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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1151.PDF
FLIGHT, 25 April 1952 513 CIVIL AVIATION THE S.O.60, depicted here by a model, is a design-study of the French S.N.C.A.S.O. company for a small jet yet airliner of new configuration. Suggested power-units are two Avon, Sapphire or French Atar turbojets suspended in "pods" beneath the swept-back wings BRITISH AIRLINES' YEAR OF PROGRESS THIGURES comparing the 1951 activities of the British Corpora- A tions and their U.K. associates with statistics for 1950 have been published by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. They show increases in nearly every respect: nearly i£ m pas sengers were flown (an increase of 22 per cent over the 1950 figure); passenger-miles flown rose by 35 per cent to over 1,000 m. Load factors improved for all the companies, the overall figures (increases in brackets) being: B.O.A.C, 65 per cent (7 per cent); B.E.A., 64 per cent (8 per cent); and associates, 59 per cent (11 per cent). Freight short-ton miles increased by 28 per cent to 31 m and mail short-ton miles by the same percentage to 17 m. AER LINGUS ACCIDENT INQUIRY '"THE suggestion that icing conditions were encountered at 6,500ft A by the Aer Lingus Dakota EI-AFL, which crashed in Caernar vonshire on January 10th, was put forward at the public inquiry on the accident, which began in London on April 17th. Mr. P. Stuart Bevan, for the Crown, referred to evidence showing that the aircraft crashed almost a matter of seconds after its last mes sage at 7.13 p.m. That message gave a position for the Dakota, then flying at 6,500ft—a position since found to have been 17 miles north of track. Parts of the starboard wing found 200 yd from the crash indi cated that the wing had been broken off by stress in the air before impact. It was suggested that icing may have caused the aircraft to go out of control at 6,000ft, although Mr. Eric Newton, of the M.C.A. Accident Investigation Branch, said that he could find no evidence that the crash was caused by icing. If the court concluded that there was severe icing at 6,500ft, said Mr. Bevan, there was then no doubt that the forecast given to the Dakota's captain was wrong when it spoke of the degree of icing as moderate. Was the forecaster negligent for making a forecast that was wrong? Mr. Bevan said that it might be that she could have made no other forecast. It would appear that this was a question the inquiry would have to go into rather deeply. It would have to consider certain meteorological theories and the practice of meteorological offices. The other outstanding issues listed by Mr. Bevan were : Why was the aircraft off course—did that contribute to the accident in any way ? If there was no dangerous icing or turbulence, why did the aircraft crash ? At the inquiry, which was held by Mr. Roland Adams, Q.C., the crashed aircraft was referred to by its call-sign, Fox Love. THE AIRLINES IN 1951 SOME facts and figures compiled by I.A.T.A. and covering scheduled airline operations during 1951 show that the gross revenues of all scheduled airlines, excluding Chinese and Soviet, totalled S 1,700,000,000 (£603,571,428). Of this total the 62 I.A.T.A. members accounted for 81,500,000,000 (£535,714^85). The total number of passengers carried was 39,000,000—a daily average of 107,000. The average distance travelled by airline passengers was 500 miles. Total freight transport amounted to 900,000,000 ton-kilometres, and mail ton-kilometres to 210,000,000. Over 40 types of American, Australian, British, Canadian, French, German, Itahan and Swedish construction made up the total of 2,250 aircraft in service with I.A.T.A. members. The world-wide airline safety quotient improved 25 per cent from 1948 to 1950, while traffic increased 35 per cent in that period. HIGHER-DENSITY seating is much in the news nowadays, as exemplified by the paragraph "Transatlantic Tourists." Central African Airways recently converted two newly-acquired "short-nosed" Vikings from 21- seaters to 27-seoters with the assistance of Vickers-Armstrongs, Rumbold and Co. and Airwork, Ltd. C.A.A. found that the specially designed seats could be installed without prejudice to comfort—as this photograph shows. I.A.T.A. also states that the airlines provide direct employment for over 200,000 people, of whom about 10 per cent are aircrew. Dealing with North Atlantic traffic, the association points out that scheduled airlines made 11,200 flights over the North Atlantic in 1951 and carried 340,000 passengers on these flights. This represents 34 per cent of all North Atlantic passenger traffic. There are at least 18 airline aircraft in the air on North Atlantic flights at any one time. SUPER-CONSTELLATION PRODUCTION DUE to the higher rate of production, as well as increased aircraft-size, space required on Lockheed assembly-lines for the Super Constellation is 60 per cent more than for the shorter Model 749 "Connies." Actual space required is 500,000 sq ft, compared with 315,000 sq ft for the 749. Many components will be built on a three-shift basis before the year is out to ensure deliveries. Following its maiden flight in March, the first often Super Con stellations ordered by T.W.A. is now undergoing C.A.A. certifica tion flight tests. The main items to be checked are a new radio installation, autopilot and additional fuel tanks in the wing centre- section. TRANSLANTIC TOURISTS ALREADY agency and airline bookings show prospects of constant demand for the transatlantic tourist services, scheduled to start on May 1st, which I.A.T.A. describes as a new era in international travel. On that day 11 member-airlines of the Association will begin to realize plans which have been in course of preparation for many months—or, in some cases, years. During the opening weeks of the services, 39 tourist flights will be made weekly, in each direction across the N. Atlantic, and the schedule should increase progressively to some 71 flights each way per week by August 1st. At the peak of the season, there will be accommodation for as many as 8,000 tourist passengers weekly in both directions. The principle of tourist services is, of course, to carry more
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