The Bloated Aircraft Industry the Aircraft Workers Protest Decided
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THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY January 23, 1965 to the Chief Minister, is also not with the Centre. What will be tried though, siderations will dictate petty favours, out significance. are small acts of defiance, which if nobody seems to be particularly pushed through, could build confi bothered. And the opposition is still* It is now rumoured that a new align dence, rally the cohorts and lead to weak enough to be treated as irrele ment is taking shape in the Andhra bigger things. vant. Congress power elite. A C Subba Reddy from Nellore and a strong man But what is all the quarrel about? All this is creating a vacuum both in his own right seems to be emerging Perhaps, Sanjeeva Reddy is all for the inside the Congress and in the South as the direct plenipotentiary of Andh- Durgapur line while Brahmananda as a whole. It is a peculiar problem ra's man in the all-India Syndicate. Reddy insists on loyalty to the Bhuba- since the vacuum seems pretty full of Against this powerful combination, neswar approach? Even to pose the noises, scramblings, posturings and the Brahmananda Reddy is forming an axis conflict in this context causes Homeric like. Moreover, if nature is said to with APCC President Thimma Reddy mifth. To their credit it must be abhore vacuum the Congress politi and Finance Minister Chenna Reddy. said that the protagonists do not even cians seem to thrive within one. The These positions have not crystallised take the trouble to put on any ideo danger is that the people may well as yet and each is rather warily feel logical togas. Their quarrel is strictly begin to despair and abhore politics ing out the other. They are all cons pragmatic — over the spoils of office and politicians of all kinds. This cious that any open attack on San- and on the question of personality would prepare the ground for someone jeeva Reddy's citadels would be inop assertion. If in the process there is or some collective or some alignment portune at the moment. Thus, for an amount of political instability and of collectives to think in terms of example, there was no overt opposi if the bureaucrat is simultaneously partyless politics, with the army and tion to his son-in-law being the official harassed and pleased, since many the civilians playing a far more im Congress candidate to till the Assemb minor decisions will now be his alone portant role than parliamentary demo ly vacancy created by his elevation to while simultaneously factional con- cracy now allows them. From the London End The Bloated Aircraft Industry THE aircraft workers protest decided. This company is also en the Comet, the Lightning, and the march to London (precipitated gaged in the Concord project and, in Seavixen; the Tyne used in the French by rumours of large-scale cuts in the the military held, it produces the Breguet Atlantic, the German Trans- industry) and Harold Wilson's Che Lightning, the Jet Provost and the all CI60 and the Short Belfast plane; quers dinner invitation to representa following missiles: Thunderbird, Blood the Spey used in the Trident, the tives of Britain's aircraft industry, hound, Vigilant, ET316 and Swinghre. One Eleven and the Fokker Friend bring into prominence once more the It employs a total of 40,000 workers. ship; the military Dart used in the future of this large and expensive in The next large group is the Hawker HS 748; the Medway used in HS 681; dustry which currently employs some Siddeley Aviation Group employing and the military Spey used in Buc 250,000 people. 39,000 workers. It is made up of Haw caneer, McDonnell Phantom, and a No final decision on this important ker Blackburn, Avro Whitworth and number of other engines. subject can be taken, however, before De Havilland. It produces the HS748, The other large engine group, the the Plowden Committee (which has the HS681, the Argosy, the Trident Bristol Siddeley engine group produces been set up to enquire into this in and the Comet, and, in the military the Olympus used in the Concord and dustry) publishes its report. In the sphere, the HS125, the Sea Vixen, also in TSR2 and the Vulcan Bomber; meantime, it is worth taking a look the Buccaneer, the HS Kestrel, the HS the Viper used in the Indian Hindu at the present shape of the industry. PI154 and the rockets, Firestreak. stan fighter; the Jet Provost, HS 125 Redtop, Bluestreak, Sea Dart, Seas lug It has been obvious for quite a long and a number of engines used in Heli and AS 37. time that Britain's aircraft industry is copters. too