FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1971
1971 - 2422.PDF
788 Qj Straight and FUGHT International, II November 1971 •MB——• Mr. Tom Gullick, managing-director of Clarksons said tiiis afternoon: "There is no ques- j tion of passengers being cramped. Tfoere is so much I space in the baggage hold that •we do not know what to do J with, it all. From the "Evening News", October 28 DID you see Mr Peter Masefield's quite definite statement that city-centre V/Stol is simply not on because of noise, safety and the cost of land? He reckons that we should approach V/Stol as a quietener of existing airports. So does Mr Kenneth Wilkinson, managing director of BEA, the biggest potential customer for V/Stol aero planes in Europe. He wants to start off with Rtol (reduced take-off and landing) and perhaps move along through the alphabet to Ztol. Perhaps in 30 years' time when that is perfected and the birds are singing again round existing airports, we'll all suddenly have a bright idea—why not use these splendid V/Stoliners for city-centre services? • According to an article in the Financial Times it isn't knowledge of your industry that gets you on to the board. "Positive business experience rather than personal characteristics or knowledge of an industry counts heavily in choosing directors." Attacking me for my recent com ments that engineers should have supremacy over accountants, my favourite business consultant says that many companies that fail are found to have been run by enthusiasts rather than by hard businessmen and ac countants. I am unrepentant. • The disbanding of the last RAF Argosy squadron is a sad occasion. Eleven years isn't a very long life for an aeroplane, especially when you think of Hastings and Varsity longevity. I think I am right in saying that the Argosy was the last completely new aircraft to have been launched by the Hawker Siddeley board. An all-cargo transport with four proven, rugged Darts—who did not think that it would populate the world of air commerce? I suppose lessons like that made Haw ker one of the least romantic, and yet the most profitable, aircraft companies. • Another thought about the Argosy is that, as far as I can ascertain, not one killed a passenger through techni cal failure. The same could have been From "Flight" for June 20, 1935: This new type of aeroplane, built by Frenchman Vicomte Charles de Rouge, is claimed to have "all the advantages of a helicopter" said about the Vanguard until the other tragic day. It can be said about the VC10, Trident, Britannia—all pretty advanced for their design day. Not a bad record when you come to think of it. Maybe, I hear you say, but British airliners haven't sold. Even if I were to accept that (which I can't until you deny that BAC delivered their 200th One-Eleven last week to replace the 400 Viscounts they delivered), it isn't the only criterion of a good aeroplane. • I see that 6,000 workers at Rolls- Royce are on strike for a 15 per cent pay increase. What kind of blokes are they who will strike against a company which went bankrupt? Bankrupt, I believe, because there are at least 20,000 too many people in the company? There are 20,000 people building the RB.211, almost as many as in the whole of GE, which has three times Rolls- Royce's aero-engine output. Say there are 12,000 too many people on the RB.211. Including overheads that must mean between £30 and £40 million a year in labour costs. Knock it off, lads. • From an interview in the adver tising newspaper Campaign:— "What sort of conscious efforts do you make to get rid of tension? ... Is this why you don't see many ugly stewardesses? —Yes, this was the original idea. The idea was that if you see a youngster moving up and down the cabin and you realise that she's probably doing it every day of the week, why should you be worried?" I asked Incredibly Ugly Stewardesses Airways for their comments: "We think it is much more reassuring for passengers to be served by stewardesses with an average age of over 104," a spokesman commented. Heathrow airport police grappling demonstrating baggage loader with QA<otrH, *->c -.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
