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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0355.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 March 1953 353 CIVIL AVIATION . . . INTERNATIONAL PILOTS' MEETING REPRESENTING, through the membership of 19 professional organizations, some 11,000 airline pilots, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations is to hold its eighth conference in Chicago from April 6-ioth inclusive. Mr. Clarence N. Sayen (U.S.), president of the Federation, will act as chairman; the British delegation will consist of Capts. J. Woodman (chair man of B.A.L.P.A.), B. C. Frost (vice-president of I.F.A.L.P.A.) and G. C. Klimcke. Among subjects on the agenda for discussion is the Federation's opinion that "present developments are leading to overcrowding and that aircraft design will have to be examined with a view to providing sufficient numbers of exits to permit speedy evacuation of the aircraft in an emergency." MORE SERVICES APPROVED APPROVAL of the following scheduled services by independent L operators is announced by the Ministry of Civil Aviation; vehicle ferry services by Silver City Airways, Ltd., on routes between London-Le Touquet; Southend and/or Lympne-Ostend; Southampton-Isle of Wight (Bembridge); normal scheduled ser vices by Silver City and by Morton Air Services, Ltd., between London and Le Touquet and by Olley Air Services on the London-Deauville routes. Except in the case of Silver City's two London-Le Touquet services, which are approved for 10 years, the period of approval for each agreement is the usual one of seven years. Although the airport is not named in the M.C.A. BBjm mmm AIRPORT IMPROVEMENTS are in the news this week; as reported below, Northolt is acquiring a service-station for cars, and a special "export-only" shop has been opened at Preslwick. Here, at London Airport, is B.O.A.C.'s re-designed passenger counter, which gives a clearer indication of the bay in which services are being handled. announcement, Gatwick was proposed as the London terminal in the Silver City application to operate the Le Touquet services. It is expected that Morton and Olley, now under joint ownership, will continue to operate from Croydon for the present. BREVITIES THE first Viscount 708 for Air France (illustrated on page 365) made an 18-minute first flight from Brooklands on March 12th. Mr. S. Sloan was the pilot. * * * A shop selling high-quality British goods free of purchase tax and duty has been opened in the transit lounge at Prestwick Airport. * * * M.C.A. Information Circular No. 30/1953 gives details of new frequencies for H.F. R/T. and W/T. en-route services in the U.K. which are to be intoduced this year. * * * DC-4 freighters of Seaboard and Western Airlines are being fitted with more powerful P. and W. R2000 engines (1,450 h.p., compared with 1,350 h.p.), raising the permitted take-off weight from 70,700 lb to 73,000 lb. In terms of payload, the modification allows an extra 4,000 lb to be carried on a transatlantic round trip. * * * P.A.W.A. will use the Comet 3 on its South American services and not over the North Atlantic, since it would be a "two-stop airplane" on the latter route. This forecast is attributed to Mr. William del Valle, the airline's West Coast resident engineer, who arrived in this country last week for liaison and study at Hatfield. * * * War-time pilots will recall the excellent "Foldex" air maps, which were varnished so that courses could be marked on them in Chinagraph pencil, and many motorists are familiar with the same makers' road maps. The firm—Foldex, Ltd., 193 Landells Road, London, S.E.22—have just produced an admirable Coro nation map of London, containing an astonishing amount of useful information, together with map notes in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. It occurs to us that airline operators who are likely to bring Coronation visitors to this country will be interested in these maps, which retail at 3s. * * * Stratocruisers of P.A.W.A. have carried over 500,000 passengers since the airline introduced its first double-deck Boeing on April 1st, 1946. PanAm Stratocruisers (the company has 28) have completed over 5,400 Atlantic and 1,750 Pacific crossings, and have flown over 50m miles. * * * With parking space for 350 cars, a service station is to be set up at Northolt Airport by Carr's Auto Services, Ltd. The station, which has fuelling, greasing, washing and repair facilities, will enable motorists to park their cars or have them serviced while visiting the Continent. * * * The name of Meredith Air Transport, Ltd., was inadvertently omitted from the list of British independent operators pub lished in Flight of March 6th. The address of the company, which was formed in August last year and began operations in October, is Bilbao House, New Broad Street, London, E.C.2, and its chairman is Mr. W. E. Hamilton. The flying equipment at present consists of one Dakota, which is based at Southend and is used on charter passenger and freight services. S/L. WATERTON TALKS ON JET FLYING ON Thursday of last week, S/L. W. A. Waterton, G.M., A.F.C., chief test pilot to the Gloster Aircraft Company, read a paper—entitled Some Aspects of High-Performance Jet Aircraft—to the Derby branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society. After opening his lecture with some reminiscences of test flights carried out with war-time aircraft, S/L. Waterton went on to discuss the control of modern aircraft at high speeds, with especial reference to powered controls and moving tailplanes. He stressed the essential importance of control as well as that of sheer performance, and outlined the difficulties that were likely to occur in transonic and supersonic flight. He also spoke of detailed aerodynamic cleanness, and the drop in performance associated with minor surface damage accidentally suffered by aircraft on the ground. Another major feature of the paper was a comparison of straight, swept, crescent and delta wings—and the lecturer exhibited, not surprisingly, considerable enthusiasm for the last of these three. Other points which he raised were the vision difficulties en countered at extreme altitudes—presenting a strong case for search and gun-laying radar—and the need for greater standard ization of components and greater simplification of instruments, detectors and warning devices. We hope to print a fuller account of the paper next week. THOSE OFF-SHORE HUNTERS FURTHER definite announcements about off-shore aircraft orders seem likely in the near future, as the United Kingdom Government has just put forward formal proposals in reply to the U.S. offer to place a 170m order for Hunters. According to the Financial Times, the price of the aircraft and the level of spares have already been settled, and the only difficulty is the old one of the June 1955 deadline for delivery. Congress is in fact now considering a Bill to extend this limit, but if the Bill is defeated, it is considered that some arrangement will be made to permit the contract to be placed. The most likely scheme would be for the R.A.F. to take the dollar aircraft on strength as a loan to be repaid later from future Hunter production to other NATO countries. In regard to the Javelin, a team of American test pilots has already arrived in this country for the purpose of carrying out evaluation trials, and it is expected that they will be at work by the time this note appears. If the tests are successful, the Javelin —as mentioned before in Flight—is likely to be chosen as the standard NATO all-weather fighter, and production in Italy is envisaged. Here again, though, the June 1955 deadline will cause a crisis in the arrangements unless Congress changes its ruling. In Belgium and Holland, production of Avons and Hunters respectively has been rumoured to be a likely possibility.
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