large for Britain's needs. Six years Handley Page still remains an in While no definite decisions have yet ago the Conservatives attempted a dependent organisation. It produces, been made by the Government, there half-hearted plan to reduce the size of among others, the Dart Herald aero is no doubt at all that it is firmly re the industry, and under Mr Duncan plane. Short Brothers and Harland solved to reduce the size of the British Sandys, the large number of private of Belfast produce the Turbo Skyvan aircraft industry by 1970 to approxi companies in the aircraft industry and the Belfast. mately 11 times the size of the French were merged into a few large groups. The two main aeroengine companies aircraft industry which employs bet At present, the British aircraft in are the Rolls-Royce Aero Engine ween 100,000 and 150,000 men. The dustry consists of a few aircraft build Division, employing 34,500 workers object of Wilson's dinner was to can ing concerns and two aero-engine and producing the Dart, used in Con- vass the views of the industry about manufacturers. vair 240, HS 748, HS Argosy, Hand- the most economic set-up for itself. The British Aircraft Cdrporation ley Page Herald, the Japanese aircraft But plans of this sort must naturally was formed, out of the merger of NAMC YS 11, the Dutch Fokker be long-term. It begins to appear as Bristol, Vickers Armstrong and Eng Friendship, and the U S Grumman if the main brunt of rationalisation lish Electric. They produce the YC-1.0, Gulf stream. It also produces the Con will fall on the British Aircraft Cor the BAC One Eleven and the contro way engine used in the VC-10, the poration, which is involved both in versial TSR2 whose future is still un- Avon engine used in the Caravelle, the Concord and the TSR2. If both 115 January 23, 1965 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY the Concord and the TSR2 are cancel the war thousands of millions of port discusses some of the plans which led, BAC will be in real trouble, and pounds have been sunk into it; ab will help the U S industry to survive. it would then be left entirely depend andoned aviation projects have cost One approach is diversification, with ent on the declining production of the U K more than £300 m since 1951, aeroframe makers diversifying into the VC-10s and the BAC One Eleven According to a recent estimate made missiles for Instance. Another solution and some missile work. The main by the Economist, it costs an average is to apply the industry's research to criticism of the TSR2 is not only that of £2,000 per man to maintain the air other areas such as urban mass trans it is too expensive (it is likely to cost craft industry, or something rather portation and the exploitation of ocean about £3m a piece against the pre more than £500m a year at its present resources. This, however, is a very vious limit of £2.5m), but that it is size or £5,000m in the decade that it long-term project. The report also too sophisticated for the defence re takes to design and deliver a new comments on the failure to diversify quirements of the U K. Cuts on this aircraft. The current cost of develop into commercial markets. American plane would make a major contribu ing new engines alone ranges from companies seem unable to exploit their tion towards the estimated £950m £20m to £100m depending on their experience outside the industry, the saving on defence expenditure over the complexity. best American companies have, how next 10 years. It is likely that a com ever, transformed their aeroframe Low Productivity promise on this subject will be reach makers into "centres of invention, re ed, as well as a compromise on Haw Compared with the aircraft industry search, development and custom pro ker Siddeley's planes. Here, the very in other countries, productivity in the duction". British industry is not high. The expensive P1154 supersonic VTOL pro Better Use of Skills ject might be abandoned, and the Americans are said to obtain three Much on these lines could also be earlier vertical take-off plane, the times the production per man that done for the British aircraft industry. P1127, developed. The last moment the British do, and they use a larger Some of the suggestions that are be invitation to Short Brothers and liar- proportion of unskilled workers. It is ing mooted are that the Government land of Belfast probably implies a re interesting to note that 10 per cent could speed the building of a new prieve for the company's big Belfast of British qualified manpower works in airbus for which there is an immedi Freighter which is due for completion the aircraft industry.