§ Mr. Ridleyasked the Minister of Aviation (1) how much public money has been spent on developing British-made blind landing equipment; and how much he intends to spend next year;
(2)why he has taken no steps towards the encouragement of the installation of British made blind landing equipment in British made aircraft;
(3)what steps he has taken to encourage the export of British made blind landing equipment;
(4)what steps he has taken to encourage the export of British-made autopilots.
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§ Mr. MulleyMy Department has given considerable encouragement and support, both technical and financial, for the development of United Kingdom automatic landing equipment and to its use, particularly in the VC10 and Trident. Public expenditure on development of automatic landing equipment and facilities goes back many years and covers both military and civil applications and ground installations at airports. I cannot give a total figure. Excluding the cost of the substantial technical assistance provided by the Department's research establishments the Department has spent something over £1 million in the past three years in direct support of development in industry of airborne automatic landing equipments. The scale of expenditure for the coming year has not yet been decided but substantial support will continue. The facilities provided by the Government in aid of exports which I described in my Answer to the hon. Member for Newark (Mr. Bishop) on 1st March are available to the manufacturers of this equipment and autopilot systems generally.