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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 2124.PDF
070 FLIGHT DECEMBER IITH, 1947 Civil Aviation News to an overflow of petrol running into the cabiiheating system. The accidents which were the subject of an enquiry were the Bryce Canyonaccident, whenva DC-6 crashed in flames, and the landing of another DC-6 with a serious fire onboard at Gallup, New Mexico. '' The Committee has already determined to its •satisfaction that an overflow of gasoline when being pumped between the main tanks and theauxiliary tanks caused the fire at Gallup, and that the same conditions probably caused the firein the other accident," said Mr. Wright. "This gasoline was first forced back along the skin ofthe aircraft, and was then sucked into the cabin heating system." (The DC-6 has a cumbustionheater system.) Changes to prevent recurrence of this particular hazard are being recommended bythe Enquiry Committee, to be considered by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, and it is re-ported that other changes may be required before DC-6s are returned to service. In Flight, Novem-ber 27th, it was reported that at an earlier stage of the enquiry it had been found that leaks inthe hydraulic system had affected the glass fibre insulation, which had been proved to have a wickaction, and that the makers had recommended removal of the greater part of this type of insula-tion. The enquiry had at the date of Mr. Wright's statement nearly completed its investigations, andAmerican airline representatives -faave been saying that they expect to be operating DC-6s again in January,1948. The withdrawal of these aircraft from service has caused considerable upsetting of airline schedules, and financialloss. CIVILIAN STIREINGS IN the September 4th issue of Flight mention was made of theactivities of Belgian Air Transport S.A. operating from Melsbroek, and with headquarters at 228 Rue de la Roi, Brus-sels. The company have since bought ten Stirlings from war surplus stocks in the U.K. and which are being overhauled byAirtech. A Belgian company are then to convert five for passenger carrying operations and five for cargo carrying. Thefirst charter flight started last Monday with the departure from this country of a Stirling, flown by W/C. T. R. Morrison, thecompany's chief pilot, carrying 32 passengers to Peking. ATLANTIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANS drafted by a technical working committee of theInternational Air Transport Association include a strong recommendation to I.C.A.O. to expedite the building of Consolradar beacons in Norway, Northern Ireland, Iceland, the Azores, Newfoundland and Bermuda, a step already agreed bygovernments taking part in the Dublin meeting. The I.A.T.A. committee puts forward as a strong argument thefact that the North-Eastern chain of Loran beacons may have to be closed do*vn in 1949, when channels may no longer beavailable for them. Reference was made last week to the forming of an inter-aircraft chain of VHF communication over the North Atlantic when normal HF transmission is interrupted by disturbances.The scheme starts for an experimental six months on December 15. It is considered that there are always sufficient aircraftof airlines which are members of I.A.T.A. in the air to make possible a continuous network of relay signals, with crewstransmitting regular hourly weather and position reports and other operational messages to other aircraft until relayed towithin range of a ground station. When there is a gap in inter- aircraft communication, a weather ship will be asked to act asa relay station. Endorsing the present I.C.A.O. provisions for serving thethree main air routes across the Atlantic, the I.A.T.A. com- mittee suggests the following alterations to arrangementsdrafted at the April, 1946, I.C.A.O. conference at Dublin: — The rearrangement of frequencies so that ground stations need not handle more than eight communications channels at one time. The transfer of weather reports to other than route frequencies in order to reduce the load on present circuits. In making broadcasts of weather reports, major terminals are to include reports of alternate airports as well, in order to -keep to a minimum the number of stations on the air at any one time.To relieve an overload on channels now used on the " middle route " from N. America to Europe via Shannon, the I.A.T.A.airlines have informally agreed among themselves to a distri- bution of the groups of frequencies each will use for normaloperational messages. AMERICAN M-68. An artist's impression of the Fairchild design for a detach- able-fuselage aircraft, with interchangeable freight "pods." The design is somewhat reminiscent of the Miles M-68, shown for the first time at Radlett. CUTS IN B.E.A. STAFF ALTHOUGH the cuts in B.E.A. staff and services, necessi-**• tated by the travel ban, are still proceeding on a drastic scale, they may not be quite so severe as had been expectedearlier. Nevertheless, it is estimated that 1,500 will be leaving the Corporation's service. During September and October,1946, 11,501 and 11,309 passengers respectively were flown; during the same months this year, 18,292 (September) and13.876 (October) were carried. Thus in October this year, in spite of the travel ban commencing on October 1st, 2,567 morepeople were flown than in the same month last year. In some quarters it is believed that the ban on tourists has stimulatedair travel by businessmen, who may be certain of a seat, with reasonable notice, on any route except that between Londonand Paris. The October figures, though better than those of last year, are about 25 per cent below the September, 1947,ones. TRANS-AUSTRALIA AIRLINES the twelve months ending June 30th, 1947, Trans-Australia Airlines showed a loss of ,£505,000. The annual report issued by the Australian National Airlines Commission,which operates the airline, states that this figure reflects estab- lishment costs rather 'than operating losses, and adds thateconomies in the current year would be affected by the inter- change of facilities with Qantas and with British Common-wealth Pacific Airlines, Ltd., which was formed by the Govern- ments of the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. It furtherstates that from the beginning of T.A.A.'s trial operations in September, 1946, until June, 1947, revenue was ^1,038,000;expenditure had been. £1,339,000 for training and route opera- tions, and ^204,000 for general administrative purposes.Treasury advances to offset initial establishment costs amounted to £2,170,000 in June, at which time employeestotalled 2,392. All operations were free of serious accidents; 147,000 passengers, 2,500,000 lb of freight and 869,000 1b ofmail were carried and 4,000,000 miles were flown. Mileage flown is at present at a rate representing 7,500,000 miles ayear. CROFT AIRFIELD SCHEME ABANDONED WITH the curtailment of B.E.A.'s activities, it is. unlikelythat a Continental service from north-east England will be operated, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, andCroft airfield is not now to be developed. It is being offered to other Ministries for flying or non-flying purposes, andthough it is understood that every effort is to be made to see that activities of the Darlington Flying Club based at Croftare not prejudiced, it will obviously be at the mercy of the Government department which takes it over. There has beenindecision over the use of Croft as the north-east's main terminal for 18 months or so and it has been considered as
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