edited by Kenneth Owen ICBH Witness Seminar Programme Concorde ICBH Witness Seminar Programme Programme Director: Dr Michael D. Kandiah © Institute of Contemporary British History, 2002 All rights reserved. This material is made available for use for personal research and study. We give per- mission for the entire files to be downloaded to your computer for such personal use only. For reproduction or further distribution of all or part of the file (except as constitutes fair dealing), permission must be sought from ICBH. Published by Institute of Contemporary British History Institute of Historical Research School of Advanced Study University of London Malet St London WC1E 7HU ISBN: 0 9523210 7 6 Concorde Held 19 November 1998 at the Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London Chaired by Peter Jay, W.D. Lowe, Sir Neil Cussons Paper by Kenneth Owen Seminars edited by Kenneth Owen ICBH gratefully acknowledges the support given to this event by Aérospatiale Rolls Royce Royal Academy of Engineering Department of Trade and Industry Institute of Contemporary British History Contents Contributors 9 Citation Guidance 13 Concorde Revisited Kenneth Owen 15 Chronology Kenneth Owen 26 Concorde Seminar Session I: Policy 29 edited by Kenneth Owen Concorde Seminar Session II: Technology 53 edited by Kenneth Owen Concorde Seminar Session III: Flight Operations 75 edited by Kenneth Owen Afterword: After Gonesse Kenneth Owen 97 Commentaries Sir Arnold Hall 101 M.J. Mitchell 102 Documents Selected by Kenneth Owen 105 Contributors Editor and paper-giver: KENNETH OWEN Research Fellow, Science Museum, London Session I Policy Chair: PETER JAY Witnesses: SIR PETER BALDWIN Cabinet Secretariat, 1962-64. CHRISTOPHER BENJAMIN Ministry of Aviation (MOA, incl. Private Secretary to Ministers Julian Amery and Roy Jenkins) and Concorde project team, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). KEN BINNING DTI Director-General, Concorde 1973-76. PETER CHAMPION BAC. HANDEL DAVIE Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), MOA and Ministry of Technology (MinTech); technical director, British Aircraft Cor- poration (BAC). MRS EILEEN DENZA Legal counsellor, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. ETIENNE FAGE French Air Ministry. NICK GARDNER Concorde project team, MOA. CAPTAIN JOHN Concorde captain, British Airways HUTCHINSON LORD JENKINS OF Minister of Aviation, 1964-65. HILLHEAD SIR PHILIP JONES DTI Director General, Concorde 1971-73. ERIC LEWIS National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE) and MOA. CAPTAIN W. D. LOWE Concorde captain and manager, British Airways. JOHN McENERY Department of Industry (DOI) Under Secretary, Concorde 1977-81. M. C. NEALE NGTE and Ministry of Defence (MOD). HENRI PERRIER Aérospatiale. BRIAN TRUBSHAW Director of flight test, BAC/British Aerospace; UK director, Concorde flight-test programme. 10 Concorde Session II: Technology Chair: CAPTAIN W.D. LOWE Concorde captain and manager, British Airways Witnesses: FRANK ARMSTRONG NGTE, RAE and MOD. PETER P. BAKER Concorde test pilot, BAC/British Aerospace; Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) G. H. S. BARTON Group supervisor, Concorde maintenance, BAC. CHRISTOPHER BENJAMIN Ministry of Aviation (MOA, incl. Private Secretary to Ministers Julian Amery and Roy Jenkins) and Concorde project team, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). PETER CHAMPION BAC. DUDLEY COLLARD Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale. GORDON DAVIDSON Concorde director, British Airways. PROFESSOR J.E. Chairman, Concorde Noise Panel, 1965-75. FFOWCS WILLLIAMS CAPTAIN JOHN Concorde captain, British Airways HUTCHINSON SIMON AUBREY JONES Son of the Rt. Hon. Aubrey Jones, Minister of Supply, 1957-59. SIR PHILIP JONES DTI Director General, Concorde 1971-73. GORDON LEWIS Bristol Siddeley Engines/Rolls-Royce (technical director). JOHN McENERY Department of Industry (DOI) Under-Secretary, Concorde 1977-81. M. C. NEALE NGTE and Ministry of Defence (MOD) HENRI PERRIER Aérospatiale. JEAN RECH Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale. GUY T. SMITH Bristol Siddeley Engines/Rolls-Royce (marketing director, Bris- tol engine division) S. J. SWADLING BAC/British Aerospace (technical director). BRIAN TRUBSHAW Director of flight test, BAC/British Aerospace; UK director, Concorde flight-test programme. © Institute of Contemporary British History, 2002. Not to be reproduced without permission. Concorde 11 Session III: Flight Operations Chair: SIR NEIL CUSSONS Director of the Science Museum, London Witnesses: PETER P. BAKER Concorde test pilot, BAC/British Aerospace; Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). RICHARD BECKETT Chief engineer, Olympus engine, Rolls-Royce. KEN BINNING DTI Director-General, Concorde 1973-76. GORDON DAVIDSON Concorde director, British Airways. RT. HON. EDMUND DELL Labour politician. Chairman, Public Accounts