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Aviation History
1970
1970 - 0715.PDF
[FyHKru" Thursday 23 April 1970 Number 3189 Volume 97 Founded In 1909 First aeronautical weekly in the world Official organ of the Royal Aero Club Incorporating "The Aeroplane" © IPC Business Press Ltd 1970 INTERNATIONAL •bp» International Business Press Associates Publishing Director M. A. Smith. DFC Advertisement Manager David Holme* Editor J. M. Ramsden Assistant Editor Humphrey Wynn, BA Technical Editor Michael Wilson. BSc. CEng, FBIS. AFRAeS Assistant Editor (Air Transport) David Wool ley Assistant Production Editor Barry Wheeler Editorial Staff John Bentley Hugh Field Charles Gllson Peter Mlddleton Tony Smith Tim Wrlxon Photographic Librarian Ann C. Tilbury Butterfly-valve technology Plagued with technical and financial problems as the US aircraft industry is, nothing diminishes the achieve ment of the Apollo programme. Even the near-disaster of Apollo 13, the cause of which may never be known for sure, was turned into a technical triumph. Few words can have been more universally ac claimed than the "OK Joe" from Jack Swigert which told the NASA Control Centre at Houston at 1900hr BST last Friday that the crew was safe. Such is the magnitude of America's competence in technology that it can suffer a technical failure on this scale before the eyes of the world and emerge untarnished. The oroof-test of aviation technology is its ability to survive failure. In this sense, and in the human sense too, Apollo 13 was perhaps a greater triumph even than was Apollo 11. In the extravagantly frank Ameri can way the failure will now be investigated openly and relentlessly. The American Press will be filled with page after page of what went wrong, why it went wrong and who was responsible. Names will be named, and every finding published. The world's Press was supplied with photographs of the crippled service module even before the investiga tion was announced. A similar microscope has been out on the technical troubles of the General Dynamics F-lll, and the Lockheed C-5A cost overrun is also being pitilessly scrutinised. So is the technical failure of the Lockheed Cheyenne helicopter. Boeing and Pratt & Whitney believe they have now fixed the engine mounting problem on the 747, and are grappling with the financial impli cations. The 747's problems do not involve the American taxpayers' money, and are therefore exempt from the public glare. Some Americans are asking them selves whether these technical fail ures, and the worrying financial problems which they nowadays pre cipitate, are part of a pattern. Is there anything wrong with US tech nology as a whole? As Apollos 1-13 and the Geminis and Mercuries before them prove, the answer to this must be a resounding no. Yet perhaps, as the failure rate on Earth may indicate, the demand for specialists may be leading to the neglect of what might be called the all-round engineer. British engineers working in the USA, and there are quite a num ber, are frequently surprised at the limited repertoire of American engineers. Before they emigrated they may have thought that their apprenticeships, which trained them to use files and lathes as well as computers, were a waste of time. This may no longer be their view. In America there is a growing idea that everything can be solved by electronics and that simple mechanical things can be handled by anyone. This is reflected in the advertisements for engineers. Top managements tend to know little of engineering at the rather crucial lower levels; they haven't been there for so long. Thus they go in for projects demanding the most ex acting engineering with men who, though masters of science, cannot make a simple butterfly valve. No number of MScs or cryo genics graduates will make up for all - round engineers — men like NASA's Paine and his colleagues who recovered the Apollo 13 crew in what was perhaps man's greatest feat of engineering to date. IN THIS ISSUE World News Parliament Air Transport Private Flying Light Commercial Letters MRCA Inside Israel's air force Alphabetical instructor Loadlifter from Lod Hanover 1970 Have Lightning, will travel Hanover show guide Handley Page Industry International Defence Spaceflight Straight and Level 650 652 653 660 661 662 664 668 671 672 673 676 684 700 703 704 707 708a Front cover: one of the four VIP Dornier Skyservants recently delivered to the W German Government flying over southern Bavaria
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