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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0207.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 February 1953 CIVIL AVIATION AIRWORTHINESS TALKS CONCLUDED AMERICA is not yet willing to accept British Certificates of 1 »• Airworthiness for turbine-powered aircraft; recent talks on the subject between the British A.R.B. and the American C.A.A. resulted only in the statement—made in Washington on Monday— that "there do not appear to be any insurmountable obstacles to eventual agreements on certification standards ..." The Ameri can authorities also re-iterated their willingness to consider British machines on an ad hoc basis. At the time of going to press, the full text of the C.A.A. statement was not available in this country; it appears, however, that while no important concessions have been won by the A.R.B. mission, the prospects of prompt certification for the Comet 3 have definitely been improved. A closer understanding will presumably result from the C.A.A.'s return visit to this country in the autumn. I.A.T.A. TECHNICAL CONFERENCE CAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, will be the venue of the sixth I.A.T.A. ^ Technical Conference, which is to be held from April 20th to May 2nd, with the American member-airlines as hosts. Some of the world's leading authorities on helicopter operations, includ ing Mr. Igor Sikorsky, Mr. Frank Piasecki, Mr. Peter Masefield and Capt. A. Vernieuwe (Sabena), will take part in the helicopter symposium which will be the princiral feature of the ccaference. The two other main discussions will be centred on (a) problems of air navigation and traffic control in terminal areas with over crowded air space and (b) the degree of operating efficiency which can be expected in future transport aircraft. Altogether some 200 people will take part in the conference, which will take into account the views not only of airlines but of manufacturers, national and international bodies and research groups in aero nautics. U.A.T.'s COMET PROGRAMME IN mid-February, only two months after the delivery of the first of their two Series IA Comets, Union Aeromaritime de Trans port intend to begin regular Comet services on the Paris-Casa blanca-Dakar route. Towards the end of the month a number of flights will be made on the Paris-Brazaville route (via Tripoli and Kano), and a regular passenger service should be in operation by the second half of March. Dakar services will be operated twice weekly and the journey from Paris will take about nine hours. The first jet airliner for U.A.T., registered F-BGSA, was delivered to Paris by a French crew on December 17th; delivery of the second is expected shortly. TWO HUNTING SURVEYS ON behalf of the Sudan Government, Hunting Aerosurveys recently undertook a 4,000 sq mile photographic survey. Photographs and mosaics are now in the hands of the ecologists employed by Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, who are responsible for submitting a report to the Sudan Government on the irrigable possibilities of areas adjacent to the White and Blue Nile. The survey was extended to cover the proposed reservoir at Roseires on the Blue Nile. Contoured maps will be prepared of this area to determine the capacity of the reservoir. Hunting's flying manager, Capt. John Saffery, D.S.O., is in charge of a crew operating a Percival Prince Survey aircraft owned by the Thailand Government. Several other company technicians are helping to train Thai personnel in aerial mapping methods and, at the same time, assist in carrying out projects sponsored by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. MASEFIELD TRANSPORT LECTURE REPLACING at extremely short notice Sir Frederick Handley Page, who because of influenza was unable to deliver his Brancker Memorial Lecture, Mr. Peter Masefield, B.E.A.'s chief executive, gave "Some Thoughts on the Future Prospects of British Air Transport" before the Institute of Transport on Mon day last. In his talk Mr. Masefield considered in turn the growth of air traffic, British aircraft export potentialities, economic factors relevant to the fares structure, and the position of the helicopter. We hope to print a fuller account in next week's issue. LIBYAN AIRWAYS INAUGURATED CARRYING a payload consisting of one car, several passengers and over a ton of mail, the first Bristol Freighter of Libyan Airways inaugurated regular services between Tripoli and Benghazi on February 1st. Demonstration flights were given at both terminals to members of the Libyan Government and local merchants. The inauguration was attended by Mr. Eoin Mekie and A. Cdre Griffith Powell, chairman and managing director, respectively, of Silver City Airways, parent company of the new Libyan operator, which has been formed under a concession granted by the Libyan Government (Flight of January 2nd). On his return, A. Cdre. Powell said that he was agreeably surprised by the demand for passenger space. He believes that seating accommodation in the Freighters will ultimately have to be increased. VISCOUNTS FOR FRANCE CIX of the twelve Vickers Viscount 708s ordered by Air France ^ are now taking shape on the assembly line at Weybridge, and the first machine is expected to be flying in a matter of days. This aircraft bears the registration F-BGNK; the other five will be F-BGNL to Z. Air France deliveries are to be made parallel to B.E.A.'s (the Corporation's fourth Discovery-class Viscount is now very nearly completed) and the second batch of six will soon begin construction. The aircraft differ only in internal layout and colour scheme; the Air France interior is silver-grey and blue in contrast to B.E.A.'s grey and red, and the kitchen is located in the rear fuselage instead of in the section between the passenger cabin and flight deck, as in the 701. THE NEW JOHANNESBURG AIRPORT AS illustrated in the previous issue of Flight, Johannesburg's • new Jan Smuts Airport is now taking shape; the terminal block and control tower are practically finished, and a South African correspondent reports that the airport should be in commission by June. For some time, he adds, the airfield has been used as a take-off base for Comets and occasional Pan American aircraft. The passengers come from Palmietfontein in "sealed" buses as there are no Customs' facilities at ]an Smuts. Now the headquarters of South African Airways will be moved there from Germiston. Two of the biggest hangars at Palmie- fontein have been dismantled and put up again at Jan Smuts. The main runway of the new airport is 10,500ft long. CENTRAL AFRICAN BUDGET PROBLEM ""CCONOMIES wherever possible" are being introduced by -t-' Central African Airways in an effort to keep within their budget for the second half of the current financial year. The year's subsidy is £120,000, compared with £160,000 for the previous twelve months, and the allowance was exceeded by £25,000 during the first six-month period. A Corporation executive said recently that bookings were not being accepted for services where the demand did not justify their being run, but that these services were still available if people wanted them. Engineers employed by C.A.A. had volunteered to work an extra hour a week at normal rates of pay instead of at overtime rates, and employees in most other departments had volunteered to work the extra hour without any extra pay at all. As a result of these economies and of careful planning, the Corporation was actually £35,000 under its planned expenditure for the first six months of the year. He added, however, that increases in revenue were not large enough to justify the additional services which the Corporation were trying to provide. PALMIETFONTEIN is at present the main airport for Johannesburg, although, as reported above, the new Jan Smuts Airport is already in limited use. Shown arriving at the former is S.A.S. DC-6 "Skjold Viking," which recently opened a regular service from Stockholm.
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