Volume 8 No 3 Jun 1957.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

ench Government Aid to SoaringHEN, on 23rd and 24th February, theW French Soaring Association held itsthird ,annual assembly in the great amphitheatreof the French National School forAeronautics, commonly called by itsstudents "Sup Aero," M. Agesilas. directorof the Sport Aviation Department of theAir Ministry and the French delegate toOSTlV, furnished some very interestingstatistics of the aid that the French Governmentprovides to the soaring movement.The main Ji'urpose of his discourse was torefute rumoUf;S circula.ting among Frenchsoaring pilots to the effect 1hat the govc:m·melltwas letting them down as far as newmaterial was concerned. M. Agesilaspointed out that fo.r equipment alone theFrench government had, in the last sixyears, set aside very great credits, and hecited the following very eloquent figures·:1951: Nil.1952: 300 million francs.1953: 3501954: 4001955: 3801956: 7951957: 740To these credits, M. Agesilas continued,an annual allowance of 600 million francshas to be added for the functioning of theSport Aviation Department.• A million francs is approximately£1,000.A .ai/4bl~ ill all part. of th~ worldC. P. WITTER LIMITED1;14 FQREGATE STRUT, CHESTERby Wait H, bait-156-M. Agesilas to(~k special pride in thegre3't increase in credits obtained since heoccupied his presellt post from 1956 on.He also mentioned that he has prepared afour years' programme calling for a yearlybudget of one milliard francs (£1,000;000)for equipment.Passing to the results obtained in thoseyears, M. Agesilas reviewed the constructionprogramme and the utilisation of the abovecredits. Among many other figures, hecited tbe cost of some of the latest Frencllsailplanes: .P11Olotypes:3 Bregllet.901I AV·22 (two-seater FlyingWing)I Breguet-904 ..1 Bregllet-902 (two-seatertrainer now under Olionstruction)..2 WA-20 "Javelot" (singleFirst series of20 Breguet-901 ..Second series of 10 Breguet-'90I ..Series of 15 Breguet-904Preliminary series of 6 WA-30Millionfranes60247040seater high-performance) 32To these prot~types has to be added thesttatospheric sailplane which is still in thestage of study and on which already morethan 100 million francs ha-ve been spent.From the prototypes, M. Agesi1a~s passedto the cost ofthe series production ma~neswhich have been ordered by his departmentc:Millionfran.cs9647100"Javelot" 15A series of sever~l Emouchets, a singleseaterinitial training plane, as well asseveral trailers, haye also been constructed.M. ~ilas finished his discourse with ageneral review of the actual status .Qf Frenchsoaring activities,. and he expressed hisbelief that the future of this great sport isnot as black as some have painted it, andthat he would continue tQ be one of itsstt,ongesl supporters.