Double Failure

In the midst of a routine question-and-answer period in the House of Commons one day last, week, Transport Minister Harold Watkinson made a humiliating announcement: to keep the British Overseas Airways Corp. competitive with U.S. and other foreign airlines, Her Majesty's government had agreed to let the state-owned airline order 15 U.S.-made Boeing 707 jet airliners for $98 million.

The news, though expected (TIME, Sept. 24), set off an outcry in the press. The Laborite Daily Herald found "experts" who called it an "amazing and stupid decision." Other papers sadly agreed that the decision was inevitable, since Britain has 'ho comparable jetliners, but angrily demanded to know what is being done to build them. Said the News Chronicle: "Things would be much better if there were signs that a British jetliner capable of crossing the Atlantic in one hop was on the stocks."

There are few such signs. Minister Watkinson said that BOAC is "urgently discussing" a long-range jetliner with Britain's own de Havilland. But so far de Havilland's plane is only a blueprint; between planning and production there is many a slip, as the British are painfully aware. (Watkinson also tried to soothe British egos by stating that BOAC's U.S. jets will use homemade Rolls-Royce engines installed in the Boeing air frames, thus save $25 million in dollars.)

Last week's official acknowledgment of the jetliner failure pointed up a second failure: the government had made its decision months after BOAC's competitors, will now have to go to the end of a long line. Groaned the Financial Times: "Even the decision to buy the Boeing jet airliners has been left very late. BOAC will be at least a season behind its rivals in the North Atlantic."

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