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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 1134.PDF
STRAIGHTraLEVEL Moscow World Service has reported that the Buran 2 shuttle will be launched during April, and that "journalists who have undergone training will be included in the crew". The report was broadcast on 1 April. The Buran programme has been cancelled. Is the April fool the latest Western tradition to undergo Konversyia? • Capt Speaking: "Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm pleased to report the snow has stopped falling in St Louis presently." INCOMPLETE TRANSMISSION DEPT Yes, well, umm... The Derwent-with-a-prop Trent (S&L 13-19 April) wasn't the only Trent before the Trent, as Nephew Peter Kirk of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust reminds us. There was, of course, the 1967 Trent, which was the first R-R three-shaft engine, which was destined for the equally short-lived Fairchild Hiller 228. That engine was therefore a true grand-daddy of the new Trent. Confusing, isn't it? It's a bit like the English calling all their Kings Edward, or Cessna calling all its jets Citation... • Q: How big is a Blanc cheque? A: Fr700 per taxpayer • Cynthia Strap-in: "Please now ensure that your table is stowed, your seat back is upright, and your trousers securely fas tened...OH!!" • The best compromise for the European Future Large Aircraft is, appar ently, a turboprop. The most obvious anagram of "best FLA" is, of course, Aaah, Hatfield. Yes, it's true. Hatfield airfield, from whose hallowed soil de Havilland's beautiful Mosquito, Vampire, Comet and many others first flew, is no more. It's the end of another chap ter in a sorry tale of destruction of not only Britain's aviation heritage (at least we have photo graphic records and memories of that) but of its aviation future (how many business jets will not come to London, or students not make their first flights, as a result of the closing of Hatfield, Leavesden, West Mailing and many more, we will never know). The only nice thing about the closure was that some people were able to recognise it prop erly: a last fly-in and ser vice of remembrance and thanksgiving were held there on 4 April. The ser vice was held in the old Comet fuselage shop, with Comet racer G- ACSS in attendance. (Alas, the closure of Hatfield marks the end — at least for now— of the Comet's second flying career. The Shuttleworth Trust, which owns it, no longer has access to a convenient hard runway to fly it from, so it's going back to Old Warden to be a static/taxying-only exhibit — shame.) On Hatfield's last day as an airfield with a car park instead of a car-park with a disused airfield (8 April), the de Havilland flag was lowered for the last time by Ann de Havilland, grand-daugh ter of Sir Geoffrey. She then flew as the last pas senger of all, off the grass runway, in a Tiger Moth flown by Dick Bishop, son of Mosquito and Comet chief designer R E. They were preceded by a Chipmunk — that type thus gaining the distinc tion to be the first and last to use Hatfield's hard runway. So, the Neddies have deprived the world of another first-class air field, and exchanged a fine technical heritage for a supermarket. It seems too late to save this one: is it too much to hope that Their Airships might recognise that without airfields, they haven't got anything to regulate or tax, and that if only for their own self-preserva tion they might stop any body committing this sort of crime ever again? • At least the Philistines can't concrete over the de Havilland name or spirit. The flag goes down - Ann de Havilland and the last to aircraft to fly from Hatfield The DH Aeronautical Technical School Association is even plan ning to have its next re union at Hatfield, in the Sports & Social Club on 18 June. Anybody who started an apprenticeship there before they decided to change the name in 1963 is welcome — con tact Bruce Bosher on +44 (442) 832 318. DH.88 Comet and DH.98 Mosquito • If you want a perma nent souvenir of Hatfield, try Philip Birtles' 1993 history of the site*, which has been reprinted and is available from the trust which is responsible for the Mosquito Museum at nearby Salisbury Hall. It was written before the Barbarians made their final attack, so lacks a true final chapter, but otherwise is a compre hensive history of a site which, uniquely, was the home of aircraft, engines, propellers, missiles and space rockets. * Hatfield Aerodrome, a history, by Philip Birtles, The De Havilland Aircraft Museum Trust Ltd, P O Box 107, Salisbury Hall, London Colney, Herts AL2 1BU; phone +44 (727) 822051. BELFAST - and some body, somewhere out there must still have the drawings... • Silly me... A Jabiru (S&L, 6-12 April) would, of course, be some sort of land-based marsupial, wouldn't it, so the aero plane must be a Jabilu, as is its Bundaberg-built engine. • Hoover, the domestic applicances maker, AOPA Opposes Aviation Eductation Cutbacks Atlantic Flyer, April 1994 offered to give two air tickets worth £400 to any UK buyer who spent more than £100 on one of its products. The offer was too good to resist, and Hoover ended up having to buy 220,000 tickets at a cost of £48 million. That's £218 a ticket. People weep for Hoover - but what about the air travel indus try, which has lost £182 on the face value of each of those tickets, or over £40 million? Has some body been sucked in by a Hoover, so to speak? 64 FLIGHT INTERNA TIONAL 27 April - 3 May 1994
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