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Aviation History
1970
1970 - 1467.PDF
f LIGHT International, 30 July 1970 (+) Straight 184a and YOU'RE not getting confused' by all those RB.211 designations are you? Good heavens, it's really perfectly straightforward. The standard engine is for the Lock heed TriStar, and this is the 40,0001b- plus RB.211-22. About two years ago a higher-powered development, the RB.211-28, was projected for the long- range Tri Star and for the A-300B. But what was really needed was a completely new 50,0001b-plus engine. So the -28 became the -50. Another developed version of the -22, the -47, was offered for the BAC Three- Eleven. But again more power was required, so the -47 was dropped and the -50—the same engine as for the long- range Tri-Star—was offered for the Three-Eleven (are you still with me?) but as this was going to cost another £100 million it was thought desirable to look at developing the -22 again by adding stages rather than by general sizing up. This led to the -50A. But this caused confusion with the -50A version of the General Electric CF6 (well it would wouldn't it?) which was fitted to the A-300B in place of the RB.207. So the -50A was renumbered -61. All right now? Thinks: If only Rolls-Royce had built the RB.207 in the first place. From "The Daily Telegraph", June 9 • 1 wish 1 could follow the logic of the argument that Rolls-Royce is too much run by engineers, and that the addition of financial experts to the board is a Splendid Thing. Financial success in technology depends upon correct judgments being made about technology. Of course you need finance—very high finance indeed, these days. But success begins and ends with correct technical judgments. Only engineers who have spent a lifetime in the market can make these, and deter mine the financial risk. Welcome anyway to the new financial incumbents of the Rolls-Royce board room. The Silver Goddess has been very brittle of late. I hope she is feeling better now. May her virtues always be engineering ones. • Reading of the award of the AFC to an RAF flying instructor who landed a badly damaged Varsity after a mid-air collision with a civil trainer, I read in the MoD press release that the incident A double cognac, please . . . (Bretagnes made into a bar in France) happened at 2,500ft "and still in the Oakington Military Air Traffic Zone." Steady chaps. What, I wonder, has that to do with the award—well deserved as it is? f haven't heard the outcome of the investigation into this particular incident yet. • 1 took the family to Devon for a few days. It was Mayflower Week in Plymouth—you know, the place named after Plymouth, Massachusetts—and it was crammed with Americans. It was Royal Air Force Week as well, and there was a Spitfire MklA on the Hoe and at 7 o'clock a display by the Red Arrows. The setting could not have been more perfect: the beautiful and historic Sound, little boats on the water, and a perfect summer's evening. I gasped at the Arrows' display, even though I have seen them so often. So did everyone. The best view of all must have been from Albacores (dinghies, laddie) which were trying to race. I swear that during the final cross-over and pull- up Gnat blast actually parted the waters of the Sound. My respects and thanks to the Red Arrows for the finest of fine airmanship. • Hendon—ah Hendon! As 1 passed in the train I saw that sacred turf, skimmed by so many roundelled, silver wings, being ravished by earth movers, pile drivers, stacks of bricks and work men's huts. I saw the ghost of a Gamecock attack ing a bulldozer, a Blenheim bombing the site manager's office, a Fury buzzing a crane jib. There was still a bit of the threshold of a runway to be seen and—ah! those two original hangars were being con verted into the RAF Museum. Workmen were swarming on the scaffolding of the adjoining new buildings. Honour is being done to all that Hendon ever stood for, and more. There there, have a good cry and tell me all about it • With Hendon has departed the epoch of the great aircraft masters—men like Camm, de Havilland, Mitchell. Advanc ing technology demands specialisation and teamwork. But we still need men with the common technical touch and all-round training to lead and control the specialists. Computers and parametric studies and avionics don't make good aeroplanes. They help. But more than ever we need technical leaders who, like the old masters, mind the simple engineering virtues. • From an article in The Sunday Times for July 12 proposing an airport in London's Hyde Park: "A landing or take-off accident at Westminster Airport might kill scores of people living close to the airport. But this, too, appears insignificant. The report anticipates only one 'third-party* accident over 30 years and the costs assumed are only £9,300 for each fatality and £625 for each injury." Let's get cracking then, as we used to say in structural test. fcfrfyt*- EM^tnv
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