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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0401.PDF
FLIGHT, 2 March 1951 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS . . . experience of the weather conditions peculiar to the Pacific route. Capt. Taylor considers that, while the crossing can be made bylandplanes, flying-boats have shown by their development in recent years that they may be eventually more suitable for long-rangeocean routes. Their use would also, of course, eliminate the need for the construction and maintenance of coral landing strips, initself a particularly expensive item. In 1933 Capt. Taylor performed a remarkable feat when, asnavigator to Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, whose F.VIIb-3m (the Southern Cross) was crossing the Tasman Sea, he climbed along thewing to an outboard engine (whose airscrew had broken) in order to obtain oil from its tank, so that he could replenish anotherengine that was running dry. By extreme bravery he thus averted what would otherwise have meant disaster. AIR FRANCE SUMMER PLANS T TNDER Air France's newly published summer timetable, which*-^ will take effect from April 15th, services on the London-Paris route will be flown approximately every two hours during the day.The popular "Epicurean" flights are being increased to three times daily to enable them to be made the starting flights onthrough services to the Riviera and Barcelona. From April 16th, 33-seat Languedocs will be introduced on the Paris-Manchester-Glasgow service, while DC-3S are being used on the route from Paris to Manchester, via Birmingham. Excursion fares from these British provincial centres to Parisare being offered at greatly reduced rates, so that passengers from the Midlands and the North will no longer need to make their wayto London to take advantage of the £10 "off-peak" fares. In fact, it will now be cheaper for them to fly direct to Paris from theProvinces. Air France is also starting, on May 10th, a new four-enginednight service from London to Nice, the return fare for which is as low as £25. PANAGRA'S FASTER DC-6S PAN AMERICAN-GRACE AIRWAYS, a subsidiary ofP.A.W.A. engaged on extensive operations to South America, have begun work on modernizing and improving their fleet ofDC-6s; the cost will be more than $500,000. The improvements involve conversion of the Pratt and Witney R.2,800 C.A.15 enginesnow installed to CB-i6s and the fitting of Hamilton Standard (reversible-pitch) airscrews, which will give better climb and cruis-ing characteristics together with improved performance at high altitude. Panagra's DC-6s will now have an extra 300 h.p. per engineavailable during take-off, while the additional 100 h.p. per engine 253 at cruising settings will make the aircraft 15 m.p.h. faster. Thejet-type exhaust stacks which the airline has fitted since 1947 will continue to be used to provide some measure of thrust augmenta-tion. In addition, to increase engine reliability, ignition systems are to be changed from high to low tension. The programme is expected to result in improved schedulereliability and reduced maintenance costs and, the company believes, will give Panagra the fastest DC-6s in the world. AN AIRLINE DE-NATIONALIZED the acceptance of a tender by Straight's Air FreightExpress, Ltd., to operate a cargo service between the North and South Islands, the New Zealand Government has nowtaken the first step towards de-nationalizing its State-controlled airlines. The new company, which will use Bristol Freighters, has aNew Zealand directorate and is backed financially by Airwork, Ltd., of London. Until now the railway authorities had operatedthe service between the islands, using Dakotas. Meanwhile, the New Zealand Labour Party, which was dis-'placed in the 1949 elections, has announced its intention— "when re-elected"—of purchasing at cost-plus-improvementprice any airlines disposed of privately. THE CYCLOPE-PALAS T OLLOWIN,G the successful trials of the French Fouga-I Cyclope—the fully aerobatic trainer version of the Pimene- powered Sylphe III jet-propelled sailplane the Fouga factory hasnow developed a further prototype, known as the Cyclope-Palas. It has a more powerful jet unit—the Turbomeca Palas—of 150 kgstatic thrust, which has led to notable improvements in per- formance. Piloted by M. Leon Bourrieau, the prototype made its firstflight on January 31st. The leading statistics of the Cyclope-Palas, shown for comparison with those of the Sylphe I (powered by theTurbomeca TR.on) are as follows :— Cyclope-Palas Sylphe IMax. static thrust 150 kg 90 kg Weight of power unit 614 kg 54 kgSpan 876 m 13-1 m Area 9-8 m! 13 m* Basic equipped weight 415 kg 365 kgAll-up-weight 615 kg 525 kg Max. speed at 4,000 m 350 km/hr 250 km/hr Climb from sea level 75 m/sec 35 m/secRadius of action in still air 400 km 230 km The greatly improved performance figures have been achievedmainly through the increased power which is now available, but also, as the table shows, by a considerable reduction in wing-area.Comparative wing-loadings are 63 kg/m2 for the Cyclope, as compared with 40.5 for the Sylphe I, while power loadings havebeen improved from 5.85 kg/kg thrust to 4.1 kg/kg in the Palas. BREVITIES HPHE M.C.A. has sent a radio and radar specialist to inspect the A facilities at Australian airports which will be used by the Comet later this year. It is understood that there is already sufficientequipment at the airports likely to be used—Darwin, Cloncuny, Sydney and Melbourne. • + * Passengers who, in the past, have felt the inadequacy of the"Continental" breakfasts and 5 o'clock snacks served on Air France services will be glad to hear that, henceforth, full compli-mentary meals are being provided on the London-Paris services at breakfast and tea-time. * * * The Lord Provost of Edinburgh has signified his intention ofmaking a formal complaint to B.E.A. about the way in which, he alleges, the development of Turnhouse airport at Edinburgh isbeing "deliberately stifled." Authorities in Edinburgh consider that the Corporation's aircraft flying between Renfrew and Londonshould touch down at Turnhouse; at present passengers for Lon- don must travel to Renfrew by road. Beginning today, March 2nd, two of B.O.A.C.'s Argonautservices to the Middle East will call at Zurich. This will be the first time that the Corporation has operated through SwitzerlandThe Bahrein service, which leaves London on Fridays, will fly via Zurich, Rome, Damascus and Kuwait; elapsed time will be21 hours. The Saturday services from London to Cairo, which will take 12 hours, will stop at Zurich and Rome. According to the Australian Air Minister, Mr. T. W. White, theair service across the Indian Ocean to South Africa is expected to be in operation this year. Progress is reported in negotiations touse the Cocos Islands as an intermediate stop. (Their use for this purpose was advocated in a Flight article a year ago.) The inauguration by B.E.A. of night mail services betweenManchester and Belfast, will according to the G.P.O., enable large quantities of first- and second-class letter mail—now carriedby sea—to reach its destination up to 24 hours earlier. On the same date, also, Aer Lingus will start a similar service betweenDublin and Manchester. Aer Lingus have announced that their service between Dublinand Bristol will be resumed from May 3rd. Initial frequency will be thrice weekly, increasing to four times weekly in July andbecoming daily (with the exception of Sundays) in August and September. This pre-war service was cancelled on the outbreak of war in 1939. * * * On behalf of the Government of Fiji, the Crown Agents for theColonies have awarded a contract for the aerial mapping of the island to Hunting Aerosurveys, Ltd. The total area to be photo-graphed is 6,477 square miles, and to reach their operational base the photographic aircraft—a Percival Survey Prince—will fly some14,500 miles, via the Mediterranean, India and Australia. The
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