Plane facts on industry affected by EU drag

MAY I remind Airbus that if the British government hadn’t pulled the plug on the aircraft being proposed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) to counter and improve on those from the States, Airbus would probably never have existed!

The prototype of Europe’s first wide-bodied commercial aircraft (the BAC Three Eleven) was even being assembled at the BAC factory at Brooklands in Weybridge. The design of the BAC X-Eleven variants and the Double-Decker Super VC10 (the Superb) were well advanced.

The scare stories that finally convinced the then government included the possibility that, as the rear-engined Three Eleven would be powered by similar Rolls Royce RB211 engines to those being developed for Lockheed, the government would be obliged to pick up a large section of its development costs.

Airbus should realise that if we don’t build wings for the Airbus, we could end up building the next generation of aircraft to replace them.

I remember Brian Trubshaw’s comments, when Concorde was about to enter service: “I would rather we built the tail-planes for the Americans than another aircraft with the French!”

No one should forget that we once led the world in aircraft research and development;

We have been grounded by too much EU drag! Brian Christley Abergele, Conwy