COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
And a brutally effective demonstration of manual control in the hover.
Statically and dynamically unstable. Displacement input - acceleration
output.
That humiliating unit was there for the benefit of visitors from the
Defence Ministry in Bonn and those old or bold Luftwaffe officers
who despised the very idea of stability augmentation or automatic
controls. For it was still early days in the story of VTOL.
In the summer of 1964 Pinkie Stark, Derek Jackson and 1 were
scheduled for a sales tour in the States - to accompany Dusty Rhodes
of BAC, promoting the One-eleven. The combination was good news.
Which was rather more than could be said for the programme arranged
by the Weybridge Division of the British Aircraft Corporation. For we
had twenty plus airlines to visit in a fortnight and several hours flying
each day.
The start - we arrived at New York in the early afternoon - was
predictable for the way in which it demonstrated how paranoid Bendix
had become about Elliotts, and how worried they were about our
presence in the States.
They spent so long on the first night explaining why they must
support us on every occasion that we ended up rather short of sleep.
It seemed as if they might have done it deliberately!
Our presentation on the following day to American Airlines, the
biggest and potentially the most important customer on the whole trip,
was not helped by their presence. They had insisted on being there,
ostensibly to watch points for us first time round, and refused to take
no for an answer.
Their tactics were anything but subtle. It was obvious that they had
come along to hear what we we had to say, to ensure that any
One-eleven flight systems ordered would be supplied by Bendix, and
to prevent us from making any sort of progress in their home market.
Afterwards they had the effrontery to suggest that their
contribution had been helpful and that they should accompanying us
to all the major operators. But Dusty objected strongly. This was a
BAC tour, to sell One-elevens, and his management would not agree.
In the end we reached a compromise. George Frankfurt from Bendix
UK would accompany us, on and off, throughout the trip. Not ideal
- but on his own he was always helpful and kept a low profile.
Down the East Coast to Miami for the weekend, where I rang Anne
in hospital, to find that our second daughter, had just arrived. The bar
was still open and Pinkie called for champagne.
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