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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 0106.PDF
72 FLIGHT International, 11 lanuary 1973 © St raig ht and It'll never replace the cavalry . . . . nor will it be accepted by the young generation As the morning steals upon the night, melting the darkness, • rose-hued contrails drawn across the dawn make me sigh, with Romeo: Look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east: Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tip-toe on the misty mountain tops. Aviation is beautiful. It actually improves the environment. Kindly pick on something else. © Sorry, that is not Britain's "sole surviving Camel" in the RAF Museum, as I said in my competition to name Britain's Most Historic Aircraft. Sir Peter Masefield reminds me about the one in the Imperial War Museum, which, he says, is ... ". . . still in its 1918 warpaint and, I suspect, still with Lt S. D. Culley's footprints on its rudder bar. This particular Camel N.6812 was the air craft which took off from the lighter towed behind the destroyer HMS From a BAF news release ... or the motor car Redoubtable, and which shot down the Zeppelin L.53 over the North Sea on August 11, 1918, flown by Lt Culley, who came back from Canada to sit in it a few months ago. I am sure that this has as good a claim as any to being Britain's Most Historic Aircraft." • My suggestion for the coveted title, you may remember, was Mosquito W4050 at Salisbury Hall, the prototype of one of the most classic warplanes of all time. The Camel was a classic too, per haps even greater than the Mossie, and if that were the actual prototype in the IWM, or Captain Roy Brown's, I'd give it the title. As it is, I'll put it right on the tail of the prototype Mosquito. What do you think? • W4050 is not the only "surviving WW1 or WW2 prototype in the world." Sorry—I should have said the "only surviving prototype of a classic WW1 or WW2 aircraft." As many of you have been kind enough to point out, the 1940 proto type Fairey Fulmar, N1854, is pre served at Yeovilton by the Fleet Air Arm Museum; the 1943 prototype Meteor 1 DG202, the third to fly, survives (in the RAF Museum store); and there are others, including the experimental Gloster E28/39; Tempest II; Desford; Messenger. • My general comment on Bo Lundberg's anti-Concorde article in Flight is rather basic. How can any economic study overlook the revenue factor? He compares the operating cost of Concorde and 747 without comparing their revenue-earning ability. The whole economic case for Concorde is that its higher speed means higher earning power. On Saturday, December 2nd, a Transmeridian Air Cargo Sales Team left aboard the company's "Executive Jet" DC 3 for a Sale Tour of Africa rim inn ii iiiiiurn iiiii iimriiilir TiiBiffilihifciiiiiiiiajiifa^iimtrirn inn ] I R.A.F. Little Rissington will be flying light pistol aircraft — Chipmunks — tonight between 6 p.m. and midnight "Gloucestershire Echo," November 21 I Nobody disputes that it will cost much more than the 747 to operate. I am not even sure about Mr Bo Peep- berg's costing. For example, Concorde cruising speed is 100, not 50, per cent higher. Concorde structure will be guaranteed, hot and cold, for 45,000hr, so why a shorter depreciation life? Price per lb is based on what the market will bear, not on what the British and French Governments have decided to spend (has Mr Lundberg allocated defence budgets to the 747 price/lb?). Concorde boom will be easily eliminated by a'thing called the throttle lever; and air transport history shows that even an extra 150 m.p.h. will be very saleable. • My photograph of the Meteors and the British-Isles-shaped cloud which I used in the December 28 issue, your Uncle Roger's last off-shore column, has aroused quite a bit of interest, astonishment, incredulity, and orders to our photographic librarian. What a joke if it was actually over the Common Market! Well, it was. The Flight photogra pher took the picture at a French Air Force display at Valenciennes in 1954. We think the Meatboxes were French too. Wot a laugh eh. • Are you a pilot of class, Carruthers? I mean, are you an upper- class pilot or a lower-class pilot? The other night at the United Service and Royal Aero Club awards I noted that upper-class pi-lots are called pi-lits. You listen. fdfr^r Q#sC<o>»
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