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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1375.PDF
JULY I8TH, 1946 FLIGHT •>5 RETURN fUCHT New York to London by Air : The Crew : Some Details of B,O-A.C. Constellations and their Operation Maurice A, A FTER spending a week in Nev? r\ York, Sunday lunch came •*• -*• round in what seemed a very short while, and it was time to em- plane for the flight home to London Airport. Bangor II, G-AHEL, was again the aircraft, with Capt. L. V. Messenger in command. It took very little time to check passports at La Guardia and, after a few minutes' delay at the gate caused by A.A. and Pan American aircraft ahead on the congested tarmac, we were airborne for Gander. Flying north over, cloud, the weather became appre- ciably colder, and at Gander it was necessary to replace jackets and waistcoats. Tea was taken with strawberries, ice cream and fruit cake. Everything was quickly and efficiently dealt with and, replenished with food and fuel, the west to east crossing'«was commenced at dusk, a few minutes behind schedule. The flight was made at between 9,000 and 10,000 feet, and observations showed that at 04.30 hr G.M.T. at 30.00 deg W our ground speed was 262 m.p.h. and air temperature — 7 deg C at 10,000 feet; at 07.00 hr we were flying at 9,500 feet at 15.00 W with ground speed 282 m.p.h. and air temperature — 1 deg C. On waking up to bright sunshine and the steady roar of the engines, there was just time for a shave and wash before descending to Rineanna and breakfast. No extra fuel was needed for the flight on to Heathrow Last week the author gave some impressions from the passenger's point of view of a flight to New York by B.O.A.C. Constellation. The return journey is now dealt with briefly and the Constellation and its equipment are discussed in more detail " Flighf and with the CoSetelfemon flyinglight, the take-off and climb were par- ticularly impressive. Measured withwatch and pocket altimeter the initial climb to 2,000 feet took only 1 min.24 sec. Take-off to touch-down took 1 hr 52 min. The return flight from New Yorkseemed to bring home more forcibly what travel by air can mean: lunch on Sunday in New York, take-off, read thenewspaper, have tea and Gander is seen below. Take off again, put watch on five-and-a-half hours and it is bed-time. Sleep accounts for the over-ocean period and break- fast in Ireland is the next event. Final take-off follows,and then two hours airborne plus one in a car, and one can be in London just 24 hours after leaving New Yorkoffice. The time-table was given last week on page 31. The Constellation As a result of a forced landing at the start of a trans-atlantic flight made recently while two well-known film stars were passengers, Constellations received a good dealof not-too-welcome extra publicity. A fault in an aux- iliary drive caused a fire in the starboard outer engine andultimately the complete engine, still burning, fell out. Talk- ing recently to a Lockheed engineer responsible for modi-fication of the drive, the story was given as follows: — The blower drives for the cabin pressure are taken from The Pan American Constellation which belly landed beside the runway at Willimantic after a burning engine had fallen out.Surprisingly little damage resulted, and the aircraft is to be flown out on three engines.
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