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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 2077.PDF
43° FLIGHT OCTOBER ISTH, 1945 PRE-SERVICE TESTING time at the request of M.A.P. Within the next few months the Flight will be dealing with the Tudor. It is possible to mention only a few of the more obvious lines of investigation and test which must be followed by the Development Flight Undoubtedly, from the opera- tional point of view, the laying-down of recommended cruising and climbing powers is the most important, but a hundred and one other items are requiring and will duly require investigation and report. For instance, the appear- ance of pressurised cabins will involve the Flight in a great deal of experimental work, since however effective this pressurisation may be in preliminary tests, the proof of the pudding will still be in the eating, and its performance on the routes, in all conditions of temperature and humidity, must be thoroughly checked before it can be used in normal service with passengers of varying medical fitness. Oxygen equipment may require modification before being safely handled by these same passengers, and the feed-lines may tend to develop troubles of one kind or another in tropical conditions. Cabin heating, too, can still be an endless source of minor difficulty. The Flight must standardise approved take-off and other '' drill'' between the various members of the crew for each new type as it appears. Maintenance schedules must be/ worked out, in liaison with the manufacturers, and book's prepared, while some form of "snag" return from main- tenance personnel all over the world must be organised if duplication of work is to be reduced and if reports on '' basic'' faults are to get back to the manufacturers for attention on any later aircraft in the series. The "book" work, alone, is an immense task. Meanwhile, thanks to low'permitted priorities in building work, the Flight is carrying on at Hum under very difficult conditions and tends to be short of certain kinds of tech- nical personnel. Hum is, of course, laid out on the dis- persed Service plan, which, though excellent for avoiding concentrated bomb damage, is hardly suited to normal working. There is no heat laid on in the hangars and none of these is large enough to house the Tudor, which, when it arrives, will have to be farmed out to an R.A.F. station with a B.O.A.C. maintenance detachment—a situation hardly conducive to efficiency. Until February of this year the Corporation used Lyneham, which they shared with R.A.F. Transport Command and a Maintenance Unit; they were given just four days in which to get out and arrange themselves at Hum. But, as always in our English way, individual enthusiasm and energy kept the Flight and the,; Services going. -Aj| CIVIL AVIATION NEWS THE LAST OF THE ENSIGNS some seven years of service with B.O.A.C. the g-Whitworth Ensigns are to be retired. As and drcraft come up for their C. of A.s they will be The Ensigns, at the time of their first appearance GLOBEMASTER : The somewhat flamboyantly named Douglas C.74, the nominal successor to the Skymaster, appears to have ample unobstructed fuselage space. In the background of the interior picture above two Jeeps may be seen. The Globemaster is unofficially credited with a range of 7,800 miles—load unspecified. in 1937, were the logical development, on modern lines, of theold Imperial Airways' school of thought. They were large, comfortable and, for their day, quite reasonably fast—andcertainly a great deal faster than the aircraft which they replaced. They were ordered to operate in " parallel," so tospeak, with the Empire boats. FULL CIRCLEL AST week B.O.A.C. started regular flying boat operations between Poole and Rangoon, using Sunderlands. Four services will be run every week each way, with two additional services between this country and Calcutta. In due course the service will be extended to Singapore. Thus history' makes a full circle and the classic Empire route, in its original form, is reopened. The first service from Rangoon left on October 13 and the first from Poole on October 9. On the same day a B.O.A.C. Lancastrian left Hurn on a survey flight to South America. Operational data, preparatory to starting a regular service, will be collected by representatives of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, B.O.A.C. and British Latin-American, Air Lines, now renamed British South Americpj Airways. A TLANTIC CHANGE-0 VERO N October 14 the last B.O.A.C. Atlantic service over the northern route was scheduled. From now on, and until the Tudors are in service, the Boeing 314A Clippers will be taken over the southern route, once a week, by West Africa and Brazil. Incidentally, the three old Boeing 314A Clippers, Bristol, Berwick and Bangor, have quietly topped the million-mile mark, one of them, Bristol, having flown 1,TOO.513 miles. These aircraft were bought from Pan American in 1941 to fill the Empire fleet gaps. The 314A differed from the original 314 in engine type and in tankage to bring the still-air range up to- a maximum of, something better than 4,500 miles. These three aircraft have recently been averaging four Atlantic services weekly, between Baltimore, Botwood, Foynes and Poole. ^t TO THE CHANNEL ISLANDSO N and after this week Jersey Airways will be operating separate services to Jersey and Guern- sey. The morning service, leaving Victoria Coach Station at 9 a.m., will go to Guernsey, and the afternoon service, leaving at 1 p.m., to Jersey. Using D.H. 89s—alias Dominies, alias Rapides—the •Channel Island service has been in operation since June for passengers with the necessary permission to travel.
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