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Aviation History
1974
1974 - 0025.PDF
[FkOtHKnT INTERNATIONAL Published by IPC Transport Press Ltd © IPC Business Press Ltd 1974 Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LU Subscriptions: UK, £12 p.a. Overseas, £10 30 p.a. USA airspeeded, $23 p.a. B. J. F. Nason, Oakfield House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, Sussex RH16 3DH: Tel 0444 53281 A subscription form is at the back of this issue Subscriptions are zero-rated for VAT Thursday 10 January 1974 Number 3383 Volume 105 Founded in 1909 First aeronautical weekly in the world Official organ of the United Service and „ Royal Aero Club Telephone: 01-261 8070 (Editorial) 01-261 8081 (Advertisement Sales) 01-261 8392 (Advertisement Production) Telegrams/Telex: Bisnespres Ldn, 25137 Publishing Director Maurice A. Smith, DFC Advertisement Manager David Holmes International Business Press Associates Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations JARCl Editor J. M. Ramsden Assistant Editor Hugh Field International Editor Mark Lambert Technical Editor Mlchaal Wilson. BSc. CEng, FB1S, AFRAeS Assistant Editor (Technical) Peter Middleton Editorial Staff Charles M. Gilson Ian R. Goold Charles Heathcole-Smith Mark Hewish Andrew Hofton, MSc David Kent Air Photography Tom Hamill Photographic Librarian Ann C. Tiibury Accent on missiles The strength of the international aerospace industry has always been largely based on defence, and many civil products are indebted to bygone defence budgets. There are now signs, following a decade of policy pre occupation with the civil market, of renewed emphasis on defence. Even before the oil crisis the airline industry and the shops supplying it were slowing down. In Europe in particular new air liners launched in the early six ties—when the future promised heavy civil aircraft consumption —are not selling as predicted. The effect of doubled oil prices on air-transport growth and profits will further def^r airliner- buying decisions. Hence one reason for the policy trend back to defence. Another is the Arab-Israeli war in October. Many old assumptions about technology and tactics must now be reviewed. The priority needs appear to be for better airborne early warning and electronic counter measures (ECM), and for a reassessment of the missile. There is no doubt that the effectiveness of the Arab anti-air craft and anti-tank missiles took the Israelis completely by sur prise. Altogether the Israeli Air Force is thought to have lost just over 100 aircraft and 800 ar moured vehicles. How well would Nato and Europe have fared? The Middle East war and perhaps the SA-6 surface-to-air missile in particular have shown the price that has to be paid for neglecting ECM. Unless the defender knows the radar signa tures of the opposing missiles he may be defenceless. A war in Europe would be lost in two or three days without air superiority, which requires the opposing SAMs to be taken out in the first few hours. New AEW/ ECM aircraft have been vaguely discussed by Europeans for years. Now the Royal Air Force is making do with Shackletons fitted with improved Gannet radars. The operational requirement is not only the sighting, identifying and tracking of airborne targets and threats, but missile and radar monitoring and intelligence. The British have an electronics indus try and a Royal Radar Establish ment which are well ahead in the international ECM game. But the systems have to be airborne, in the first hour, to deal with un known enemy electronics in rapidly changing tactical situa tions. Here is a gap in the Euro pean defences. Europe is strong in missiles— in some areas stronger than the United States and possibly also the Soviet Union. There is prob ably, no weapon better than Rapier, which has consistently hit 12cm-diameter Rushton targets at 5km range, or the Exocet anti- ship weapon, now in service, or the 4,000m anti-tank weapons like Swingfire and Hot. But we have to remember that a Euro pean war would not be fought in the high-visibility weather and terrain of the Middle East. The difference in cost between fair - weather and European - weather weapons is tremendous, but it has to be accepted. The Middle East war endorsed the value of air-launched anti- radar and anti-tank weapons, such as Shrike and Maverick, supplied by the United States after the outbreak. Helicopters such as the Lynx and Gazelle, with respectively six and four Swingfires or Hots, now seem to make even more sense. So does the Harrier, which is free of vul nerable airfields and which even without ECM superiority can be the most elusive target. The Harrier appears more than ever to give the RAF, and thus Europe, a unique advantage. Air-defence policymakers need not, as they did in Britain in 1957, go mad on missiles. The manned aircraft will remain the winner of wars. But the accent is now on missiles and ECM. IN THIS ISSUE World News Air Transport Light Commercial Private Flight Letters Avionics Systems Industry Internatioi Spaceflight Turbine Engines Defence Straight and Level rial of the World 24 26 30 31 32 34 34a 35 36 37 62 64 Front cover: a passenger's view of the second prototype VFW-Fokker 614, as seen from the third prototype, includes a close-up of part of one of the Rolls-Royce Snecma M45H turbofan engines. The search for low noise and good fuel economy is an important goal for the turbine- engine industries of the world, a survey of which begins on page 37
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