Thoughts on Plowden's Eve OMORROW, December 17, the Plowden Report Is Due to Be Published
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Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club Fint Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded In 1909 Thoughts on Plowden's Eve OMORROW, December 17, the Plowden report is due to be published. We look forward to reading and reviewing what we THURSDAY 16 DECEMBER 1965 T hope will be a masterly appraisal of the British aircraft industry, Number 2962 Volume 88 containing wise prescriptions for its future health. We hope, in par- ticular, that Lord Plowden will not be so superficial as to suggest that Editor-in-Chief nationalisation, or semi-nationalisation, of this or that company is the MAURICE A. SMITH DFC answer. Putting Civil Servants in boardrooms will do little or nothing • Editor to remedy the basic ailment, which is that the industry and the Govern- f J. M. RAMSDEN ment executive must render unto Parliament that which is Parliament's. So long as British aviation spends—as it must—public money, this is Assistant Editor KENNETH OWEN the principle that must stand above all others. BSc DCAe AFRAeS Everyone pretends that in democratic Britain Westminster controls ;>! Air Transport Editor Whitehall. But in the fields of defence and technology this is now a H. A. TAYLOR fiction. Vast sums of public money are committed with scarcely a by- Production Editor your-leave from the elected representatives of the people. :^-....,^. ROY CASEY Lord Shackleton, Minister of Defence for the RAF, was asked the other day in the House of Lords how many Spey engines were to be Managing Director ..; H. N. PRIAULX MBE ordered for Britain's Phantoms, and at what cost. The exchange con- cluded like this: Lord Merrivale: "My Lords, is there any basis for the comment in the Daily Express this morning to the effect that there would be 800 Spey engines ordered, In this issue costing £175,000 each, including spares, to be fitted to 300 Phantom aircraft in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy?" Lord Shackleton: "My Lords, I am sure the noble Lord does not in fact expect me to comment on that. But it was a good try." World News 1 028 Parliament, Press 1030 "Not Government Policy" SBAC President on Aerospace Policy 103 1 Questions about the numbers and cost of British military aircraft Keep Britain Flying! 1032 programmes have often been asked in Parliament, but have perhaps Air Transport 1033 never been answered so coyly. The standard Ministerial reply goes like .; Special Feature: this: "As the House knows, it is not Government policy to reveal the Air Safety 1038 numbers or cost of military aircraft orders." The Case for Medium By-pass 1050 A few weeks before the Lords exchange took place we asked the The Pen and the Air 1053 Ministry of Aviation why such information was denied Parliament. Letters 1054 There must be very good reasons for depriving Parliament of facts and ; Industry International 1056 : . Sport and Business 1057 figures so vital to its task. The Ministry of Aviation's reply to our Defence 1058 question was: Spaceflight 1060 "The Minister follows long-standing Government policy which is, with certain Straight and Level 1 064a limited exceptions, not to discuss details of Government contracts. This policy has been reviewed on a number of occasions and endorsed by Governments of both parties. It has also been accepted by Parliament, the Public Accounts Committee, and the Select Committee on Estimates. The Treasury is the department to explain the reasons behind the poJicy if you still wish to pursue the point." JUffe Transport Publications Ltd., Dorset House, Stamford Street, London, SE1; The policy has indeed been "endorsed by Governments of both telephone Waterloo 3333 (STD.01). Telegrams/Telex: Flight Iliffepres, 25137 parties." Our question was why has it? We think Parliament accepts— London. Annual subscriptions; Home W 15s. Overseas £5 5s. Canada and USA as does the US Congress—that there has to be security of weapon- •15.00 Second Class Mail privileges authorised at New York, N.Y. performance data; but does it really accept that there must also be Branch Offices: Coventry, 8-10 Corpora- security of information about costs and quantities? Congress demands tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham, 401 Lynton House, Walsall this information and US aviation has not been impaired by its publica- Road, Birmingham 22b; telephone 021 BIRchfield 4838. Manchester, 260 Deans- tion. If, as the Ministry of Aviation says, Parliament does accept the gate, Manchester 3; telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow, 123 policy, why the question to Lord Shackleton, and the many other simi- Hope Street, Glasgow C2; telephone Central 1265-6. Bristol, 11 Marsh Street, lar questions that have been rebuffed by Ministers over the years? Bristol 1; telephone Bristol 21491/2. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co We pursued the question with the Treasury, and also with the (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway NY 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. Ministry of Defence. Both were most helpful, but declined to be quoted. We believe that the question is of crucial importance, because security © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1965. Permission to reproduce illustra- that defeats the supremacy of Parliament defeats British aviation. We tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extracts hope that Lord Plowden sought, and got, a more satisfactory answer. or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. We shall see tomorrow. 1028 FLIGHT International, 16 December m WORLD E W S SBAC Show Goes European For the first time aircraft designed and built in other European countries will be permitted to be exhibited at the Society of British Aerospace Companies' flying display and exhibition in 1966. Announcing plans on December 7, SBAC spokesmen said that members of the Society would be able to nominate aircraft built in other member-countries of AICMA (Association Internationale des Constructeurs de Materiel Ae>o- spatial)—i.e., Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Nor- way, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. To qualify for admission to the SBAC show foreign aircraft must have British engines and a percentage of British-designed Roll-out of the Dornier Do3IEI V/STOL prototype, recorded in a news item below. The Rolls-Royce equipment. RB.I62 lift engines in the wing-tip pods may not be fitted for initial flying Joint aircraft projects such as the Con- corde and Jaguar, the Society added, would automatically be eligible in future years. "Consideration will also be given to requests from SBAC members for the presentation of European-designed aircraft fitted with foreign engines which embody a high percentage of British equipment." Foreign-designed equipment scheduled for manufacture in Britain will from next year also be eligible for inclusion in the exhibition, provided a licence to produce the equipment has been signed by an SBAC member company. The 1966 display and exhibition will open on Monday, September 5, and continue until Sunday, September 11; the final three days will be open to the public. statement added, "and a number of em- Ferrantt for the Phantom... The SBAC has now confirmed that the ployees will be interviewed and offered The first of the long-awaited contracts Society's exhibition and display will be situations in other divisions of the cor- for British-designed and -built systems held regularly every two years, alternat- poration." Vauxhall Motors would for the UK Phantom is announced. The ing with the Paris Salon. acquire the factory premises and offer contract, awarded by McDonnell Air- jobs to many BAC employees, and craft Corporation to Ferranti and wortfl BAC Luton to Close English Electric would also be offering £1.75 million, will cover the supply <» The Luton factory of British Aircraft employment. a miniature inertial navigator together Corporation is to be closed in July 1966. with a very advanced digital computing Announcing this on December 8 the Do31 Roll-out and weapon delivery system. If the ex- company stated: "BAC announces with The first of two Dornier Do31E pected number of Phantoms is ordered, regret that, as part of the reorganisation V/STOL transport prototypes was rolled further contracts, bringing the total value following the TSR.2 cancellation and in out at Munich-Oberpfaffenhofen on to about £9 million, will be placed tor line with the national policy to reduce November 30. The aircraft, designated this equipment, which will equip trie the size of the aircraft industry, they El, is unlikely to be fitted with its com- F-4M aircraft for the RAF. cannot continue to employ the present plement of eight Rolls-Royce RB.162 lift The heart of the system is the mertiai labour force and fully use the existing engines for initial flying, which is navigator, which began as a company facilities of the group. They have there- expected towards the end of the month; private venture at Edinburgh. Similar fore no alternative but to close the Luton instead, it will be flown conventionally equipment is being developed for w factory, a decision which has been taken on its two Bristol Siddeley Pegasus 5s. Concorde and Hawker Siddeley P.n-"- with great reluctance in view of the fine The structural test specimen and record of the factory. ." second prototype are designated E2 and ... and Cossor Transponders Possibilities of alternative employment E3 respectively, and the latter will pos- A contract for the supply of trans were being explored by the company, the sibly be the first of the two prototypes ponders for the RAF Phantoms M» to begin VTOL flight. Some 250 research been placed with Cossor Electronics flights have already been made with a Ltd (Radar Division) by the MoA. in MEA'c JET ORDER IMMINENT initial order, worth £175,000, will_ apply hovering rig, powered by four Rolls- n Air Transport, page 1033 Royce RB.108 lift engines, as part of to the first year's production; fu« * GEMINI 6 POSTPONED the Do31 research programme.