not credible, while at the same time her conventional forces were inadequate. It was a varied, sincere and largely constructive discussion; "a very good debate, in which most of the views held in the House have found expression." as the Minister of Defence for Equip ment, Mr John Morris, put it. Although the Government gained approval for its policy it was a Phyrric victory, because of the number of Labour abstentions, and showed how divergent are the views as to how much money Britain should spend on defence and in what directions it should be spent. See also Defence, pages 422-423. WORLD NEWS .. . most others were pouring scorn on the idea of jet propulsion and saying that "an aero plane with a jet would try to bite its own tail." Even his own masters in Hawker Siddeley were sceptical and George had a hard task in overcoming their disbelief. Bestriding his narrowing world like a Colossus of the Labour Party, Secretary of State Denis Healey dominated the Defence debate in the Commons on March 4 and 5. Not only did he open and wind up the 12hr verbal marathon; he was on his feet so often during other speeches that on one occasion the Speaker commented: "We cannot have a diebate by runniing commentary, even from the Minister of Defence." Mr Healey's object was to gain Par liamentary approval for the Govern ment's current policy outlined in its Statement on the Defence Estimates 1969 (referred to in Flight for February 27, page 347); he was supported by his two lieutenants, the Ministers of Defence for Equipment (Mr John Morris) and Administration (Mr Gerry Reynolds), and in the end they won the day by 279 votes to 232—a narrow victory accounted for by more than 90 Labour abstentions. Basing his apologia on a motion "that this House approves the Statement on De fence 1969 contained in Command Paper No 3927," Mr Healey defended Britain's current defensive posture on the twin bases of cost-effectiveness and a greater contribution to European defence. "We are able to reduce expenditure very much more than we are reducing the size of the Forces because we are getting better value for money on defence equipment," For those first flights in 1941 Whittle could not have chosen a better team than George Carter and Jerry Sayer, a test pilot who will never be forgotten. In recent years, whenever I was in the Gloucester area, I called to have a yarn with George Carter and to some extent was instrumental in getting him to Leavesden in November 1962 for the Gas Turbine he said; "and, because we are reduc ing our commitments even more than we are reducing expenditure, we can hope not only to relieve the over-stretch from which our forces were suffering /five years ago, but also to make a more effective contribution to that role which is vital to our survival as a nation —the prevention of war in Europe through NATO." The Opposition attack was based on an amendment to the Government motion, leaving out the words from "House" to the end and substituting: "regrets that Government policies are reducing the strength of the armed forces to a level inadequate to main tain the security of this country and its overseas interests." This was expressed by Mr Geoffrey Rippon (Con. Hexham), who led for the Opposition, as "a steady run-down of personnel and equipment in all three Services and in the Re serves, to what we on this side of the House can only regard as a dangerously low level." The Conservative view, as put by Mr Rippon, was diametrically opposed to that of Mr Healey: "We can not safely concentrate our efforts in Europe at the expense of all other interests and commitments .... It may well be that the greatest potential danger area today is the Middle East, about which the Secretary of State said nothing. . . ." More than any other subject in the Commons, defence seems to stimulate a wide divergence of views, of which the most strongly expressed (apart from the official Government and Opposition policies) were those of the Labour Mem bers who resent any form of defence expenditure. As Mr Frank Allaun (Sal- ford, East) put it as main spokesman for the latter: "There are three conflicting views. The Government propose to spend.
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