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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1047.PDF
654 FLIGHT, i June 1951 CIVIL AVIATION HELICOPTER SCHEDULE: Today, June 1st, British European Airways will inaugurate a new scheduled helicopter passenger service between London, Northolt and Birmingham airports. Sikorsky S-51s, one of which is seen here at Northolt, will make three return flights over the route each week-day. VISUAL-RANGE MEASUREMENTT HE M.C.A. is to introduce a system of measuring runway visual range at airfields when visibility falls below 1,200 yards. When sunlight is combined with haze or smoke fog, lights some- times cannot be seen as far as can runway markers. It is therefore proposed to add, at M.C.A. airfields, an additional row of runway markers which will extend along both sides of the instrument runway at intervals of approximately 100 yards. The markers will be 6ft long, triangular in section, stand 3ft 3m high from the ground, and will be placed four yards from the runway edge. Runway light range will be measured from the control caravan or an equivalent position, and will consist in counting the number of lights (or gooseneck flares) which are visible. This figure will then be converted to the distance in yards at which a pilot would be able to see the runway lights if his aircraft were stationary on the ground at the downwind end of the runway. The same system will be used for measuring runway marker range. PRINCES SELLING WELL CJUBSTANTIAL orders have been reported during recent•^ weeks for the Percival Prince, which received its full C. of A. in December, 1949. Two Survey Princes will go to the Govern-ment of Tanganyika, and further aircraft of this type have also been ordered by Thailand and Switzerland. The Ministry of Supply has also ordered a number of Princeson behalf of the Long Range Weapons Organization in Australia, for whom an initial batch has been earmarked for communicationsand freight duties. Several more will become the property of the M.C.A., who will use them to fulfil the varied duties which the Ministry's telecommunications branch is called upon to perform- They will be used, particularly, in connection with the testing of co-ordination of airfield control systems and to check the func- tioning of radar, radio and navigational aids throughout the British Isles. Further Princes are being delivered to the Brazilian feeder-line, Aeronortej they will be equipped to carry 12 passengers. In addition a number of 8-10 passenger versions, to be used to convey personnel, freight and equipment, have been ordered by the Shell Petroleum Co., for use in the oilfields of Venezuela and Borneo. COMET TO CAIRO N its first official overseas development flight, the Comet on loan to B.O.A.C. left London Airport on May 24th for Rome, 908 miles away, where it arrived exactly 2 hr 13 min later. This is approximately half the time taken by airliners now in service. The aircraft, which was piloted by Capt. E. E. Rodley, then took off for Cairo, where it landed in 5 hr 22 min flying time ex-London. There were 23 passengers on board, among them Capt. M. J. R. Alderson, manager of B.O.A.C's Comet flight. Average speed throughout the trip was 450 m.p.h., and at Farouk Airport, where the Comet landed with ice still visible on its wings, it was one hour ahead of schedule. It has since flown to Nicosia, Cyprus, and was then due to visit Beirut (both of these airports may have to be used as alternatives when Comets are operating on B.O. A.C.'s scheduled services to the Middle East). The Comet was due to leave Cairo on Monday for London Airport from Rome. This development flight forms part of an extensive programme which is being carried out to test traffic-control and operating techniques, route weather-conditions and the performance and suitability of com- munications and navigational aids along the routes to be flown. The aircraft used on the Cairo flight was actually the second prototype, which is not fully furnished. While route trials are in progress, the Comet production line at Hatfield is reaching an advanced stage. B.O.A.C.'s order for nine aircraft is being followed by three more for C.P.A. and two for the French company, Chargeurs Reunis S.A. of Paris. Following these deliveries the long-range Series II Comets, powered by Avons, will be built for B.O.A.C. and Panair do Brazil, and more orders are also expected. Recently Sir Frank Whittle, who is a technical adviser to B.O.A.C., is reported to have discussed in South Africa the APPROVED: Sir Miles Thomas, B.O.A.C's chairman, with Col. W. C. Devereux, managing director ofAlmin, Ltd., at last week's "christen- ing" of the new three-bay hangar at London Airport. Believed to be the first all-light-alloy hangar in the world, the structure was built by S. M. D., Ltd., a subsidiary of Almin, Ltd. (Further information under "Brevities", 655)
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