Variations on a Theme Available to Purchase

THE new year has continued to provide news a little more encouraging to the aircraft industry than was current during its predecessor. Two particularly welcome items concern Short Brothers and Harland Ltd. The promising VTOL programme of which the SC 1 is the embodiment has been proceeding at a rather slow pace because of the limited funds available under the Ministry of Supply contract, but now it has been announced that more money is to be made available. No doubt this decision, together with the one discussed below, was timed to do something to relieve Northern Ireland's unemployment problem, which is in general chronic, but at present verges upon the acute.