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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0970.PDF
54° FLIGHT MAY 17TH, 1945 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS 108 passenger landplanes that should make the trip between the U.S. and China in 32 hours. PROUD RECORD A LTHOUGH it is difficult to assess the total effective life•** of an aircraft engine, especially under war conditions, a good indication may be given by records of individual highlystressed components such as the connecting-rod big-end bear- ing. Operational reports of Qantas Empire Airways show that4,500 hours is not an uncommon time for the big-end bearings of their Pegasus XC engines Of* even greater interest, perhaps, is that Qantas haverecently returned to the Bristol Aeroplane Company, for their information and laboratory examination, a crankshaftassembly which was removed from a flying boat which had been involved in an accident and written off. This shaft had,up to that time, completed 5,731 hours' running and would have been returned to service had it not been for the corrosionresulting irom its immersion in the sea for a considerable period. The big-end bearing bush had been in operation for4,529 hours, the shaft having previously been fitted with a bush of earlier design. In the Pegasus transport engine, special design featuresenabled periods between overhaul to be increased by 50 per cent.Perseus XIIC engines used by Tasman Empire Airways have now completed over 2,500 hours with very few replacementsbeing required at overhaul, and maintenance in between being very negligible. With such equipment it is not surprising that during six FOR MAN OR HORSE : Layout of the interior of the two versions of the Hughes Feeder liner. Cruising at 186 m.p.h. it has a stalling speed of 57.5 m.p.h. years' operation of flying boats by Tasman 91 per cent, ofarrivals have been on time. It will be recalled that the new Bristol Freighter is to befitted with a new Perseus engine. EXPANSION AN addition to the objects of the Australian-Oriental Line, -^*- Ltd., enabling the company to engage in air transport and provide ground facilities as well as manufacture and deal ia aircraft, has been confirmed by the Chancery Division. NO COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT A MERICAN aircraft manufacturers have been denied per-•**• mission to build 300 commercial types for airline needs through 1946. The 300 machines requested would nearly double the presentfleet of 350 aircraft now in commercial operation. The pro- posal included four-engine types for companies engaged ininternational traffic. The director of the Aircraft Division of the War ProductionBoard, Mr. Henry T. Nelson, making this announcement, stated that while the need of U S. airlines to re-equip isrecognised, production of commercial machines could not bee^ until military needs had been fulfilled. Only certain typ '°s'military production were being cut back at present and ^>v facilities were available for commercial production. Mr. Nelson added that a sub-committee of the AircraftDivision had been appointed to implement the programme when military schedules permit. FEEDER LINER '"TO cope with the demand ior feeder airliners, of which they-L believe 350 will be required immediately upon the con- clusion of war, Hughes Aircraft Co, (U.S.) have completedthe development of a new type. The aircraft, which will carry both passengers and freight,is a high-wing twin-engined monoplane designed to a gross weight of 18,500 1b., including 18 passengers and 350 lb.freight. Altogether useful load is 6,000 lb. The feeder liner has an overall length of 65ft. gjin., heightlift, iin., wing span 86 sq. ft. gin., wing loading 22 lb./sq. ft., and a fuselage width of 10ft. Powered by two engines of 825 h.p. each, it has a maximumspeed at 10,oooft. of 237 m.p.h. and a cruising speed at 5,000ft. and at 60 per cent, power output of 186 m.p.h. Climbat sea level is 1,290ft./min., service ceiling is 28,500ft., and stalling speed 57.5 m.p.h. Special features include the installation of mail and freightpick-up equipment in the forward or aft cargo compartments, provision for sorting mail in flight, and possibly hydraulicallyoperated freight and passenger doors controlled from pilots' cabin but also separately released. VEGETABLE FREIGHT A IRBORNE tomatoes showed upon arrival at their destina- **• tion considerable more vitamin C content than those carried by surface transportation. ._ In the course of an extensive study into the possibilities am'* advantages of air carriage of vegetables, Dr. Spencer A. Larsen, of Wayne University, Detroit, had six samples of airborne tomatoes examined. They showed 25.45 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams of sample as compared with 14.43 milligrams for the rail borne and 13.18 milligrams for hot-house tomatoes. These and similar investigations are gradually building up a case for the economic justification of air carriage of vegetables and other perishables; it is attempted to show that the advan- tage is not only in supplying the market with better condi- tioned products but that airborne vegetables are in fact '' new products " the extra cost of which will find ready consumers. The United States Department of Agriculture in an official report states that agriculture is interested in air transportation as a very efficient merhod of moving farm products to market and as a way of opening new markets for post-war surpluses of perishable farm produce. Indicating that by the end of this year there might be about 15,000 aircraft suitable for freight carrying, the report advo- cates the •formation of a specialised air freight service. Such freight line, which would acquire surplus machines on special terms, could use aircraft which were two or three years on active service and could operate them, the report says, over a period of five years or more at very low depreciation capita! cost.
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