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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0610.PDF
378 FLIGHT, 30 March 1951 ENGINES TO MATCH: As the series already bears the name Bretagne, it is perhaps appropriate that the S.O. 30, a project of the Societe Nationals de Constructions Aeronautiques du Sud-Ouest, should be powered experimentally by two Hispano-built Rolls-Royce Nenej. This machine, which will be used for research into the operating problems of jet transports, recently made its first fight at Villacoublay. CIVIL AVIATION ... to keep the aircraft moving at high speed to prevent it from be- coming bogged. Take-offs were begun immediately after a tight 180 deg turn. Despite the fact that runways later became rutted and imposed severe lateral strains on the undercarriage, no mechani- cal faults are so far reported. Australian pilots have expressed the opinion that the gear should be used with normal corrective procedure. In other words, in cross-winds of more than 20 m.p.h. the pilot should line up with the runway just before touching down. "Wheelers" are preferred to three-pointers and it is recommended that the gear should be locked in the central position for taxying, so that swivelling of the wheels, due to camber and apron slope, is eliminated. It is considered that, used with the normal corrective technique, the cross-wind gear is an added safety factor which compensates for sudden changes in wind-strength at the point of touch-down, provides added tolerance for pilot error, and gives rise to a more efficient airflow over the wings during take-off; tyre wear is also reduced. The Department's tests are being continued. SWISSAIR MAINTENANCE PERMIT SWISSAIR is the latest of the major European operators to begranted C.A.A. permission to undertake the repair and over- haul of American-registered aircraft. The efficiency of the com- pany's technical staff and the quality of technical work undertaken at the maintenance bases at Geneva and Zurich was officially recognized by the presentation at the company's headquarters in Zurich, on March 7th, of the C.A.A.'s Aircraft Repair Station Certificate. Swissair personnel are already experienced in the maintenance of DC-3S, DC-4S and Convairliners which, together with a number of smaller aircraft, comprise the company's fleet. Incidentally, delivery is expected, in May or June, of two DC-6Bs, which have been on order since last year. U.S. AIRLINE'S MEETING = A MEETING of the board of directors of Trans World Airlines, •**- due to take place in London to-day will mark the first occasion on which the company has held such a meeting outside the United States. Announcing this recently, the chairman, Mr. Warren Lee Pierson, said that the arrangement was an extension of the company's policy of holding meetings in the principal cities on T.W.A. routes throughout the United States. The 17 board-members who will gather in London include Mr. A. B. Eisenhower (a brother of General Eisenhower) and Mr. Noah Dietrich, president of the Hughes Tool Co. and chairman of R.K.O. Pictures, Hollywood. BREVITIES WITH effect from April 1st, Benina will become the designatedcivil airport for Cyrenaica, and from that date El Adem, which is now used, will be an entirely military airfield controlled by the R.A.F. Civil aircraft wishing to use El Adem will in future be allowed to do so only after special permission has been obtained from the Air Ministry. * * * Following unusually heavy bookings, B.C.P.A. has announced its intention of running special services to North America in April. Those terminating at San Francisco will leave Sydney at 11 a.m. on Fridays, returning at 7 p.m. the following Tuesday; commencing date is April 6th. * * * Next month B.O.A.C. Yorks will be engaged on a miner airlift from Berlin to Sydney; 132 German emigrants, all of them skilled technicians, are being flown to Australia to work on a new hydro- electric project in the Snowy Mountains. The emigrants will travel by B.O.A.C. as fa£ as Singapore, where they will transfer to Skymasters of Qantas, Empire Airways. * * * Easter traffic booked on the services of Air France represents a company record for the total of passengers carried on one rcute in a single period. Over 1,000 were due to travel between London and Paris on Thursday, March 22nd; 37 Languedoc and DC-4 services were arranged to carry them. It was expectrd that at least 75 special services would be needed to lift the 2,000-0 dd passer gers travelling over the entire Easter holiday. B.E.A. scheduled a total of 134 flights between London and Paris during Easter. There was also a heavy demand on services to Nice. * * * T.C.A., the State-owned Canadian operators, showed a deficit of some £441,700 in 1950, according to the annual report which was presented last week in the Canadian House of Commons. The overall loss represented a decline of nearly £1,000,000 as compared with the figure for 1949. The whole of the 1950 deficit was occasioned on Atlantic operations, domestic services having shown profit for the first time since the end of the war. * * • A new reciprocal agreement between Canada and the United States has resulted in considerably simplified arrangements by which pilots of private and non-scheduled aircraft may cross the border between the two countries. When flying to one of certain designated airports, pilots are now required only to file a flight plan with the Department of Transport's air traffic control unit, who will now notify separately the U.S. Customs and Immigration authorities. On March 19th a B.O.A.C. Stratocruiser, carrying 29 passengers made the east-to-west transatlantic crossing in 12 hr 36 min. It was flying on one of the Corporation's new non-step "Monarch" services, which are normally scheduled to complete the journey in 17 hr. This is believed to be the fastest London-New York crossing ever made by B.O.A.C. . * * * Statistics recently published by the C.A.B. show that for the period July, 1949-June, 1950, the 49 b'g "irregular" operators in the United States amassed a total of 496,467,000 passenger-miles. The largest single total was that achieved by Transocean Air Lines based at Oakland, California. Because of the Korean airlift, figures for the current period of operations are expected to be much larger. * * * So popular were the S.A.S. "Midnight-Sun" sight-seeing flights to northern Sweden last year that the company has now started similar flights to the famous hill scenery of Jamtland. DC-6s are used, the aircraft leaving at 1030 hr and returning at 1400. Lunch is served on board and a commentary on the panorama is given over the aircrafts' loudspeaker system. * * * The Emperor of Yemen has engaged Capt. OUe Hagermark, a Swedish test pilot from the S.A.A.B. factory, as his private pilot. He will be stationed at Tiazz, the capital of Yemen, and join the staff of Yemen Airways/ The chief traffic control officer at Brcrnma Airport, Stockholm, also left for Beirut recently, to organize flight- safety services in the Lebannon. * * * - :•? The Indian Government's proposal to take over Deccan Airways and Himalayan Airways, as a first step towards the complete nationalization of India's air-transport system, has been postponed indefinitely for financial reasons. The Ministry of Communications is of the opinion that it will be more "ecoricmical and efficient" for the State to run mail and passenger services between Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and Madras. :->. * * * :7. An American "irregular" operator, California Eastern Airways* based at Oakland Municipal airport, is reported to have been the successful bidder in a somewhat unusual sideline—that of givir-g basic flight-training to several hundred U.S.A.F. cadet-pilots. Under the terms of the contract the Air Force will provide the base and the aircraft, while C.E.A. will be responsible for instruction and accommodation. Forty-five instructors will be required
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