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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1244.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 June 1951 771 CIVIL AVIATION I.A.T.A. RESPONSIBILITIES THE recent admission of the Spanish airline Aviation y •*• Comercio S.A., to I.A.T.A. has brought the total of that organization's member-companies up to 65. It is estimated that between them I.A.T.A. members now carry 90 per cent, of all scheduled international traffic. The new company is the second Spanish airline to join I.A.T.A., the Spanish long-distance carrier, Iberia, having been a member since 1945. In order to qualify for participation an airline must be licensed to provide scheduled air transport by a government eligible for membership of I.C.A.O. Some proof of the measure of assistance which I.A.T.A. is affording to its members is reflected in the total of international traffic transactions put through the Clearing House in London during the first four months of this year : it amounted to some $48,404,000 and represented a substantial increase over the figure for the corresponding period of the previous year. By offsetting the credit and debit accounts of its airline members, the Clearing House was able to eliminate the need for cash payment and foreign exchange transactions on 82.3 per cent of the turnover for April. In one case a single airline's turnover for the month ($389,470) was offset by 99 per cent and the amount of the cash payment needed for complete settlement was only $3,914. PILOTS ON STRIKE TV^IDESPREAD disruption of domestic services in the United * » States was brought about last week by the walk-out strike of 900 pilots of United Air Lines. All the company's flights were suspended, with the exception of those connected with the Tokyo airlift. United is, of course, a particularly extensive operator and services to 68 different cities were affected. It is estimated that 600 flights had to be cancelled and that thousands of would-be passengers were stranded. The strike was the culmination of a 22-month old dispute over wages and working conditions. One of the main issues concerns the pilots' claim for payment on a mileage basis; it is alleged that, with the faster DC-6Bs which are now being used, more flights have to be made for the same pay as was previously earned for flying in slower aircraft. The United States Mediation Board has called the strike an "illegal walk-out" and last Saturday President Truman appealed to the pilots to return to their duties so that the Board might continue its efforts to reach a workable agreement. Although the president of United Air Lines, Mr. W. A. Patter- son, has said that his company will not concede the mileage claim, the pilots were reported to have signified their willingness to return to work under a "truce" arrangement. At the time of going to press, however, no confirmation was available of any definite move one way or the other. # The American Airline Pilots' Association is known to have made similar demands to American Air Lines and T.W.A., and rumours were current to the effect that pilots of these two com- panies might also strike in sympathy with the U.A.L. personnel. FROM DARKEST AFRICA THE first report (recently published) of the newly formedDepartment of Civil Aviation of the Nyasaland Protectorate tells something of the manner in which the benefits of commercial aviation are being extended to even the most undeveloped parts of the world. Although a large part of the territory is uninhabited and its terrain of forbidding aspect, Nyasaland is now served on a regular basis by aircraft (Vikings and Doves) of Central African Airways Corporation and by the charter flights of the Rhodesian Aircraft Maintenance Service Co., Ltd. (Rapides and Bonanzas). In all, there are 12 airfields of which Blantyre is the main airport; last year a total of 5,789 passengers passed through the two main airports of Blantyre and Lilongwe. An attempt is being made, also, to arrange for a proportion of the mails to be diverted to air carriage in the near future. P.A.A.'s LOSST HE wreckage of the Pan American Airways' Constellation which had been missing for two days while on a flight between Accra (Gold Coast) and Roberts Field (Liberia) was discovered on Saturday on a hillside at Totota, 50 miles north-west of its destination. There were no signs of any survivors from the 31 passengers and nine crew who had been aboard. The Constellation left Accra at 11.45 P-m- last Thursday and arrived over Roberts Field at 0246 hr on Friday morning. The weather was bad at the time and the pilot reported that he could not see the landing strip. The last message received was at 0330, when the aircraft should have had enough fuel for a further eight hours' flying. One member of the crew, the purser, was a Briton who had been employed by P.A.A. for 20 years. WESTLANDS LOOK AHEAD HTHREE design-studies of unusual interest—the work of the -•- Westland Aircraft company—were revealed last week on the occasion of the first demonstration in this country of the S-55— itself the largest single-rotor machine to fly in England, and capable of carrying twelve passengers in its cabin and two crew in the cockpit forward and above. (Notes on the demonstration appear on p. 758.) Of the design-studies, all with single rotors, the W-80 is a two-Leonides passenger machine representing thoughts on B.E.A.'s next probable requirement. It would be fast as these aircraft go, and might carry crew and 20 passengers. However, it appears likely that this stage will be leap-frogged, and the larger W-81 is now receiving more attention. This 32-seater with two turbojet units has, in fact, reached the most advanced stage of the three in terms of design-work done. A top speed in the region of 150 m.p.h. with two Darts or Mambas is foreseen, and the gas turbines would be mounted side-by-side above the cabin and almost directly under the four-blade rotor. For military or civil cargo-work Westlands are thinking along very ambitious lines, and they believe single-rotor machines of per- haps 200,000 lb a.u.w. are not so far over the horizon. The W-85, proposed and illustrated, would be in the 80,000-lb class with a 15-ton payload sufficient, say, for 100 armed troops in its military form. A rotor diameter of xioft is required for this machine, and it is the only one which the company feels would justify the use of jets at the rotating-wing tips. Three large, or six smaller, gas turbines would provide the power, and rotor r.p.m. would be much the same as with present types. Regarding the Westland-Sikorsky S-55, which in its Wasp single-engined fcrm is primarily a military proposition, Westlands are studying variants which might be more attractive to com- mercial operators by virtue of their having two engines. The problem of finding a suitable British power source might also find a parallel solution. For example, should a double Leonides installation prove feasible in a modified nose, the resulting machine would presumably be more attractive to B.E.A. as a natural successor to their S.51S. The two-engine safety require- ment would be met, and although the total output—900-1,000 h.p. —would be considerably higher than with the single 600 h.p. Wasp, S3H2 or S1H2, the airframe has the capacity to absorb it usefully. Certainly the accommodation of ten passengers in a roomy, well- situated cabin would be a great improvement on the present S-51 three-seat bench offered by the Corporation. The dimensions of the S-55 cabin are, in fact, length, 10ft; width, 5ft 6in; height, 6ft. With Wasp engine the useful load is 2,400 lb. SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME : Three of the helicopter design-studies (described in the paragraph above) which have been evolved by the Westland Aircraft Co., are, for comparison, shown here beside the S-55, which had its first public demonstration last week. These artist's conceptions are (left to right) the S-55, W-80, W-81 and W-85.
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