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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0463.PDF
io April 1953 107-seat Breguet Introduced by Air France on Z5*555^ V. African Routes y JOHN STROUD but the period was quickly extended to no and then 130 hr. In service it is expected that the figure will be 150 hr. The second checks have been raised from 300 to 450 hr and major checks are expected to rise from 600 to 800 and later to (probably) 900 hr. In the period August 20th-3ist, 98 hr 53 min were flown, including both the delivery flight to Le Bourget, made by a Breguet crew, and the initial training of Air France crews. By the end of September 298 hr 25 min had been attained (53 hr 25 min at night); of this total, 101 hr 5 min had been achieved in one week. A 300 hr check was made at the beginning of October, and by October 26th 413 hr 53 min had been logged; a month later the total was 660 hr 34 min, including 157 hr 7 min night flying; and by December 21st 737 hr 10 min had been reached with a total of 208 landings. The planned total was achieved by December 31st, with 800 hr 16 min completed in 83 days of actual flying. Freight was carried on the lower deck during these trials, beginning with loads of 4 metric tons (8,818 lb) and finally with up to 10 metric tons (22,046 lb), making a total of 661 metric tons (1,456,844 lb). At the end of the trials a Certificate of Airworthi ness was granted for passenger and freight carriage by day and night and Post Office certification had been received for the radio installation. F-BASO has now been returned to the manufacturers for furnishing. No. 3 aircraft, F-BASP, the first fully furnished Provence to be delivered, entered regular service for Air France on Monday, March 16th, on the route Algiers-Marseilles-Lyon-Marseilles- Tunis. By good fortune I was invited to join an international party which made a special pre-inaugural flight in this aeroplane from Paris to Algiers on March 9th. My first glimpse of the Provence, on this occasion, showed her gleaming in the sunshine at Le Bourget and looking very smart with a white sun-top and the familiar blue markings of Air France. Some Air France DC-3S and a Spanish AYC Languedoc nearby were completely dwarfed by the vast bulk of the Breguet's fuselage. We entered through a door within a door—i.e. the 5ft 9in high and 3ft 8in wide entrance in one of the large port rear-loading doors. The passenger door opens upwards and outwards, forming a covered way over the passenger steps (this was later to prove its worth in heavy rain at Algiers). Entry to the lower cabin, the rear bulkhead of which forms a wall on the left, is through double doors; the upper cabin is reached by an inclined walkway leading
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