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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0330.PDF
280 FLIGHT Civil Aviation News ARCH IITH, 1948 be ohtained, since the starboard engine'stick-over was on the fast side and this engine would consequently not be offer-ing all the drag to be expected in a dead- cut case. SABENA CRASH AND G.C.A. ON March 2nd a Sabena Dakotacrashed at London Airport and 19 people were burned in the wreckage.Three were rescued, but one subsequently- died. The aircraft had left Brussels at1940 hours carrying 19 passengers in addition to the crew. On arrival atLondon Airport the aircraft was talked down by G.C.A., but crashed on therunway at 2114 hours G.M.T. when visibility was about 200 yards. TheMinistry of Civil Aviation subse- quently made a statement 10 the effectthat G.C.A. was not a blind landing device, but was intended to guide aircraft under adverse weather conditionsso that the pilot could make a visual landing. The Ministry further made clear that the ultimate responsibility, under therecommendations of I.C.A.O., for deciding whether to land at an airport rested with the pilot, who based his decision oninformation given to him of weather conditions at the airport, and in conformity with weather minima approved by hisnational authority and recorded in his operations manual. In order to prevent reliance on G.C.A. beyond its technicalcapacity, instructions were subsequently issued that G.C.A. would not be available in future, except in emergency, wherevisibility was below 150 feet from air to ground and 800 yards horizontally on the ground. BALTIC AIR EXCHANGE COMMITTEE AT preliminary talks in August last year a number of chartercompanies agreed to support the opening of an air charter section on the Baltic Exchange. The Baltic Exchange hasalready been made use of by some charter companies through broker members, but at a meeting held at the Exchange inFebruary a committee was formed to examine and make re- commendations on the operation of an air exchange at theBaltic Exchange. The committee was composed of the fol- lowing representatives:—Mr. \V. N. Cumming, Chairman of.B.A.C.A.; Sir Archibald Hope, Airwork, Ltd.; Mr. Stanley Hinde, Baltic Exchange; Mr. R. T. Hughes, S.B.A.C.; Mr,R. K. Leeper, I.S.F.A.; Mr. J. Mond, Air Contractors, Ltd.; Mr. H. R. Gillman, Secretary, B.A.C.A.; and Mr. Quin-• Harkin, I.A.T.A. (as observer only). The British Air Charter Association has been asked to make necessary arrangementsfor the committee's meetings and to supply secretarial services. Two meetings have subsequently been held, and the com-mittee are unanimous that an air section can be set up and that the organization of the Baltic Exchange can give theoperators the machinery for obtaining cargo at home and abroad. The committee advise all operators to appointbrokers to act for them in obtaining cargoes or, if they prefer, join the Exchange and have their own representatives. Inview of the many detailed matters which will arise, the com- mittee has recommended that a permanent joint committeecomposed of three members of the Baltic Air Section and three representatives of B.A.C.A. be created to deal with suchmatters as documents and conditions of carriage, the economics of air carriage, and the Civil Aviation Act, 1946. GLIDER REQUIREMENTS IN book form, British Civil Airworthiness RequirementsSection E, for Gliders has been published by the Air Regis- tration Board. Similar to the requirements for aircraft,described in Flight, January 22nd, the publication will be issued annually and the requirements applicable for each yearwill be associated with a particular issue number. Throughout the period in which issues remain current amendments maybe published on a provisional basis to become effective at the next yearly issue date. The requirements state the minimumand constitute the basis on which recommendations to the British Gliding Association will be made. The Air Registration Board also issued amendments andadditions to other sections of British Civil Airworthiness Requirements, for insertion into the loose-leaf volume. Theamendments include, Contents Issue 12, a general foreword Issue 8, and new sub-sections A.32 and A 33. THE NEW CHRISLEA : The " first off" Series II Super Ace which has completed its maiden flight successfully. Powered by a Gipsy Major X engine the machine is priced at £1,875. THE CHRISLEA SUPER ACED URING the past twelve months or so the Exeter factoryof the Chrislea Aircraft Company has been busy on produc- tion of the Series II Super Ace, deliveries of which are expectedto commence shortly. The " first off " recently made a success- ful maiden flight. The Series II Super Ace differs from theoriginal prototype in many details, and in place of the 125 h.p. Lycoming engine a Gypsy Major X is now fitted. Mr. RexF. Stedman, the company's test pilot, on his first flight in the new machine devoted 50 minutes to general handling, afterwhich, being extremely pleased with the machine's character- istics, he proceeded to carry out stall investigations. Thesuccess of these then made him decide to try out the spinning characteristics, and he found that the aircraft did not spinbut merely made a steep spiral turn which was immediately corrected as soon as the controls were released. THE L.R.E. SPECIFICATIONS O much interest has been displayed in the M.R.E. andL.R.E. specifications that the scanty information avail- able has tended to become embellished, and some misapprehen-sion about the position may have arisen. So far as the Medium Range Empire specification is concerned, discussions are stillin progress between B.O.A.C. and the Bristol Aeroplane Co., and until these have been completed no further information willbe available, nor will a firm order be placed. The main requirements of the Long Range Empire specifica-tion were announced recently, and these are as follows: — Still air range, 4,500 miles. Payload, 9,000 1b. (typical breakdown—30 passengers plus1,500 lb mail). Cruising speed, 300-350 m.p.h. Operational altitude up to 30,000 feet. All other details are left to the designers of the aircraft con-cerned. Of the five major firms invited to submit desig^ three have been able to co-operate. t The medium size and fairly modest performance require-ments are dictated to a great extent by the stage distances and airfields over which such an aircraft would operate, but in ad-dition to this, the accent is on economy of operation and carehas been taken not to penalize certain new types of engines whicliare on the way by demanding per- formances for which they wouldnot be suitable. It may be said, in fact, that one of the purposesbehind the invitation to submit designs to this specification was toencourage manufacturers and air lines to look ahead and considerpossible Empire requirements one TRAMPS : Freighters on the tarmac at Bovingdon. The Lancashire Air- craft Corporation, resident at the airport, have recently signed a con- tract for flying 100 tons of cloth from Lille to London^ , " Flight " photograph.
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