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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1931.PDF
FLIGHT, i December 1949 • 097 presenting B.O.A.C. (his title now is general manager,North Atlantic Division) and Mr. Wellwood E. Beall, vice- president, sales and engineering, Boeing Airplane Co., Ltd.The delivery dates had subsequently to be modified due to a prolonged strike at the makers' plant but some ofthe time has been made up and B.O.A.C. should have at least five of their fleet by the new year and all tenwithin the following month or so. The original order was for six, and four more were taken over from a Swedishcompany, this arrangement being concluded as recently as last April. In all, approximately sixty Stratocruisers have beenordered by operators, and production is almost complete. Rather more than half the number has been delivered todate. Incidentally, the military transport version of the Stratocruiser, known as the C-97, is fimilar in all essentials,but the interior layout is, of course, entirely different and a large rear loading ramp is provided under the tail. C-97Sare operated by M.A.T.S.— Military Air Transport Services of the U.S. Air Force. To digress for a moment, it must be recorded that W HEN the Editor was in Canada recently, he was able to availhimself of an opportunity to return to this country on the latest B.O.A.C. Stratocruiser delivery flight, and he therefore travelled to the Boeing works at Seattle in order to join " Caledonia." In this and future articles, he describes the negotiations leading up to a major equipment-purchase cf this kind, the taking-over of the air- craft, crew-training and the Atlantic flight itself the first company to order Stratocruisers was Pan American Airways, and to them both Boeing and B.O.A.C. readily give full credit for several important changes in specification and for ingenious improvements based on their experience and embodied in these aircraft as a result of their co-operation at the very early stages. Pan American point out that, to the manufacturer, an aircraft is primarily the fuselage, wings, control surfaces and inside installations. "He takes pains," they say, "over selecting engines and airscrews, but they are not his design responsibility. In- teriors he regards as a necessary evil." The airline execu- tive, however, has in a sense (and rightly) the layman's view. '' The aeroplane to him is always the completed flying machine with which he hopes to fulfil his responsi- bilities to the travelling, shipping and letter-writing public. Seen in this light, the period of contract negotiations with the airline considering the aircraft as a whole is without doubt the most important in the history of any new flying machine. On the part of the airline it is also a time when large sums of money must be committed as down payments in what is an act of faith that the unborn aero- plane will justify itself. In Pan American's case, a down SPAN 14-1 3 LENGTH 110 4- hlN & RUDDER ^ HtlfeHT - NORMAL 38' 3" HEIGHT - FIN i RUDDER FOLDED 26' 7° payment of more than six million dollars was required,and more than seven million dollars was actually paid before the first aeroplane was delivered." It was at the instigation of Pan Am., for example, thatthe original proposition made by Boeing in June, 1944, for an aircraft of 120,000 lb gross weight with a speed of 280m.p.h., fuel capacity of 5,700 gallons and engines of 2,200 maximum h.p., underwent a •series of amendments. As aresult, Pratt and Whitney engines of 3,500 h.p. were sub- stituted, the fuel capacity was increased in stages by nearly2,000 gallons, and the all-up weight was increased to 135,000 lb. Subsequently it rose to the present all-upweight of 142,500 lb. During this time the top speed was increased by 60 m.p.h. to 340 m.p.h. Some of the altera- Interior layout of the B.O.A.C.-planned Strato- cruisers. There are eight passenger seats forward of the main cloakrooms. The galley and additional toilet are amidships. Convertible seat/bunks are fitted in the centre cabin and only the cocktail bar is located at lower-deck level.
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