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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0593.PDF
APRIL ijm, 1947 FLIGHT as Northolt was the only maintenance base, and as an exK.A.F. station it was poorly equipped for civil purpose They were short of hangar space, workshop, office and oilier accom-modation, and even in the existing hangars there Wlis no he-itand the result had been delay in servicing to such an extent that in many cases scheduled services had had to be cancelledAs Mr. Milward observed, there were also difficulties in actual flying operations at Northolt in that the only two run-ways were usually out-of-wind. Ice on the tarmac had been the cause of some accidents, surface vehicles had skidded intoaircraft, and it had been necessary at some periods to cease carrying passengers to aircraft in buses in view of the riskof skidding and consequent damage. The difficulties of main- tenance were directly responsible for the limitations of theCorporation's activities, as naturally the number of aircraft which could be operated was entirely dependent upc: 11 adequatemaintenance within a reasonable time. tThe possibility of having additional workshop space wasytissed, but the restrictions on building are well known,d it would be almost out of tlie question to make construc- tion plans in the present circumstances. A maintenance schemecm an inter-divisicnal system was, however, a i>ossibility. li: was certainly in the minds of Athe divisional managers toorganize a system for maintaining some aircraft at the English Divisional headquarters at Speke. ft is the aim of the Cor-poration to do all maintenance work at night, and unless adequate servicing facilities are available, the services mustlie restricted. In spite of all difficulties they had worked up to a crescendoat Easter when seven schedules to Paris each day vyere run, but Mr. Milward considered that they could have used twice.as many aircraft. That, in fact, applied to most of the routes. The Vikings, as already announced in Flight, are due to comeback on some scheduled routes next Monday, April 21st. On May 19th Vikings will be flying on the routes to Ankara.Amsterdam, Rome, Brussels, Lisbon, Athens and Geneva. Eventually they will also fly to Nice, Milan, and Oslo direct.By July or August the Continental Division will be working entirely with Vikings, and the Dakotas will be handed to the] English and Scottish Divisions. In present circumstances the utilization of Vikings will be about 1,500 hours, but it is theaim to achieve about 2,000 hours' flying per year with each aircraft. Speaking on economy Mr. Milward pointed out that theGovernment had insisted that certain routes should be flown lor Governmental purposes. These had invariably been un-economical, and it was the intention in the Corporation that next year the Government will be asked to make other arrange-ments. The withdrawal of the Vikings had created a redun- dant aircrew pool "but that situation would straighten itself outimmediately they came back into service, and it was hoped to organize the crews tofly on about six different routes for a period of six months, after which therewould be a general reshuffle. This would tosure that all aircrew would become con-versant with the entire B.E.A. network. Mr. Milward mentioned that the Corpora-tion was not entirely satisfied with some of the aids to navigation and traffic con-.trol systems on the Continent, and that had the natural result of limiting opera-tions in poor weather conditions and ecessitated the carriage of a greater/Jlpaunt of fuel as a safety precaution than would normally be necessary, thusresulting in loss of revenue. LORD KEMSLEY'S FUND IN the belief that the future commercialair power of Great Britain depends largely upon the airmindedness ofordinary people, Viscount Kemsley has made available a fund of /ioo.ooo forthe benefit of private flying. Loans made from the fund will bear a nominalrate of interest and will be repayable over twenty-five years. The fund will be ad-ministered by a committee of the Royal Aero Club and will be dispersed ' 1 eligibleorganizations over a period of seven years. All spheres of private flying willbenefit, including gliding. In addition Lord Kemsley has offered ^1.000 in prizesto be put up at the discretion of the Royal Aero Club. AIR IVOR THLVESS DISCUSSIONS 'pillC Airworthiness Divis.i n of P.I.C.A.O. completed itsx st-i-oiul session on March 15th alter three i\wks ot discus- sions. Sir Frederick llandle\ Page vice-chairman of the Air Registration Board, led the British delegation and Mr. W. Tye was his deputy. The party included members ot the stall of the A.R.B., the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Supply, and observers Iron, the S.B.A.C. Mr. K. T. Spencer, of the Ministry of Supply, was elected chairman of the Division, and members of the British delegation were appointed t.» the chair of five ol the seven .main sub-committees. Discussion centred around the amendment to the require- ments for transport category "A" aircraft, which was prepared at the previous session in 1946, since a \ ear's experi- ence of then use had revealed a number of weaknesses. The I K. was apparently in a rather better position than other members, as no other country had advanced far in the incor- poration of P.I.C.A.O. standards in its national requirements whereas the A.K.B. had, by November of last year, introduced the majority of them into the British Civil Airworthiness Re- quirements. Preparatory, discussions were held on other airwori.hir.ess categories. Agreement was reached on certain matt-rs of principle, the most important being that as far as possible there should be only one acceptable minimum level of safety for the carriage of fare-paying passengers, whether on scheduled or non-scheduled flights. While accepting the level of safety implied by the Airworthiness Requirements for transport category "A," together with the associated operat- ing regulations, as an acceptable minimum standard, the possibility of establishing other categories was discussed. It was agreed tentatively that two additional catt-gories were desirable for international commercial passenger use. The first of these would have the same en route performance with one engine inoperative as the present category "A," but would not necessarilv be callable of taking off if one engine should fail during take-off. This category would, therefore, provide for multi-engined types with rather less power than in the case of category "A" types. The second additional category would not provide performance margins after one engine lailed either during take-off or en route. This category would, there- fore,'cover single-engined and low-powered multi-engined air- craft. In both cases the view was taken that since forced landing would be a likely result of engine failure, some measure or* " crashability " should be provided. This would mean (hat. among other things, a limitation on the stalling speed would be necessary to minimize the consequences of lorced landing. Although it was not discussed by the Airworthiness Division, it was expected that aircraft in such categories might, be re- stricted in operation, part kularh" in lomiecluin with the nature "MERCHANT VENTURER " : The Lord Mayor of Bristol so christened a BristolFreighter before it left on March 22nd for a demonstration tour of Australia. In the photograph, from left to right, are : Capt. K. J. G. Bartlett, sales director ; Mr. H.T Thomas, Sheriff of Bristol and assistant managing director of the Bristol com- pany • Sir Stanley White, managing director, and the Lord Mayor, Alderman G. S.v ' James.
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