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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 0289.PDF
INTERNATIONAL Week ending 8 February, 1986 Number 3997, Volume 129 ISSN 0015-3710 IN THIS ISSUE World News Air Transport Defence General Aviation Spaceflight 2 6 11 16 20 EDITORIAL STRENGTH IN ADVERSITY 24 The International Federation of Airworthiness raised some leading questions about airliner structures at its annual conference. Harry Hopkins reports. LANSAV—A SMALL FORTUNE 30 Mike Gaines reveals the secrets behind the success of MBB's southern-Africa helicopter distributor. WORLD MISSILE FORCES 34 The missile armouries of the world's fighting forces are described by Doug Richardson. Propulsion 50 Simulation 51 Industry 52 Letters 53 Straight and Level 55 Published by Transport Press; a division of Business Press International ".Ltd, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, England. World's first and only complete aeronautical weekly © Copyright Business Press International Ltd. 19B6 Founded 1909 -^Second-class postage paid at New York, NY, and additional entries. Editor David Mason Associate Editor Peter Middleton Assistant Editor Tom Hamill ^Air Transport Editor David Learrnount Air Transport editorial Chris Birkett Defence Editor Mike Gaines Defence editorial Simon Beavis, Karen Walker Technical Editor Graham Warwick, BSc Technical editorial Julian Moxon BSc General Aviation Editor Robin Blech General Aviation editorial Ian Goold Photographer Janice Lowe Production Editor Philip Jarrett Sub-editor Graham Cowel! Art Editor Colin Paine Layout Rita Molineux Technical Artists Ira Epton, Tim Hall, John Marsden Paris correspondent Gilbert Sedbon 825 5261 US West Coast correspondent Norman Lynn (213) 377 8485 Publishing Director James Weymouth Editor-in-Chief J M Ramsden Group Advertisement Manager Trevor Barratt Assistant Advertisement Manager Carol Eaton Senior Advertisement Sales Executive Robert Hancock Advertisement Sales Executive Mike Spray ,, Advertisement Production Howard Mason Advertisement Sales—France Pierre Mussard, 18,20 Place de la Made leine, Parts 75008, France. Telephone: Paris 2655014- Telex: 215334F BISPRSF, Advertisement Sales—USA (East Coast) Clive Richardson, Classified *. Advertisement Sales—USA. Business Press International Ltd, 205 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 Telephone: (212) 868 2060. Telex: 238327 Advertisement Sales—USA (Mid-West) & Canada Gene Glendinning, Business Press International (USA), Cahners Piaza, 135 East Touhy Avenue, PO Box 5080, Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 Advertisement Sales—USA (West Coast) John Tidy, Business Press International (USA), 4300 Campus Drive, Suite 204, Newport Beach, CA 92660. Telephone: (714) 756 1057. Telex: 238327 Subscriptions Manager A. Walden Telephone: England (0444) 459188 (UK and overseas subscription rates and agents can be found in this issue) Telephone: 01-661 3315 (Display Advertisement Sales) 01-661 3805 Classified Supervisor) 01-661 3267 (Advertisement Production) 01-661 3321 (Editorial) Telegram/Telex B92084 BISPRS G Access code: (TRP) Facsimile (Group 111/11) on request. Telephone: 01-661 3321 lAJi£l Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Front cover: The British Aerospace Dynamics Sea Eagles carried by this Buccaneer S.2 epito mise the latest generation of air-launched anti- shipping missiles. Our directory of missile forces begins on page 34. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 8 February 1986 A balanced view The image that will epitomise this decade, perhaps this century, could ultimately be the picture of a bright blue sky with, impressed upon it, the vast white ball of smoke and fire that marked the end of seven men and women and their Shuttle Orbiter Challenger, while two rocket boosters traced meandering aimless fingers of smoke into the distance. Other images from this age of remarkable images take their turns to fill the pages of the mind, and it is salutary that so many of them are concerned with aviation and war—the barren battlefields of the First World War, the burning, falling Hindenburg, the mushroom cloud over Hiroshima, Neil Armstrong's step on to the powdery grey surface of the Moon, the wispy clouds over this multicoloured planet seen from space. But none of them can exceed in emotional impact the picture of the fireball off Florida in which so much was lost—unless, perhaps, it was its mirror image, that group of family and friends who watched the launch with smiling pride, only to have their pride turned to helpless uncom prehending numbness. Having death, bereavement, violence, vulnerability, powerlessness, and grief exposed to instant worldwide scrutiny is concomitant with the nature of the glass case in which we live. The instant image involves us all, at the instant the event happens. The simple weight of that emotional involvement may displace the proper balance of our view of this disaster. To bring that view back into balance requires three determined steps. Firstly it must be remembered that many, many people have died extending the frontiers of our aviation knowledge. There will be more. Secondly, the manned space programme is inherently risky. Nasa, by its very success, has caused us to take our eyes off that risk, and look at success alone. Test pilots and professional astronauts live with that risk. Teachers do not. So it is especially poignant that this disaster should have afflicted the Shuttle carrying the first civilian space traveller, who formed a link to America's children, and thereby to the next generation of astronauts. Thirdly, we should recall that spaceflight has not been all disaster. In this same week the US space programme achieved a memorable and laudable success, almost unnoticed in the glare of this event, in sending back pictures and knowledge of the planet Uranus and its moons. Whether the manned space programme continues, and at what rate, and in what vehicles; and what parts of it should be diverted into a revived unmanned programme; and what levels of safety are desired before non-professionals ride in space again, are questions to be addressed and debated in the coming months. That there should be a manned space programme should not be allowed to come into doubt. In the long run, it will be the best memorial possible to the seven who died on Tuesday last, and to the three who died in 1967, and to the several unnamed men and women who have died in ground accidents, and to the casualties in other countries' programmes. It is surely the memorial they would have wished.
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