HC Deb 24 July 1963 vol 681 cc1434-5
8. Mr. Cronin

asked the Secretary of State for Air what progress has been made in giving the Royal Air Force operational experience of vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

Mr. H. Fraser

A few Royal Air Force officers have already flown prototypes of vertical take-off and landing aircraft. However the Royal Air Force will obtain its initial experience of operating this type of aircraft under the joint P1127 trials programme with the German Federal Republic and the United States announced in the 1962 Defence White Paper.

Mr. Cronin

Bearing in mind that this revolutionary British innovation was achieved entirely without the support of the Air Ministry until it was actually flying, can the right hon. Gentleman assure the House that he will give this invention much more support than it is receiving at present? Is it not an entirely unsatisfactory state of affairs that the first operational vertical take-off and landing aircraft will be French ones, although this was a British invention in the first instance?

Mr. Fraser

We are still ahead. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Aviation is fully confident about this aircraft. We very much hope that trials will start next year.

Mr. Cronin

Can the Minister at least assure the House that a British vertical take-off and landing aircraft will be the first one of its type to be operational?

Mr. Fraser

I could not give that assurance. What I say is that our P1154, when it comes into operation, will be the best in the world.

Sir John Eden

Can my right hon. Friend confirm that despite the unfortunate event which took place at the Paris Air Show the confidence of the Royal Air Force in the P1127 and the P1154 is in no way shaken?

Mr. Fraser

That is so.