COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
Godesberg, was part of the unfortunate saga of common specifications
which SHAPE6 at Fontainebleau was trying to create for general
procurement in Europe. NBMR3, for a light strike VSTOL7 fighter,
against which VJ 101 had been tendered, underwent endless revisions
and attracted more than a dozen designs from five nations. I spent
weeks and months chasing the various contenders.
That search included a number of visits to Italy and several to Fiat,
one in company with Ron Howard, where we talked at length with
Professor Gabrielli. The results were very fruitful in the long run.
Leading to a joint venture between Fiat, Rolls Royce and Elliotts -
and the construction of a VTOL hover rig for the G95/4 which
performed over 300 hours of tethered flight tests and proved the
performance and failure survivability of the control system design.
The G95/4 was subsequently abandoned but much of the system
development continued. The prototype quadruplex actuator, exhibited
at a subsequent Hanover show, was further improved for a possible
installation in the Dornier 31, and subsequently manufactured under
licence by Fairey Hydraulics for the Tornado.
Our trip to Fiat had an amusing sequel. On the way home we were
scheduled to talk Concorde at Toulouse. This involved flying from
Turin to Paris, then Paris-Toulouse, and we were wait-listed on the
second leg. A little research revealed that we could catch a train from
Turin to Milan, take in the opera at La Scala, and continue by rail
overnight via Nice in time for our meeting at Toulouse the next day.
It was too good an opportunity to miss. We cancelled our airline
reservations and rushed to the station. At Milan there was even time
to visit the cathedral and buy a couple of silk ties before the
performance. And 'Carmen' was a very pleasant reward for our efforts.
When we got home Pasley-Tyler refused to sign Ron's expenses,
until he explained why it was necessary to go from Turin to Toulouse
via Milan. After hearing the truth he took Ron and his wife to Covent
Garden!
The NBMR3 project office at SHAPE was another link in the
chain, and I chased them too. In the end, with the help of Pete
Brothers, then a Group Captain, who was the British representative,
I managed to get him and his three colleagues to visit us at Rochester.
We entertained them in suitable style and at some expense, but
most properly, in London beforehand. Yet Jack Pateman insisted ever
afterwards in referring to it as the 'Night of the four Colonels' - as if
there was some dark secret!
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