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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 2511.PDF
fFHOlKfii" ^^ INTERNATIONAL incorporating AEROPLANE Founded in 1909. Official organ of the Royal Aero Club. First aeronautical weekly in the world. Published by lliffe Transport Publications Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1. Telephone 01-928 3333 Telegrams/Telex: Flight lliffepres London 25137 © IPC Business Press Ltd 1969 Number 3151 Volume 96 Thursday 31 July 1969 Editor J. M. Ramsden Air transport editor H. A. Taylor Production editor Roy Casey Assistant editors Neil Harrison, CEng, AFRAeS Humphrey Wynn, BA Assistant technical editor Michael Wilson, BSc, CEng, FBIS, AFRAeS Editorial director Maurice A. Smith, DFC Managing director H. N. Priaulx, MBE IN THIS ISSUE World News 154 Parliament 156 Air Transport 157 Light Commercial and Business 163 Letters 166 Private Flying 168 The Comet is twenty 169 Cranfield Show Report 173 Industry International 181 Defence 182 Spaceflight 185 Straight and Level 188a Front Cover G-ALVG, first prototype de Havilland Comet, made its maiden flight on July 27, 1949. Now, 20 years later, its offspring the Nimrod is preparing to enter service with the RAF. A special feature on the Comet begins on page 169 Space for Improvement Last week the Apollo 11 command module splashed down in the Pacific to mark the successful completion of the greatest and most technically advanced enterprise ever undertaken by man. It may not have been, as President Nixon claimed, the biggest thing since the creation; but it was a historic tour de force, something far greater than a mere coming-of-age celebration to mark America's twenty-first manned spaceflight. Just to emphasise the United States' supreme mastery of the new dimension, two unmanned spacecraft bearing the Stars and Stripes are at this moment swinging past the enigmatic planet Mars to photograph its surface from a distance of only 2,000 miles. They will lay the groundwork for an unmanned soft landing by two probes in 1973. Five years later NASA plans to fly one or more probes on a voyage to the outer limits of the solar system, taking measurements and photographing in turn Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. This will indeed be a challenging and inspiring project. Plans for manned spaceflights include Earth-orbiting laboratories carrying up to 100 scientists, engineers, technologists, doctors and physicists, to assess the benefits of spaceflight upon their disciplines. The possible advan tages of weightlessness for certain mechanical forming or medical opera tions, and the advantages of the "eye- brain" combination to survey the Earth for communication, meteoro logy, geology and Earth-resources work have been constantly expounded. All these unlimited possibilities are open for exploration—to America and Russia. The difference between the activities of these two and Europe— the so-called third power in space—is incredible. America, for example, has launched some 600 satellites and space craft, manned and unmanned, since 1958, while Russia has some 350 to her credit. ESRO, the collective European space organisation, has launched three, beginning last year. These were spin- stabilised, representing the simplest form of satellite. Initiation of three further ESRO satellites was agreed last March; but these will be identical with those already flown, and so will not advance European technology. They were chosen, in fact, for cheap ness. At the present time only two stabilised satellites are planned, and they will not be launched until 1975. Why the emphasis on scientific satellites? Because it is largely through the research (much of it academic) which is necessary to gain new know ledge of the universe with these satellites that new techniques, approaches and systems become avail able for commercial use. The quest for reliability during a ten-year mission to the planets has a direct read-across to commercial applications (navigation, for example) in which uninterrupted service is essential. Commercial space ventures of the future will be very largely global in nature, probably similar to the communication satellite organisation Intelsat. Contractors will therefore be chosen on a worldwide basis, which means competition with America. The dictates of commercial viability will always ensure that coun tries with experience and proven performance are chosen. We must sympathise with the energetic Professor Hermann Bondi, director-general of ESRO, who com plains that while America spends the equivalent of 3s 6d per person per week on space research her European counterpart contributes a mere 4d. of which only ^d goes to ESRO. The effects are twofold. First, the technical gulf between the two continents is continually widening; secondly, re search on this penurious scale is hardly likely to attract young scientists and engineers which the challenging, excit ing new medium demands. The lesson is obvious. Europe must pull itself together. In the past few months there have been encouraging signs and the long-awaited merger of ELDO and ESRO will certainly help. There are big rewards in space—but they will go to the venturesome.
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