Where Are the Aircraft?

Under sharp questioning in the House of Commons last week, Under Secretary of State for Air George Ward made an admission that shocked Britain. The Royal Air Force's most promising operational jet fighter, the high-firepower, 650-m.p.h. Hawker Hunter, is stalled by an unlooked-for defect: when its four 30-mm. cannons are fired "at certain heights and in certain conditions of flight," its engine flames out.

The unpalatable truth is that the celebrated $1.37 billion-a-year R.A.F. is now depending upon U.S. Sabre jets, plus about 1,500 obsolescent British jets (Gloster Meteors, De Havilland Vampires and Venoms), for the air defense of London. The Fighter Command's swept-wing Supermarine Swift is grounded; its delta-wing Javelins and its PIs are critical months from service, and so are antiaircraft guided missiles. "The R.A.F.," said the Spectator bitterly, "is relatively worse off now than it was at the time of Munich. At least in 1938 it had one Spitfire."

Under Secretary Ward tried to reassure M.P.s: "I should make t clear that as it is, the Hunter . . . could go into action tomorrow." Laborite Woodrow Wyatt protested: "How can the Minister say that? Is it not the case that ... at present we have no air defense whatsoever of this country?" The Hunter's troubles, according to the Air Ministry, can be "got over." Much more serious is the continuing fact that whereas Britain's flashy prototypes dazzle the air-show crowd at Farnborough. the production models rarely come up to expectations. Designers criticize the government for "messing around with modifications" until the aircraft type is obsolete. Laborite Wyatt announced that he will ask Prime Minister Churchill to appoint a royal commission to look into the whole situation.

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