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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0388.PDF
386 FLIGHT, 20 March 1953 / f This impression, by a B.E.A. artist, shows for the first time the standard 47-seat layout for the Corporation's "Discovery "-class fleet. TOWARDS TURBOPROSPERITY batch will enter service in the summer of 1954. Other 1954 deliveries will be to Aer Lingus (four early in the year) and T.A.A. (whose six aircraft should be completed towards the autumn). Deliveries to T.C.A. (15 aircraft) should begin late in 1954 and carry on through to the early part of 1955 when the four Viscounts for B.W.I.A. will also be built. Other firm orders, which can be expected with confidence, should also be met in 1955. Further Orders.—Although the number of Viscounts defi nitely ordered to date has not yet reached 100, Mr. George Edwards has said that, "wearing neutral-tinted glasses," one can see a potential for 200 Viscounts; and that through "fairly rosy glasses" the figure might well be 350. He believes it might even be possible for the British aircraft industry to win 70 per cent of the estimated £1,000 million to be spent on new aircraft over the next ten years. Obviously, much of this budget will be expended on medium-range types, of which the Viscount has become the prime example. So many airlines have shown deep interest in the Viscount— the chief designer claims that his office carpet at Weybridge has been worn out by American feet—that it is impossible to forecast with any accuracy from which direction further orders will come. Likely markets are to be found in practically every part of the world. India, for example, will probably place an order for about a dozen medium-range airliners in the fairly near future, the date depending on the progress made with the establishment of the projected state airline. The choice has been narrowed down to the Viscount and the Ccnvair 340 but the British machine is favoured. A similar situation may well arise in Japan, where domestic services are at present being operated by DC-4S. Although the Viscount is the logical type for the new Lufthansa hesitation has been shown so far by those responsible for planning the German airline equipment. This may be due partly to offers of American aircraft on very favourable terms. With the exceptions of B.E.A., Aer Lingus and Air France, other European airlines have shown similar hesitancy, but Viscount development has been so rapid recently that more than one European company is revising its approach to the medium-stage problem. Despite the K.L.M. purchase of six Convair 340s the prospect of a Dutch order for Viscounts cannot yet be ruled out; another company, Swissair, is particularly impressed by the pos sibilities of the Viscount 800. It is certain that all European thinking on the subject of the Viscount will be profoundly influenced from April onwards, to an increasing extent, by B.E.A.'s use of this advanced aeroplane on its most competitive routes. The degree to which die Viscount will draw traffic from slower and/or less comfortable machines cannot yet be assessed, but the load factors achieved by B.O.A.C. with the Comet are an encouraging pointer. So much is heard nowadays about the future prospect of the air-cargo business that thoughts turn naturally to the possibility of an all-freight version of the Viscount. Already a freight- carrying aircraft based on the DC-6, the Liftmaster, is giving excellent service over the North Atlantic and on American domestic routes, and plans have been announced for comparable versions of the Super Constellation and Britannia. It appears that the initial development of air-freighting, and of aircraft designed for this work, is likely to be confined largely to long-haul routes; lower rates per ton-mile can normally be offered, and sur face competition for the traffic potential is less effective. In regions where good networks of surface transport already exist, the speed of aircraft is rarely sufficient to attract more than a fraction of the available cargo traffic. Increases in such traffic depend almost solely on reductions in rates of carriage, which are often made possible by using obsolete aircraft whose capital cost has been written-off over several years of passenger service. However, the new and more economical aircraft is assured of an important part in the cycle of traffic development. As and when the demand is sufficient to ensure full utilization, the best aircraft for the job is that with the best capacity for work. And since the Viscount offers a high volumetric payload coupled with economic high perform ance over a wide band of short and medium stage-lengths, its potentialities as a freighter will not be overlooked. The question is essentially one for the operator to decide, and Vickers have told us of their intention to provide a freight version of the Series 700 if a demand develops. If possible, operators' requirements would be blended in a standard aircraft, which would obviously be capable of carrying a complete or partial passenger- payload when the need arose. Loading-doors would be "almost as large as operators care to order", provided that the customer accepted the corresponding weight-penalty imposed by strengthen ing. The fuselage would remain fully pressurized. R.B.
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