Today is the 49th. birthday of the Sandys Storm, the Outline of Future Policy Defence White Paper. A professional military, in alliance with US at strategic level, NATO/SEATO/CENTO at regional. He introduced “no basic revolution in policy (but) rationalizes policies most (of which UK) Govts. have accepted and urged (on)Allies for some years” (to be)CAS MRAF Slessor,P.222, RN Rosecrance, Defence of the Realm,Columbia UP,1968.
Hands up those that thought he was stupid, chopping useful things like Avro 730 (SAM fodder), rocket-powered incendiary Fairey F.155T.
By: Aeronut - 6th April 2006 at 20:06
According to the Blackburn document (dated December 56) I have it was to have four Tyne stage 2. It was to be a Beverley wing and tail feathers attached to a new fuselage and four new engines.
By: alertken - 5th April 2006 at 09:22
B.107 – I blinked and missed that one. He was doubtless keeping Brough’s mind on NA.39. Secret of C-130 was Allison 501/T56. What was on B.107? Tyne was very paper, Proteus very jinxed.
By: Aeronut - 4th April 2006 at 20:52
Sandys also killed the Blackburn B107 (Beverley development), the specification for which looks very much like that of the A400M!
By: alertken - 4th April 2006 at 19:49
Ask Gary Powers. It was to overfly multiple SAM belts @60,000 ft, dash Mach 2.5 – faster, maybe lower than U-2. Might it have been deployed in 1965, just as we went down to the weeds.
By: XN923 - 4th April 2006 at 16:34
Why was the Avro ‘SAM fodder’ alertken? Just curious.
While the White Paper undoubtedly set the UK aircraft industry back a few years it may have also saved us from some dinosaurs. Many of the creations that were flattened by Mr. Sandys look, to modern eyes, pretty impractical. The Fairey looks like an Avro Arrow only bigger, whilst all the other weird and wonderful designs floating around proposing to use several DH Gyrons or hybrid rocket propulsion would have surely started an oil crisis all by themselves. Only the Hawker P.1121 looks remotely practical, and as I understand it, that diverged from the specifications it was built for in a number of ways that wouldn’t have endeared it to the purchasers anyway.
That said, the thought of the skies being filled with enormous, Mach 2 canards and deltas is salt to the palate and I am rather sad that all we got out of that era was the estimable Lightning.
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April 4, 2006 at 3:01 pm