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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0533.PDF
PLIGHT international, 28 February 1981 Plessey's £600 milli UNLESS the electronics industry has Government support, political as well financial, "you won't win certain contracts however good your product may be," says Plessey Electronic Sys tems deputy chairman and managing director Frank Chorley. It is for this reason that Iraq's contract for a major turnkey defence-electronics in dustry has gone to France (see Flight for September 6, 1980, page 1025), "whose leading salesman, quite rightly, is President Giscard d'Estaing." The Iraqi contract required indemni ties which, says Charley, "no respon sible business management could take on behalf of shareholders, and which could totally destroy a company." Plessey feels that in some instances the British electronics industry does not even get the consideration which it did in the Iraqi case, and the com pany does not detect the existence of any mechanism for such support. Con tracts can be lost without regard, to national considerations, Chorley feels, including "a highly efficient electronics industry with an export record which speaks for itself." Plessey Electronics Systems' current orderbook stands at £600 million, half for export, compared with £400 mil lion a year ago. The £600 million ex cludes the £30 million Ukadge con tract currently being negotiated with the Ministry of Defence, including Plessey's new colour display for air- defence radars "with considerable world potential." Chorley does not agree with Racal- Decca chairman Ernest Harrison on Donald DONALD DOUGLAS (whose death we reported in Flight for February 14) was one of aviation's best-known pioneers. The company he started on less than $1,000 in 1921 eventually produced almost 11,000 DC-3/C-47s alone, winning acclaim for setting un precedented standards of safety and comfort. Born in 1892 in New York, Douglas received his aeronautical engineering degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1914, remaining there for a year as an assistant in structor in aeronautical engineering. > He became consultant and later chief engineer to Glenn Martin's company and designed the first Martin bomber in 1917, before leaving in 1920 for the warmth and fresh prospects of Cali fornia. Investing his savings in desk space at the rear of a downtown barber's shop in Los Angeles, Douglas hunted for capital to go> into business. He met David Davis, formed the Davis- Douglas company and (with six asso ciates from Martin) designed the Cloudstar, which flew in 1921. This aircraft was the first to airlift a load i orderbook the need for UK electronics ration alisation (see Flight for February 14). "We've got it about right, I think. We need national competition and it's no bad thing to scrap it out. It makes us all more efficient. Defence is an in dustry which the UK is good at, and we have come through the recession well." The effect of the defence- spending moratorium has, he says, been minimal. Other Plessey points: Nato's re quirement is for 70 radars, half of them S-band. Plessey's chances of success with its AR320 radar bid to the Ministry of Defence is la Charley's view good, the Norwegian order hav ing been lost (to Hughes) because of UK inflation provisions . . "We are meeting new electronic counter- countermeasures (ECCM) require ments with highly original propo sals . . . The £150 million value of Ptarmigan battlefield communications system could be doubled by export contracts . . . The Wavell tactical data command and control system for the British Army has a world lead and could be a UK-US two-way street . . . Nato must have a common identifica tion friend or foe (IFF) system." You have been warned ! VOLUMATIC cash-carrying cases which were the subject of a special offer advertised in Flight for January 17, page 158, are not suitable for car riage aboard aircraft, whether or not carried by hand. Douglas equal to its own weight. The Davis-Douglas company was succeeded in 1921 by the Douglas company, building the extremely tough DT-2 torpedo bomber and the World Cruiser, which flew round the world (in six months), the first air craft to do so. In 1933, Douglas bid successfully for a new passenger aircraft needed by Transcontinental and Western Air lines. The resulting DC-1 set 19 world records for speed and payload-range, but it was the DC-2 which established Douglas's line of airliners. The larger, more comfortable DC-3 became a legend, setting standards which earned Donald Douglas both the Collier Trophy and the Daniel Gug genheim Medal in 1936 "for out standing contributions to the design and construction of military and transport airliners." Other awards included the Certifi cate of Merit in 1948 and the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in 1963. Douglas remained honorary chairman of McDonnell Douglas (formed by the merger of Douglas Aircraft with McDonnell in 1967) until his death. 579 Fly to the Paris Show with "Flight" FIRST details of the Flight day trip to the Paris Air Show are announced on page 593. Flight is by Air Europe Boeing 737 from London-Gatwiek Air port to Paris-Charles de Gaulle. The £79 cost includes return fare, transfer to and from the slaow, exhibition ticket and airport taxes. Michael Alpert is appointed Comsat- General Telesystems president, with vice-presidents Donald Owen (pro- gramiaes and services) and William Reed (finance and administration). George Frill is the new assistant to American Aircraft Industries Associa tion president Karl Harr. First head of the Aviation Sales oper ation in Seattle is Paul TissM. The new office will serve US West Coast and Far East airline customers. NEW Cooper Airmotive general- aviation division executive v-p and general manager is John Wallace. NAMED Sperry Flight Systems presi dent is Joseph Campanella. Frank McAbee is named senior v-p engineering at Pratt & Whitney government products division. H. A. Kunkeler has been appointed Fokker F.27 programme manager, succeeded by Th. C. Allis as Ypen- burg plant manager. From March 1, M. van der Veen will manage the Schiphol production unit in succes sion to A. Dijk who takes over Fok ker's information systems and auto mation department a month later. Mr S. Ledeboer is to become manage ment systems adviser. W. H. de Leeuw succeeds Prof Bloemendal as space director following the latter's retirement. Ferranti Scottish group announces the creation of a number of senior management posts: J. Drury be comes avionics and defence mana ger, P. E. Atterton navigation sys tems department manager and F. R. E. Durie radar systems depart ment manager. In the electro-optics and industrial and communications- systems departments R. J. Starling and J. P. Wimbush are appointed managers, respectively. H. J. Arnott takes responsibility for the Dalkeith site, while A. R. M. Murray "under takes certain special duties in sup porting future growth in promising business areas."
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