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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0057.PDF
FLIGHT, 11 January 1951 37 BREVITIES LAST week the Minister of Civil Aviation, Lord Pakenham,visited a number of houses near London Airport to examine damage attributed by householders to vibrations caused by aircraft. * # • -it- Five French Norecrins, powered by Regnier 140 h.p. engines, are to be delivered to Argentina in the near future. The totaiorder is for 19 machines. * * # The latest American aircraft in the personal category to receive C.A.A. approval is a single-engined, four-seat, all-metal machine, designated the Texas Bullet. Its manufacturers are planning to build an initial batch of 25. # * * One of the largest Holy Year charter flights was undertakenby K.L.M. shortly before Christmas; it involved the transport of 250 pilgrims from London to Amsterdam. The pilgrims wereon their way from Mexico to Rome; five Convairliners and six DC-3 flights were needed to take them from London to Holland. * * * A veteran P.A.W.A. pilot, Capt. Fred Clark, has received theInter-American Safety Council's Award of Honour for a perfect safety record during 33 years of flying. Capt. Clark has flownover 3,000,000 miles and has recorded 22,000 hr. On his 60th birthday he retired from Pan American's active pilot list. # # # At greatly reduced fares B.E.A. will introduce night excur-sion services from London to Nice and Amsterdam next May. The new return rate to Nice will be only £25 instead of £34 6s,while the fare to Amsterdam will be £10 10s instead of £14 8s. K.L.M. will also reduce their fares to the same level for off-peakflights during the Festival of Britain period. # # * On January 2nd, P.A.W.A. inaugurated direct Stratocruiser services between New York and Rome; three round trips a week are being made. Aircraft leave Idlewild on Tuesdays, Thurs- days and Sundays, elapsed time for the flights being normally 17 hr 15 min; Sunday flights stop for an hour at Boston. Seating capacity is restricted to 47 passengers. Before arrangement of the transatlantic route-pattern by which Pan American absorbed A.O.A., the company had routed its Rome passengers through London, Nice and other European traffic centres. • * #Christmas passenger traffic on the United Air Lines system broke all previous company records. The increase was estimated at 44 per cent over the figure for the corresponding period of 1949. Passenger and cargo revenue ton-mileage reached a total of 4,932,000 foi the week ended December 22nd. United Air Lines, who claim the distinction of being the oldest scheduled operators in the United States, will celebrate their 25th anniver- sary on April 6th. It has been announced that K.L.M. has increased from five to nine the size of the order placed with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation for L-1049C Constellations. The company's order for DC-6Bs is also larger, being now for seven instead of five. It is thought, however, that K.L.M. may possibly trade-in some of the older DC-6s and Constellations, in order partially to defray the cost of the new aircraft. K.L.M.'s 1049Cs will probably carry 62 passengers, although the provision of a relief crew and navigator station would reduce passenger capacity to 54 on transatlantic flights. The interior furnishing scheme is said to be one of the most luxurious ever planned for a commercial aircraft. According to statistics issued by the British Travel and Holidays Association, the unsettled state of international affairs apparently had little effect on Britain's winter tourist trade. Of the total of 21,361 foreign visitors who arrived in this country during November, 34 per cent travelled by air. AMERICA'S FIRST civil turboprop-powered (T-38) aircraft, a cargo version of the Con- vairlmer, also referred to as the Allison Turboliner, has now made its first flight. It is owned by the Allison Division of General Motors America) and is used exclusively as a test-bed for similar conversions. The French S.U.C.10 Courlis—a four-seat, high-wing pusher monoplane—is apparently proving popular with Continental pilots. Altogether 60 have been sold since last September. * * * Following the current fashion, all aircraft of T.A.A. havehad their fuselage-tops painted white to reduce interior cabin temperatures. * * # G/C. E. L. Mole, until recently chairman of the Ultra-Light Aircraft Association, has been appointed Director of Civil Aviation in the Bahamas. He will be resident at Oakes Field, Nassau, from January 25th. * * * Transocean Air Lines are now operating the first commer-cially licensed DC-3 to have been approved by the C.A.A. for ski landing-gear. The aircraft is to assist in carrying suppliesto military installations within the Arctic circle and will also undertake "mercy " flights to outlying Eskimo settlements. Thesnow gear is fully retractable and the wheels can be lowered through the skis for optional landings on surfaced runways. * * # In the 12 months from December 6th, 1949, when they werefirst introduced on transatlantic services, B.O.A.C.'s ten Strato- cruisers have flown a total of some 3,600,000 miles. Havingstarted at an initial frequency of one per week, in September they were flying as many as 15 flights weekly in each direction.The total mileage was achieved in 930 crossings—an average of four per month per aircraft—and by 27 crews; each crew thusmade an average of about 2\ crossings a month. The total number of passengers carried was 35,000. * * * French reports indicate that at least nine S.O.30 iiretagneshave now reached the flying stage. Of these, two have been purchased by the S.G.A.C.C. for crew-training, one is under-going trials on the Bombay-Paris route for Iranian Airways, and another is soon tc he delivered to the same company, Threeare about to be taken over by Air Algerie, and the first of the Air France order for 15 aircraft is already engaged on trials onthe company's routes. The prototype, which first flew in 1948, is now used as an engine test-bed * * # B.E.A. will shortly open new booking offices in Glasgow,equipped to handle the record traffic expected in Scotland this year; work on the building is now in hand. Passengers, however,will continue to use the existing terminal facilities at St. Enoch. At Edinburgh, work on the new passenger terminal is nownearing completion. Several independent operators, including Scottish Aviation, are reported to have applied for licences tooperate additional services to and from Scotland during the summer season. * # * On Saturday, January 6th, T.W.A. inaugurated a luxuryConstellation service from New York to London; it is to be known as the '" London Ambassador " flight. The following daya similar flight—" Paris Ambassador "—arrived at Orly. These schedules are part of a new de luxe service which is being addedto T.W.A.'s regular transatlantic pattern; refinements include six-course epicurean meals and complimentary cocktails. Aspecial cocktail bar and lounge has been installed in the rear section of the fuselage and seating capacity has been reduced to33. T.W.A. now has 44 flights a week scheduled between the United States and points in Europe. i
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