CANCELLATION FAIREY ROTODYNE
The government’s involvement with the Rotodyne lasted around a dozen years, and for most of that period it was the subject of sharp disagreement within Whitehall and Westminster. But while there were some in the corridors of power who welcomed its cancellation, one man at least allowed his regret to show.
Announcing the project’s cancellation in the Commons, aviation minister Peter Thorneycroft — ironically, the government’s premier Rotodyne supporter — acknowledged his “regret that what I had hoped was a promising engineering project cannot be carried through to fulfilment.”
He was not alone. Several cabinet colleagues, including Duncan Sandys, successively defence minister and aviation minister, and Harold Watkinson who succeeded Sandys in both posts, were also Rotodyne supporters. Even Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was intrigued by it. He wrote in 1958, “This seems an exciting project and I would like to know what are its potentialities and possibilities”. Ranged against the project, however, were the Treasury and the RAF supported by senior Air Ministry officials.
There was even a division of opinion within defence circles. The army’s interest in the Rotodyne had stem…
