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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0908.PDF
Personal View there was some support for the belief in the U.S. that devel-opment of jet engines over there was overhauling similar developments in this country. Sir Miles Thomas and his party flew from Seattle toinspect the 749 Constellation line at the Lockheed plant at Burbank, and then on to San Diego, wherethe Consolidated Vultee works in general and the Convair 240 in particular, were inspected. This new twin-enginedAmerican aircraft "was well thought of out there," but the makers expressed a view that it was probably the lastcivil aircraft that would be built as such. "Owing to the cost of developing civil airliners, it is now generally acceptedin the American aircraft industry that prototypes will in future be designed for military purposes, and civil develop-ments will follow," Sir Miles said, adding, "In the case of the 240, the Consolidated Vultee Company will "Petal" cowling* provide unusually good accessibility to the Con-vair's two Pratt and Whitney R-2800 tngints. The power output is 2,400 h.p. each. require 500 orders to reach a financial break-even point."The visitors were impressed with the jigging for the 240. Quick-acting clamps made of welded steel tubing are usedto simplify and hasten production methods. There have been delays in producing the Convair 240, once again dueto labour troubles, and also, in the words of Sir Miles, due to '' optimistic guesstimating—a common fault on bothsides of the Atlantic." When asked about his experiences as a normal passen-ger on American airlines, the deputy-chairman of B.O.A.C. was emphatic that the British passenger-handling tech-nique was far superior. He went so far as to say that stewardesses were not so well trained or as courteous asthose in B.O.A.C. and also that the pilots were more "ham" in handling their aircraft. B.O.A.C., he said,was heavily booked on the transatlantic service, largely as a result of good impressions made on the Bermuda run.One interesting and illuminating incident, from which a lesson in turn-round technique may be learned, occurred onthe flight from Los Angeles to New York in a DC-6. A stop was made at Lincoln, Nebraska, in a heavy thunder-storm, and the refuelling and revictualling operations were "reminiscent of Grand Prix pit work." Sixty passengerswere off-loaded, fed, reloaded and in the air again with a fresh crew in^jiminutes. Sir Miles thought that tack passenger-handling technique re-flected the casual attitude to aviation in America to-day. " Flying was nolonger an adventure." He was con- fident that the Stratocruiser wouldbe an excellent aircraft for the Atlantic route and was looking for-ward to its. introduction into B.O.A.C service. The tour made by the deputy-chairman of B.O.A.C. to the Pacific coast demonstrated not only howgreat distances can be covered in a comparatively short time, but alsothat high executives in airlines can benefit by seeing for themselves whattheir contemporaries are doing and by experiencing the type of servicetiieir own airlines are giving.
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