Difficult Choice

Abstract

AFTER protracted discussion the choice for the B.E.A. jet airliner has fallen on the de Havilland 121. The main reaction to this decision is that it marks a return to the principle that the customer is right. It had been no secret that B.E.A. strongly favoured the DH.121 rather than the Bristol 200, whereas the Government, in particular the Ministry of Supply, preferred the Bristol‐Hawker Siddeley group's proposal. It appears that this conflict was between technical considerations on the one hand, and financial and productive capacity considerations on the other. Every engineer will see the choice as a victory for reason, for the technical quality of the aircraft must be the principal ingredient in its success. It is unfortunate but inevitable that aircraft manufacturing is now such an immense undertaking that the national economy has to be considered at every step, and so the task becomes entangled with politics.

Citation

(1958), "Difficult Choice", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 63-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb032938