THE CHINA MAIL, .. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1957.
THE SHOCK-PROOFING DEVICE
Page
ASSEMBLY HALL IN BRISTOL... BEGINNING OF THE STORY
EVERY PLANE YOU SEE HERE WILL COST MORE THAN £1,000,000
BRITANNIA AND COMET: IS IT
the test tanks, at Farn- borough.
Not until late next year will its descendant, the Comet IV, be delivered to B.O.A.C. for passenger ser- vice.
Tragic in a less human way 3 the fate of tho Vickers 1000 Transatlantic jet airliner.
FOOLISH TO BE FIRST?
RASH wagons, fire engines, and am- bulances stood by. The huge, sleek airliner swept over the trans- parent green sea and
over
Miami.
the
beaches
by TOM POCOCK
No less than. £2,300,000 had been spent on the airplane which its de- signers be-
lieved, could have given B.O.A.C yet another lend over American rivals. tain und America, we have ning over 200ft. It was to Then the Government losl sometimes seemed at least a have been queen of the At- interest. There was talk decade in the lead.
lantic air routes with 100 of technical shortcomings And yet the first. jet air-passengers in its spacious which never were proved. One Brabazon flew But the project was drop- of liners to enter Atlantic ser- saloons.
vice will be American. We and then it was scrapped. ped. B.O.A.C. will be flying have, as the eynie said. Altogether it cost more than American, snatched defeat from the £12,000,000. jaws of victory.
Two of her four engines were stopped, but she came in
There were the Princess
Did we aim too high? Per- flying-boats. Ten-engined haps, like Icarus, we flew monsters, designed to carry
VISCOUNT
The story has not always
the airfield peri- over meter and made a faultless landing.
teo near the sun and melted 220 second-class passengers been of failure, Bright is But this was
Perhaps we or 130 no huppy our wings,
first-class passen the story of the Vickers nt 358 miles an Viscount. This is unchal- return. The faces of the should have been content gers
second-best ambi- hour. crew and passengers were with
tions. grim as they stepped out.
For the engines thut had failed belonged to the new pride of Britain's air fleet, the challenger for world championship, the Whisper- ing Giant, the Bristol Brit-
supremacy.
REMEMBER?
Recull
MARKFIELD
NO STATEMENT
“WE CARRY ON"
DOWN AT
THE FACTORY:
By RONALD WALKER
Bristol.
THE MEN on the assembly line at 33ristal still have faith in the Britannia.
Sald one. Atter Wallace Chapman: "We're not depressed. We believe the Britannia is a winner, and we have no doubts that the engine troubles are being cured.”
Bristol officialA tearned from America that the trouble that Нач grounded the show-picer Brianna 6 Marol is not caused by feing,
It is a new fault in the more powerful engines which are filted to this plane.
The fault is being corrected in production engines. ... but nobody expfalued why a Britannia went to America with Angites which were not modified,
Brilol chiefs mét for three hours the other day. Managing director. Peter Maselleld said no statement was to be made.
Bristols are still sore with ILO.A.C.'s criticisms of the Beitounia. 11 was, they say, bad business...for an airline to decry liz own equipment.
rich rewards.
lenged champion in its rivals will be reaping the Three of these lovely class. aerial galleons were built. Already 374 · VisJunts Their jet airliners lack but, when they were ready, have been sold. Already, the fair and the imagina- there were no suitable en- the bigger and more power- tion of ours. But they are
them and ful Vanguard, which is gines to power
to the planes, slowly and con- they have been left to rot. follow in three years, kas ventionally developed from airliners, £9,000,000. This project cost about the looks of a winner, and piston engined
40 have been sold in ad- which will now rule the Among the other failures vance.
Atlantic air routes. and they range from In this erratic. story of They have learned from four-engined airliners to success and failure, the our trials and errors. helicopters — one stands mishap to, the Britannia Some might say that it out starkly in its own simple may have effect out of all is the story of the tortoise tragedy.
proportion to its technical and the hare.
But the quick, imagina importance.
The hopes we once had tive British aviation indus of the Comet are now with try hus brilliance and This is the Comet, The the Britannia. And now, courage. beautiful, sensational Comel. while being displayed to an It can
The Comet that for admiring
post-war years.
Cast back to the proud the great projects that were tannia.
to put Britain ahead of the The failure of half the world in the air. These engines of this plane could were the projects that were create a crisis. For in the to take our plane industry Britannia lies Britain's at a bound out in front of hope for commercial air the Americans.
This, in spite of the fact that throughout the war Brita had built virtually no transport planes, leaving Yet, after years of pre. that work and that in- to experience paration, the long-range valuable
troubles and Britannia is still unable to our future American com- many months serenely left dience, the Britannia lets us most of them have been
its competitors 10 years down.
So now, during the It can, given encourage- The tragedy needs no next decade, our American ment, win the next round.
Aiter the broken records
tions.
QUERY
ambi-petitors.
fulfil its designers' ambi-But all those high hopes astern.
Inevitably,
and the resulted in a dismal comes question: does it pay to sometimes ghastly parade repeating. be first? Does the man in of failure.
BROKEN
American
au- technical
-minor.
beat the minor
Personally, I have never believed the
front at the start lose the There was the Brabazon, came the broken Comet and story of the tortoise and the hare. My race? In the race for civil Tho giant, eight-engined the lovely lines of the air air supremacy between Bri airliner with
span- plane were condemned to money is all on the hare.
wings
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THAT THE WEDDING'S BIEN CALLED ON ACCOUNT OF JAIL Z
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THE BAD NEWS TO
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By Lee Falk and Phil Davis
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AIR-
3.9
CONTINUED.
By Frank Robbins
KHAM, IT'S FROM GIZMO'S GAL KISMET! MAYBE SHE'S CHANGED HER MIND...
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