Committee 1973- 74 and Secretary of State for Trade, 1976-78. MRS EILEEN DENZA Legal counsellor, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. DEREK JOHN Concorde technical sales, Bristol Siddeley Engines 1962-66; marketing director, BAC 1970-76. JOHN McENERY Department of Industry (DOI) Under Secretary, Concorde 1977-81. GORDON LEWIS Bristol Siddeley Engines/Rolls-Royce (technical director). HENRI PERRIER Aérospatiale. JEAN RECH Sud Aviation/Aérospatiale. GUY T. SMITH Bristol Siddeley Engines/Rolls-Royce (marketing director, Bris- tol engine division). CAPTAIN BRIAN WALPOLE Concorde captain and manager, British Airways. From the floor: HAROLD CAPLAN Lawyer. DAVID EDGERTON Professor of the History of Science, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. PATRICK KEATLEY Journalist. SIMON YOUNG. © Institute of Contemporary British History, 2002. Not to be reproduced without permission. 12 Concorde © Institute of Contemporary British History, 2002. Not to be reproduced without permission. Citation Guidance References to this and other witness seminars should take the following form: Witness name, in ‘Witness Seminar Title’, seminar held [date of seminar], (In- stitute of Contemporary British History, [date of publication], [full internet ad- dress of seminar]), page number of reference [use the number given in the header at the top of the page referenced]. For example, referring to Ken Binning’s comments on the July 1974 discussions between the French and British governments: Ken Binning, in ‘Concorde’, seminar held 19 November 1998 (Institute of Con- temporary British History, 2002, http://www.icbh.ac.uk/witness/concorde/), p.45. For Harvard reference style, use (ICBH Witness Seminar, date of publication) in the text, and the following style in the bibliography: ‘Witness Seminar Title’, held [date of seminar], Institute of Contemporary Brit- ish History, [date of publication], [full internet address of seminar]. For fuller guidance on the citation of all types of electronic sources, please refer to the H-Net Guide at: http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/about/citation/general.html 14 Concorde © Institute of Contemporary British History, 2002. Not to be reproduced without permission. Concorde revisited: a seminar aide-memoire Kenneth Owen Research Fellow, Science Museum, London Origins, 1959-62 The Committee strongly recommends that a long-range supersonic transport carrying about 150 passengers should be built… The stage length required should be 3450 statute miles which will permit non-stop transat- lantic operation. The cruising speed should be chosen to avoid any severe kinetic heating difficulties but should be not less than 1200 mph (M=1.8)… This was the view of the Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee (STAC) in March 1959, which considered that the United Kingdom could and should build a supersonic transport (SST) aircraft; a second, shorter-range design, to cruise at Mach 1.2, also was recommended but was not pursued. The Committee represented all the UK aircraft and aero-engine firms together with other inter- ested bodies, and its work was led by the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), Farnborough. The Committee’s chairman was Morien Morgan, a deputy director of the RAE. The STAC report was the starting point for Britain’s civil supersonic endeavours, leading inexorably to the 1962 Anglo- French Agreement to develop, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, the Concorde.1 Following the STAC report, the Cabinet agreed in September 1959 to place initial SST design study contracts with Bristol and Hawker Siddeley. In a departmental reshuffle following the re- election of the Conservatives in October 1959, the Ministry of Supply and the aviation part of the Ministry of Transport were merged to form a new Ministry of Aviation, with Duncan Sandys as Minister.2 Officials began to explore the possibilities of international collaboration with their French opposite numbers, while the two firms had been instructed to make similar soundings both in France and in the United States.3 In July 1960 the Cabinet agreed to authorise continued SST design work. Significantly, the stated objective was ‘to create a negotiating position from which the United Kingdom should attempt to secure United States collaboration in a joint project’.4 The Ministry of Aviation pinned great hopes on an Anglo-American policy review meeting on civil aviation co-operation, held in September 1960 in London. But on SST collaboration this meeting proved inconclusive, in large part due to the conflicting preferences for a Mach 2, light-alloy aircraft (Britain) and an all-steel machine of Mach 3 or thereabouts (USA).5 Peter Thorneycroft, who had succeeded Sandys as Minister of Aviation6, continued to press the US Federal Aviation Agency for a joint Anglo-Amer- ican programme, but all his approaches were stonewalled,