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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 2241.PDF
612 FLIGHT, 28 December 1950 BRITAIN'S AIRLINE OUTLOOK New Equipment and its Promise : Indications of a Brighter Future OF the world-wide interest being shown in the currentand projected civil creations of British aircraft con-structors, it may be said that the value of having a bird in the hand as opposed to "two on the drawing-board " was never more readily apparent. Since the world's first turboprop airliner—the Vickers Viscount—made its maiden flight some 28 months ago, the eyes of international aviation have been focused intently (and enviously) on British developxTients in pure-jet and turboprop-powered aircraft. In aircraft-manufacturing circles abroad our acknowledged lead in this sphere caused—at least initially—some very hard thinking. Could it be that the British, known just after the war to be operating uneconomical and outmoded ex- military transports, were thinking a decade ahead in the matter of commercial aircraft design? This, as we now know, was the case—and still is to-day—though the lead is of the less spectacular but still valuable order of three years. Sixteen months ago the world's first pure-jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet—a triumph of British vision and enterprise, built as it was to an order with a guaranteed- performance clause—made its first flight; and a month later the Avro Canada Jetliner also made its successful debut. Designed for short-haul, high-density traffic, the Derwent- powered Jetliner is, like the Comet, already in an advanced stage of development and stands almost ready to undertake its first commercial trials. Numerous foreign projects for competitive types have failed to progress far beyond the design-study stage. This has been due primarily to lack of funds and secondly to a reluctance to exchange an affirmed policy of consolidation in air-transport affairs for the adoption of revolutionary and untried types, however attractive they may appear to be. Whether such decisions will prove to have been justified or ill-advised remains to be seen. Present indications are that the less enterprising nations may have cause to regret their hesitancy. If, at the beginning of 1950, doubts remained in the minds of potential passengers or operators as to the advantages and general desirability of turbine-powered airliners, the progress shown by our prototypes should have dispelled most of them. | Resplendent in the new B.O.A.C. colour scheme: one of the Hermes IVs, which—together with the Ambassadors sojn to be delivered to B.E.A.— represent the initial step in supplying " designed for the job " equipment to British airlines. In July, the Vickers Viscount became the world's first turboprop airliner to go into scheduled passenger-service. Operational experience was thus gained under normal com mercial conditions and passengers and operators alike were able to obtain first-hand knowledge of its unique qualities. It is now universally accepted that the eventual applica- tion of gas turbines to commercial operations is inevitable; it is therefore good to see that, while foreign constructors still watch, wait and wonder, British turbine-powered air- liners have already flown more than 8,000 engine-hours. A quarter of this total has been logged by the two prototype Comets, the remainder by the two prototype Viscounts, the Armstrong-Whitworth Apollo and the Hermes V. The prototype Viscount—introduced by B.E.A. on ser- vices from Northolt to Paris and Northolt to Edinburgh during the four weeks of the peak traffic season last summer —carried, in all, 1,838 passengers and made 88 flights; this entailed 122 hours of commercial operation in all weathers. Both the Viscount and the Comet have been fully engaged during the year in spreading the turbine-power gospel by trials and demonstration flights to many European capitals. At all airports at which they called, these two aircraft left authorities not only favourably impressed, but—when the commercial capabilities were fully realized—frankly envious. It is with such aircraft as these, fully tested and approved for commercial operation, that we are now planning to pur new lifeblood into the air-transport industry. The post- war struggles of our two nationalized Corporations have been long and arduous and, although they have done their utmost to improve on unhappy financial results, they have been hampered until recently by a multiplicity of uncompetitivc aircraft types. B.E.A. have, like other operators, obtained excellent ser- vice from their Vikings and the well-developed Hercule* engines installed. Last year the Vikings showed an average utilization of 1,497 hr.per aircraft and accounted for 63.7 per These scale silhouettes o[ B.E.A.'s new types—Ambas- sador (left) and Viscount (centre)—show them to be considerably larger machines than the Viking (right) which has been the Corporation's mainstay in post-war years.
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