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Aviation History
1980
1980 - 0016.PDF
14 Letters FLIGHT International, 5 January 1980 Flight engineer's value SIR—In Flight for December 1 David Learmount goes to great lengths to explain ADI failures and detection. He also says that it was a difficult exercise for the co-pilot to read the standby horizon. At no time does he mention the person sitting in the very best position to monitor the three instruments—the flight engin eer. In my experience the flight engin eer will call an error between the instruments of less than that re quired to light the comparators. I appreciate that there may still be some airlines who regard their flight engineers as flying spanners. But the fully integrated crew has a qualified man in the middle doing just what the 747 warning system doesn't seem to do every time. I must presume that the exercise in the British Airways 747 system was carried out with the flight engin eer being told to keep out for the benefit of your reporter. In which case he should have said so. If your magazine is to print authoritative articles of this nature it is a good idea to show the whole operation, not part of it. Hamlins Villa 150 Mill Road Hailsham Sussex B. DUNLOP F-16: to name .. SIR—Further to the question of naming the General Dynamics F-16, Gary Swann (Flight, October 6) appears to be objecting to your own suggestion of Mustang (Flight, Sep tember 1) for the wrong reason. The use of the same name for any succes sor to the P-51 Mustang could only legitimately apply to a machine pro duced by the same manufacturer. In this case Bockwell, nee North American. Whilst agreeing an original name would be preferable, I note that three of those which Gary Swann suggests have been used before, indeed the Havoc and Scorpion were highly suc cessful warplanes. But time-honoured names have an allure of their own, and the naming of the Mooney Mus tang, Bushby Mustang 2 and Long Midget Mustang was no mere coincidence. It is a fact that the recent trend has been to re-use the names of famous aircraft which have gone before. The renown of the P-47 Thunderbolt did not deter Fairchild Bepublic from bestowing the name on their A-10. I, therefore, submit there can be no more appropriate name for the F-16 than that of the well-known war-time Vultee close support type—an obvious choice, which also benefits admirably the aircraft's combat role—Vengeance. 27 Classic Mansions ALAN GEFFEN Tudor Grove London E9 ... or not to name SIR—I would like to take part in the F-16 name game. After having read a lot of suggestions, ranging from Assassin to Mustang II, I still do not know why you are looking for a name at all. Just think of all those aircraft which made history without having glamorous names—the Me 109, He 1.11, Yak-9, LaGG-7 or FW 190. I think that an aircraft which has been put into production for five air forces should not be given an additional name. Everybody knows it as the F-16. INGO WARNECKE Forster-Langheld-Str. 10 3300 Braunschweig West Germany CRANFELD GOES TO ^ EUROPE GRENOBLE FRANCE 7th BUSINESS & LIGHT AVIATIOI JUNE 26-28,1980
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