Serious about aviation
 

50 years ago: 31 JAN 1956

   
12:00 31 Jan 2006 
Source:
This story is sourced from Flight International
Subscribe today »

flight old logo tn


Flight 3.2.1956

Fang Prang

The most original tell-me-another story we have heard for some time comes from Tower, Minnesota, U.S.A. A few days ago, it is reported, Jack Burgess and 50 years tnRichard Liya were flying in the area when they spotted a pack of wolves on frozen Putnam Lake. They went down to have a closer look, and were skimming the ice when a wolf took exception to the intrusion and attacked the aircraft, hitting one of the skis. The subsequent crash resulted in complete demolition of the aircraft (type unrecorded), although both occupants were uninjured.
Jets for Canada

In a statement last month to the Royal Commission on Canada’s Economic Prospects, Mr. G. R. McGregor, president of T.C.A., disclosed that the airline proposes to buy four jet transports from the United States, representing a total investment of $35m (£12.5m). The announcement of the pending purchase was made following a submission of an estimate that T.C.A.’s gross transportation revenues, assuming no change in the airline’s monopoly position, would reach $110m (£32m) in 1960 and $250m (£90m) by 1980. Mr. McGregor said he did not think a competitor for T.C.A. would be practical for another 30 years. He doubted whether atomic-powered aircraft would be in service within the next 15 years. Advocates of the atomic-powered aircraft, he said, “may have overlooked the possible effect of their complete destruction on the ground or in the air. The consequent release of radioactivity would not differ substantially from that which would follow the detonation of a small atomic bomb and would probably make the surrounding area untenable for years.”
V.T.O. in France

Officials of the S.N.E.C.M.A. organization told reporters recently that a military V.T.O. aircraft using the company’s system could be ready by 1960, and that the first passengers to take off vertically in a jet airliner might do so in a civil version by 1965.
Cyprus Air Base

Work is continuing apace on the new R.A.F. base at Akrotiri, which is being built on a square, flat headland of rock jutting out from the southern extremity of the island of Cyprus. The main runway will be 3,000 yd long. The married quarters, in the form of prefabricated bungalows laid out as a model village, are now complete.

Products &
services