HC Deb 28 November 1955 vol 546 cc1926-8
38. Mr. Beswick

asked the Minister of Supply what long range jet aircraft, suitable for North Atlantic passenger operations, is now being developed in this country under the sponsorship of his Department.

Mr. Maudling

The de Havilland Comet IV, which will be suitable for operation on the North Atlantic route with a single refuelling stop.

Mr. Beswick

Is the Minister aware—he must surely be so aware—that a refuelling stop is not good enough for the 1960's, and does he not realise that he is now confirming the fears which were expressed on previous Questions, namely, that this country is now giving up the struggle for a straight jet aircraft capable of Atlantic service, which will undoubtedly be the aircraft of the 1960's?

Mr. Maudling

If we do not have in the early 1960's a straight jet non-stop trans-Atlantic aircraft, neither will the Americans have a non-stop trans-Atlantic turbo-prop aircraft. I can only refer the hon. Gentleman to the answers already given in reply to previous Questions about the reasons for not proceeding with the V. 1000 civil version.

Mr. Farey-Jones

Is my right hon. Friend aware that there is mounting uneasiness on this matter by all concerned with the welfare and future prosperity of the aircraft industry that certain decisions of his Department are undoubtedly unwise, and will he undertake to give this matter completely fresh consideration?

Mr. Maudling

I said in reply to an earlier Question that the decision on the Vickers 1000 was not taken without anxious and prolonged thought. I do not think I can add anything to that statement.

Mr. Strachey

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that his reply confirms what we have suggested, that the Government are really abandoning the whole field of long range jet transport for both military and civil purposes, and that to refer to the Comet, with all its virtues, is really irrelevant? Surely it is a really serious national consideration to abandon, as the right hon. Gentleman has now admitted, the whole field of future development?

Mr. Maudling

That is neither accurate, nor, I think, in consonance with the general interests of British exporting industries. We are no more abandoning long range jet transport aircraft to the Americans than they are abandoning the turbo-prop aircraft to us.

Mr. G. Brown

It is no good the right hon. Gentleman saying that we are no more abandoning the long range jet aircraft to the Americans than they are abandoning the turbo-prop aircraft to us. We are exporting the turbo-prop aircraft, which the Americans are not. Now the question of the pure jet arises. If we are not going to make it, we are abandoning it. I am sure the right hon. Gentleman will agree that there is no other pure jet of this size and capacity that anybody is discussing. The right hon. Gentleman has, in fact, killed it. Am I not right in thinking that the expenditure of £20 million between now and getting the aircraft into the air regularly is all that stands between us, and that thereafter there would be an export model, and each of these export models would be worth Ell million? Does the right hon. Gentleman think it sensible to abandon the aircraft in view of that situation?

Mr. Maudling

All we shall not have is a pure jet aircraft capable of crossing the Atlantic in both directions non-stop in the early sixties. So far as other developments are concerned, the point that I have been making is that I cannot put public money into the development of an aircraft for which there is no prospective purchaser when it is generally accepted by all concerned that such an aircraft cannot be launched in world markets without a home purchaser.

Mr. Beswick

Is the right hon. Gentleman really saying with the authority of his Department that the turbo-prop will continue satisfactorily to serve the long range jet field in the middle and end of the sixties? Does he not think—I ask him to consider what he is saying—that the future lies in the straight jet rather than the turbo-prop for long range?

Mr. Maudling

The British Overseas Airways Corporation has made it clear that its requirements for the early sixties are already met by the aircraft which it has on order.