§ Captain Kerbyasked the Minister of Supply whether his attention has been drawn to the successes achieved by turbo-prop aircraft and turbo-prop vertical take-off United States aircraft of the type patented and submitted to his Department in 1943, and since; and what steps he is taking to develop turboprop vertical take-off aircraft in Britain, rather than concentrating his efforts solely upon the development of the "Flying Bedstead" type aircraft, which will take many years.
§ Mr. Selwyn LloydI am aware of the American experiments with propeller driven vertical take-off aircraft, and my Department has from time to time carefully considered proposals to conduct experiments in this country on similar lines. In the present state of our scientific knowledge, the method of vertical take-off, using jet engines, which we have160W chosen to support, offers the better chance of successfully meeting our needs. I am satisfied that duplicating the American experiments would not in this instance be a profitable use of the limited funds which are available for research and development.