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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1525.PDF
669 FLIGHT 30 May 1952 RARE VISITOR to Londcn Air port last week was this DC-A of Australian National Air ways, which "stood in" for the two similar aircraft (both undergoing overhaul) nor mally operated on behalf of Air Ceylon by A.N.A. CIVIL AVIATION GOVERNMENT'S CIVIL POLICY T^HE Minister of Civil Aviation was expected to announce on •*• Tuesday the Government's plans for increasing the oppor tunities open to independent operators. Inevitably, the policy was expected to strike a compromise between the natural desire of the Corporations to retain their more profitable services and the independents' anxiety to enlarge and secure the present basis of their operations. Another factor affecting the Government's decision was the potential use of independents' aircraft as a transport-reserve for the R.A.F. < NEW CANADAIR TRANSPORT A PROVISIONAL specification has been issued of the new **- Canadair CL-21 twin-engined transport; the company is surveying the reactions of airline operators to its initial proposals. Details are as follows : two engines of 1,500-1,700 h.p. (reported to be Wright Cyclone 9 Series HE); pressurized fuselage seating 32 passengers; cruising speed, 220 m.p.h.; block speeds between 145 and over 200 m.p.h.; stalling speed, 74 m.p.h.; fuel capacity, 500-750 (U.S.) gallons. U.S. JET-TRANSPORT SUBSIDY "REPORTS from America indicate that the Appropriations -"- Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives may soon be prompted to reverse its recent decision to refuse funds requested by the Civil Aeronautics Administration for construction of one or more jet transports. The change of heart has apparently been prompted by the U.S.A.F., which now regards jet transports as a necessity and favours their development "at any time it can be carried on without interfering with the military programme." Loans to one or more manufacturers (to be repaid subject to successful production of their designs) of "up to $15 m. [£55357,000] each" may be made by the autumn if, as expected, Congress approves the subsidy plan. Even so, it has been estimated that at least two years will elapse before a prototype U.S. jet airliner is ready for flight-testing. FUEL SHORTAGE CONTINUES ALTHOUGH nearly all the 90,000 U.S. oil workers involved in the wage-dispute which has disrupted world airline ser vices will probably have returned to the refineries by the time these words appear, the cumulative effect of the strike is unlikely to have diminished. B.E.A.'s scheduled services were reduced by nearly 50 per cent last week, while B.O.A.C. cut Far East and "luxury" transatlantic services by one-third in order to maintain all its S&VJ**"**^ LOUIS BREGUET has produced design-studies for an airliner which, with a speed-range of 50-185 m.p.h. and 3,000-10,000 lb. payload, is a poten tial competitor for B.E.A.''s proposed London-Paris helicopters. This impres sion of the BrSguet 941, as it is designated, shows the tilting airscrews and triple flaps which are intended to give exceptionally short take-off and landing runs. The engines specified are four 800 h.p. radials. scheduled "Mayflower" (low-fare) services on the North Atlantic. The Corporations, naturally enough, are seriously perturbed by the effect which the fuel-shortage will have on financial results at a time when both are making supreme efforts to run at a profit. Great concern was also expressed by the British Independent Air Transport Association, which protested that the "crude method" of applying the restriction bore most hardly on its members. After receiving a B.I.A.T.A. deputation on May 20th, Mr. Reginald Maudling, Parliamentary Secretary to the M.C.A., undertook "as a matter of urgency" to examine various possi bilities of altering the basis of rationing. There was a further meeting the next day, attended by Government, B.O.A.C., B.E.A., oil company and B.I.A.T.A. representatives, at which it was decided to make three concessions to ease the lot of the inde pendents ; briefly, these were that: (i) Companies operating inter national services could, by agreement draw on one another's fuel allocations overseas; (ii") The Channel Islands would no longer be regarded as an area separate from the remainder of the U.K. for the purposes of fuel rationing; (iii) Realizing that, proportionately, the independents would suffer more than the Corporations during May and June if their fuel deliveries were based on April require ments, the M.C.A. may authorize increases in deliveries. B.O.A.C. HERMES MISHAP "COR reasons so far unexplained, a B.O.A.C. Hermes IV force- * landed hundreds of miles off track in French West Africa on Monday while en route from Tripoli to Lagos. The landing was apparently made in soft sand, with damage to the port wing, some 300 miles N.W. of Dakar and 90 miles S.S.E. of Atar. The ten passengers and crew of eight were believed to have escaped injury. BAHAMAS REORGANIZATION T HREE services previously operated by Bahamas Airways (to West Palm Beach, Santiago de Cuba and Havana) are now being taken over by British West Indian Airways. Both com panies are, of course, wholly owned subsidiaries of B.O.A.C., and the transfer realizes the forecast of "drastic alterations" in the organization of Bahamas Airways made by Sir Miles Thomas after a recent visit to the Caribbean area. Bahamas Airways, whose losses amounted to some £100,000 during the financial year 1951-52, will continue to operate their outer-island services with Grumman Geese, but their two Dakotas are being transferred to B.W.I.A. B.O.A.C.'s MIDDLE EAST H.Q. C HANGES in its Middle East sales organization, as a result of recent developments in air traffic, are announced by B.O.A.C. The area has now been divided into three parts (Cairo and N.E. Africa, the Levant, and Iraq-Persia Gulf), each with its own manager reporting direct to London. The responsibilities of the H.Q. in Cairo are thus divided between the three areas. The Corporation points out that although the Comet service is being operated through Beirut instead of Cairo, the change should not be interpreted as meaning that the H.Q. will move from Cairo. In fact, says B.O.A.C., Cairo will remain an important centre. FRENCH JET PROJECT S OME interesting background information oh the S.O.60 jet transport design-study (illustrated in model form in Flight of April 25th) has been released by the S.N.C.A.S.O. The design- study was completed to specifications for a medium transport laid down by the French Committee for Civil Materials, which was formed last October under the auspices of the Secretariat General a l'Aviation Civile et Commerciale. The Committee's programme called for "exploitation of European and North African lines over distances from 400 to 1,900 km [250-1,180 miles] while taking into account the lengths of the available runways." The aircraft envisaged was to have capacity for about 60 passengers and their baggage, i.e. about 12,000 lb of payload.
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