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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 3427.PDF
FLIGHT, 28 November 1952 CIVIL AVIATION 681 MARATHONS IN SERVICE: The first airline operator to use the Handley Page (Reading) Mara thon (four D.H. Gipsy Queen 70s) is West African Airways Cor poration, which opened a Mara thon service on November 1st between Accra and Lagos. Three of the Corporation's new 18- •seaters, attractively finished, are pictured at the latter airport. NORTHERN PATHFINDER NAMED Arild Viking, and bearing the three-flag insignia of the Scandinavian Airlines System, a new Douglas DC-6B com pleted, on November 20th, the first commercial crossing of the Atlantic by way of the Arctic. The aircraft took off from Los Angeles at 16.56 hr (G.M.T.) on November 19th, arriving at Kastrup, Copenhagen, 27hr 52 min later after an uneventful flight via Edmonton and Thule, the new American base in Greenland. Regular "Arctic Express" services over this route will, it is hoped, begin early in the New Year; a second proving flight will be made in a few days' time. In addition to its crew of eleven, illustrated at the foot of this page, Arild Viking carried 22 passengers, including Col. Bernt Balchen, the Arctic-navigation expert, the Danish and Norwegian Ambassadors to the U.S.A. and several senior executives of S.A.S. The commercial opening of the Arctic route owes much to the work done by the R.A.F. and U.S.A.F. since the war in over coming the problems of Polar navigation. The navigators aboard Arild Viking, Einar Pedersen and B. Heiberg-Andersen, both had considerable experience of Arctic operations, and the former is the author of a number of books and articles on the subject. From Edmonton to Thule, and from Thule to the east coast of Greenland, their flight was planned on the Greenwich grid system, changing to the conventional magnetic-compass method for the remainder of the journey. The magnetic compass is, of course, completely unreliable in the extreme Polar regions, so direction had to be maintained by the use of gyro-compasses in conjunction with astro-navigation. Use was also made of two methods of checking position: one, known as "target timing," involves the use of radar; the other, developed by Col. Balchen, uses air-pressure readings at known height as a means of fixing. OVER-THE TOP: Crew-members of the S.A.S. Douglas DC-6B which, as reported above, has completed a 5,940-mile proving fight from Los Angeles to Copenhagen via Edmonton and Thule: (left to right) Capt. P. Jensen, Nav. B. He/berg-Andersen, Capt. S. Gibson, FjEng. W. Wamalar, Capt. A. G. Pransen, Purser F. Jacobsen, Nav. E. Pedersen, Purser P. B. Inset, RIO. T. Forsberg and R/O. K. Turk. Another member, not shown, was FjEng. E. Ernstgard. ASSISTING JAP AIRLINES T HE Japanese Ministry of Transportation is reported to have drawn up a five-point plan for promoting the growth of airline services. Assistance is expected to take the following forms : (1) Aid in construction of airfields, the Ministry paying half the cost borne by municipal authorities. (2) Extension of Government guarantee for payment of loans granted to airlines. (3) Preferential treatment in respect of taxes and the limit of debenture bonds to be floated. (4) Subsidies for certain developments of airline operations, such as extension of overseas routes. (5) Support for airlines in obtaining new equipment, either by chartering aircraft owned by the Government or by subsidizing their purchase. THE GERMAN REVIVAL FJ a recent statement, the West German Government said that an "air transport equipment company" will very soon be formed to make preparations for establishing the German airline. It is not yet known when the airline will be formed; at present, the occupa tion statute forbids Germans to fly aircraft, and this restriction will continue until the Western Powers ratify the Bonn convention (probably within the next few months). Meanwhile, the German Ministry of Transport is considering a number of recommenda tions made by a special committee formed a year ago to study all the problems associated with setting up an airline. The new Lufthansa, the committee decided, would need a capital of 150m marks (some £i3m), to be provided by the Bonn Government, State Government and private investors. Waiving of customs duty on aircraft imported from abroad was recommen ded. The airline should serve (in addition to German and other European cities) the U.S.A. and South America, the Middle and Far East and Africa; 24 aircraft would be required—12 twin- engined and 12 four-engined. CHARTER NOTES AMONG the more interesting charter flights completed by • British independent airline companies last week was an in clusive sightseeing holiday tour of the Middle East, undertaken by B.K.S. Aerocharter on behalf of United States Service interests in Germany. The trip comprised a 7,000-mile tour for 25 service men on European leave. They left Munich by B.K.S. Dakota and flew to Jerusalem via Nice, Bari, Athens and Cairo, return ing via Crete instead of Cairo. B.K.S. also flew 25 NAAFI per sonnel to and from Cyprus. Skyways of London, busy as usual with their many trooping activities, flew from Bangkok to Amster dam with a load of miscellaneous cargo for K.L.M. On the Berlin airlift, Air Charter's Yorks completed 23 pas senger trips, carrying 1,150 refugees to Hanover, and 47 freight flights taking 376 tons of cargo to Hamburg. Silver City's Bristol 170s made 48 trips to Hamburg with a total of 240 tons of bulky freight. Other Silver City cargo flights included four from Le Touquet to Lympne, one to Tripoli for the Iraq Petroleum Com pany, and one to Algiers. Compared with recent weeks, operations for the week ended November 22nd represent a drop of some 25 per cent in mileage and revenue; this is the result of a market lull before the usual Christmas rush. Altogether, last week, 130 en route flights were completed, 118 of them in Germany, on the airlift. Of the total, 102 were cargo flights and 28 were with passengers. About 74,500 miles were flown in all, 19,000 on passenger trips and 55,500 with freight; cargo carried was an estimated 643 tons and passengers flown numbered about 1,280. These figures represent about 139,000 freight ton-miles and 467,000 passenger miles. This week the Bristol 170 was the most flown aircraft, with 32,500 miles; Yorks only just lost the lead which they have held for so long and came a close second with 31,000 miles; Dakotas covered 11,000 miles. The week's flying occupied 470 hours and netted an approximate revenue of £38,000.
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