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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0396.PDF
258 FLIGHT A Call on Canadair Part It: At CartierviLLe : Home on a T.C.A,. North Star By H. F. King, M.B.E. HAVING duly inspected B.O.A.C. s "No i " Cana-dair Four, we toured the main plant, where theseaircraft are in production. There are, it should be explained, two separate Canadair factories on Cartier- ville Airport, Montreal, the second being the old Noor- duyn plant—or most of it—which, when taken over, brought Canadair's total floor space to a million and a half square feet. In this secondary plant ex-military air- craft—principally Dakotas—are converted for civil use. More than 317 have been delivered to customers. The main plant is beautifully laid out, warm and, of course, very completely jigged. To these factors, to a vigorous management, and to employees who put in a full day's work for a-full day is pay, may be attributed. Cana- dair's productivity. ' ' ' ' *• i Construction of the various components is carefully syn- chronized: thus the wing, fuselage, tail unit, etc., of, say/ No. 11, are equally far advanced. EachAlay the Indus- trial Engineering Department distributes a very neat little plan of the works, indicating precisely how production stands. A glance shows, for instance, how many nose- pieces, door-jambs, or cockpit enclosures are in Depart ment 23 for pressure test; how tank tests are progressing in Department 19; and which fuselage has reached the join- ing jig in Department 16. Nobody's Business One passed the offices of the B.O.A.C. and C.P.A. repre- sentatives and" the preliminary design office, the work wherein (as Mr. Emmert observed with a smile), is "no- body's business but our own." Conversation with Mr. West elicited the-fact that Cana- dair are now equipping to produce their own undercar- riages, instead of importing them from the U.S.A. Fur- thermore, the company is doing heavy business with the States in C-47 and C-54 spares for the Air Lift. Mr. West confessed his disappointment when, a Canadair Four demonstration tour to Australia having been planned, news arrived as the aircraft was about to leave that Australia had ordered Douglas DC-6s. He told us that his company is prepared to deliver its own version of the DC-6, with the fuselage lengthened only forward, and not aft, of the wing. Such a machine might be developed to fly at 100,000 lb and could be powered with Rolls-Royce Griffons, Pratt and Whitney R-2800s, or Bristol Hercules 763s. Concerning the standard Canadair Four, I was informed that over 1,900 North Atlantic crossings were completed by Trans-Canada Air Lines in 20 months of operation, and MENS' DRESSING ROCN LADIES DRESSING ROOM PILOT RADIO OPERATOR FWD. CARGO COMPARTMENTAND DIPLOMATIC MAIL CAR©<(UNI that the average daily utilization for T.C.A.'s fleet during the peak traffic months of May-October last year across the Atlantic was 8 hr 41 min. The latest performance data, applicable to the Canadair Four with Merlin 626- is, de- livering 1,760 h.p. for take-off, include a C.A.A. take-off field length of 5,650ft at a gross weight of 82,000 lb. At an average weight of 70,000 lb, using maximum economical cruising power, the speed is 325 m.p.h. at 25,000ft and at levels of this order T.C.A. pilots delight in drawing ahead of Constellations. With full available tankage the range is 3,880 miles, and payloads of up to 16,000 1b are pos- sible, depending upon interior layout and range. Seating capacity varies from 36 to 55, and for inter-city work with the latter number of seats, a crew of 4 or 5 plus cargo can be carried. Canadian Pacific are having a 36-seater layout, with "slumber-lounge" seat/berths, for their trans-Pacific services. This model has the works designa- tion C4-2, the B.O.A.C. version being the C4-1.
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