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Aviation History
1970
1970 - 1316.PDF
92 INDUSTRY International BULLDOG BASE THE NEWS that Scottish Aviation was to assume responsibility for the Beagle Bulldog should not have come as quite the surprise that it did; few projects could have been more closely tailor-made to suit the capacity and scope of this Scottish organisation and equally few organisations are better suited to the task of turning this delightful aircraft into a production reality. Scottish Aviation is one of several companies who found their production plans thrown into a turmoil by the collapse of Handley Page, since it was responsible for the production of wings for the Jetstream. Its financial involvement was high lighted by the appointment of Mr T. D. Robertson, company chairman, to the board of Handley Page during that company's management reshuffle in the summer of 1969; Jetstream wings were regarded by the company as a straightforward production task but one which it was entitled to regard as long-term, and some indication of the production rate can be gained from the fact that when the Jetstream production under the aegis of Handley Page finally collapsed in March 1970, Scottish were left with 20 pairs of wings, fully, or ail-but, completed. It is a tribute to the planning philosophy adopted at Prest- wick that the loss of Jetstream wing production had a serious, rather than a disastrous, impact. For many years the com pany's activities have been carefully diversified so that no single project, however attractive, is allowed to account for more than 20 per cent of the total activity. The place of the Bulldog becomes immediately apparent as a replacement for the capacity made available from the Jet stream shop, and it is equally clear why Scottish Aviation chose not to buy the whole Beagle company. What the company has undertaken is the manufacture of the 58 Bulldogs ordered by the Royal Swedish Air Force together with support FLIGHT International, 16 July 1970 for existing customers' Pups and 206s. In the view of Dr W. G. Watson, chief engineer, the Bulldog is already well "production- ised"—not, perhaps, entirely as Scottish would have done it but certainly to the extent that no large-scale reworking is envisaged. The company is looking forward to substantial sales of the Bulldog but does not intend to put the Pup into produc tion; indeed parts of some two dozen Pups remain to be completed at Shoreham and so far only Bulldog jigs and parts have been removed to Prestwick. At the time of Flight's visit these components were arriving daily and the second prototype Bulldog, which was in an advanced stage, was being loaded on a Queen Mary for delivery. Scottish Aviation's reputation in the field of airframe over haul is well known but the range of types handled by the company is unusually wide. At the time of our visit a Loftleidir CL-44 and an ex-BEA Argosy occupied the largest overhaul hangar, but elsewhere were Dakotas. Viscounts. Herons, DC-6s and even a Twin Pioneer being prepared for delivery to the USA—a reminder of the firm's earlier ventures into aircraft design and production. A substantial part of the Prestwick floorspace is occupied by Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft; all types operated by the RCAF in Europe are sent to Prestwick for modification or overhaul and, if operational commitments so dictate, for storage. The airfield's long runways and good weather record play a part in this particular contract for not many overhaul specialists in the country have the facilities necessary to handle F-I04s, nowadays the major element although Lockheed T-33s and Beechcraft C-45s are still to be seen. Fronting on to the airfield, a long hangar was converted in 1965 into a production shed for Lockheed Hercules com ponents. Initially Scottish was contracted to supply centre fuselage panels for the 66 C-130K.S for the RAF but sub sequent re-orders have continued this production to the present day. So far 204 sets have been completed—an export success worth £4.5 million—and the end is not yet in sight. An unusual requirement of the contract is that all materials are supplied from the USA but, even allowing for this and the cost of shipping the completed items back to Georgia, the cost of the Scottish product is less than that of local
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