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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0239.PDF
20 February 1953 237 LE PREMIER VICOMTE: Pictured last week at the end of the Weybridge assembly-line of Vickers- Armstrongs, Ltd., the first Viscount 708 for Air France is now almost ready for flight trials. Six of the French airline's order for 12 Viscounts are at present under construction. completes the journey in 42 hr. Only three 1 hr 15 min refuelling stops are made at Beirut, Karachi and Saigon; although it spends over 38 out of the 42 hr in the air, this ser vice is described as of luxury standard, since the Constellation carries only 34 passengers in reclining seats. Constellation 749s are also used by K.L.M. for two weekly services from Amsterdam to Tokyo with seven land ings en route, and the S.A.S. services from Stockholm (twice weekly) to the Japanese capital are operated with DC-6s. The Air France schedule, which is the fastest service between Europe and Tokyo offered by any of B.O.A.C.'s competitors, obviously approaches the ultimate speed possible with piston- engined airliners flying between the two points via India. S.A.S. hope to cut 16 hr off their present Stockholm-Tokyo time by operating via Greenland and the Aleutians. The main disadvan tage of the northern route, however, is the lack of intermediate traffic stops. TRANSATLANTIC FREIGHT PROSPECTS AN increase of 25 per cent in the amount of freight carried by k air across the North Atlantic in 1952 (traffic is estimated as 46 million ton/miles for all carriers) is forecast for 1953 by Mr. R. A. Norden, president of Seaboard and Western Airlines. Among the factors responsible for this increase, said Mr. Norden, would be the growing capacity of Western European nations to meet the demand of the American dollar market; he also suggested that with the levelling-off of some U.S. defence production there would be an opportunity for European buyers to import more goods to Europe. The American executive described West Ger many as holding top position among European importer exporter nations of air freight and suggested that Germany's strength ened financial position will enable the country to make further use of air freight during the coming year. WINGED WORDS YESTERDAY, February 19th, Mr. John Profumo, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the M.C.A., was due to open the new Civil Aviation Communications Centre at Croydon. Since the war, the British portion of I.C.A.O.'s aeronautical fixed tele communications network, comprising teleprinter, radio-teletype and hand-operated W/T. circuits for relaying both administrative and traffic messages, has inevitably grown up in a piecemeal and unsatisfactory fashion, resulting—mainly through the use of obsolete equipment—in slow transmission of messages and much duplication of effort. In 1949 Treasury approval was obtained for the construction of a completely new centre; and, after some deliberation, a disused factory on Croydon Airport was chosen as site. This choice may seem surprising, but the easier labour and staff accommodation conditions, and the ready availability of G.P.O. facilities in the area, were among the reasons for the decision. With the opportunity to start, as it were, from scratch, every effort was made to plan a really modern installation capable of considerable development later on. Messrs. A. B. Gilbert and G. E. Graham, of the M.C.A., were largely responsible for the successful equipment layout that has been achieved, and Mr. Graham and Mr. S. R. Brown are now in charge of the unit, which has in fact already been in operation for some five or six weeks. A total staff of about 150 men and women are employed, mostly on shift work. Approximately 1,000 messages per hour can at present be handled during peak periods, but provision has been made for trebling the facilities. A close and satisfactory liaison has been established between the M.C.A. personnel and the G.P.O. technicians who maintain the equipment and track down outside faults. The type and layout of apparatus installed at the Croydon centre has been chosen with four criteria in mind : firstly, reduc tion of transmission time by use of automatic teleprinting devices operating at 66 words per minute; secondly, elimination of delay in retransmission, by utilization of a new type of teletape on which messages are recorded not only by partial perforations, but also in print (the contents and destination are thus immediately obvious to the operator, who can at once feed the tape into an automatic transmitter); thirdly, reduction in the number of retransmissions, which is being effected by reducing the number of other communication centres to a minimum; and, fourthly, reduction of in-station handling time. This last aim has been achieved by a new variation on an old theme : message tapes are transported to various points in the operating room by attaching them to plugs of rubber which are sucked with astounding speed through transparent plastic tubes. With these points in mind, the sequence of operations can now be followed. Incoming messages (aircraft flight movements, met. reports, emergency calls, etc.) are recorded on tape by racks of "printing perforators." If there is an emergency message, attention is called to it by a red lamp. When a reel of tape is nearly exhausted, a green light flashes on. The tape-messages are then marked with routing instructions, and sent to the "circulator"— who takes them to special slotted storage racks on the transmitters; or to the duplicating centre, if the messages have more than one destination; or, if the required routing is not self-evident, to a "router's" position. In the latter two cases, the messages even tually finish up at the transmitters via the circulator. All trans missions are then sent out automatically. Many other facilities and safety measures have also been provided. These include special fault-finding systems, a method of message-priority control, automatic clocks, and stand-by power supply. If the normal transmission circuits break down, messages can be routed through Cable and Wireless, Ltd., to overseas destinations, and through Telex to points within the United Kingdom. The original factory was fitted with air-conditioning, which has been retained—with advantage to personnel and equipment alike— and working conditions seem excellent, the whole centre giving an impression of quiet efficiency. BREVITIES FLYING between Entebbe and Livingstone on February 8th, a Comet under the command of Capt. J. Andrew completed B.O.A.C.'s 10,000th hour of Comet flight time. Scheduled services, which have carried some 15,000 revenue passengers since May 2nd, were responsible for 60 per cent of this total. * * * With the acquisition of two 61-seat DC-4S, Japan Air Lines now have a fleet of six of these aircraft. A Japanese source reports that the company has recently bought up three other airlines, the Japanese Helicopter Transport Service, the Kyoto Air Lines and Tokyo Air Lines. * * * Australian National Airways have announced the retirement of Mr. John Stubbs, engineering advisor to the managing director and a pioneer of Australian civil aviation. Mr. Stubbs has taken up a new appointment with the British Aviation Insurance Group as consultant and surveyor for Australia. * * * Believing that London hotel accommodation will be insufficient at the tirfie of the coronation, K.L.M. are making plans to take over hotel space for sightseers at The Hague, Scheveningen, Lisse, Noordwijk and other towns. Each day special flights will take visitors from Schiphol to London and back. * * * Within the last few days, P.A.W.A. expected to complete their 25,000th flight between New York and San Juan since the airline established a direct service on July 1st, 1946. Over this period the frequency of service has been increased from 14 to 80 weekly and the present return fare of $128 is S2 less than the original single fare. The first international "tourist" services to be offered by any American airline operator were introduced on this route in 1948. * * * Containing ingeniously condensed information, a second edition of its admirable guide to over 4,000 hotels in the British Isles has been issued by the British Travel and Holidays Associa tion. Although prepared primarily for overseas circulation, the guide is available (at 2s 6d, from the B.T.H.A. at 64-65, St. James's Street, London, S.W.i) in limited numbers here.
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