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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0875.PDF
FLIGHT, 3 July 1953 CIVIL AVIATION 31 **SM ROYAL COMET FLIGHT 'T'HE B.O.A.C. Comet 1 carrying H.M. Queen A Elizabeth the Queen Mother and H.R.H. Princess Margaret to Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, where the Queen Mother will open the Rhodes Centenary Exhibition, was due to leave London Airport on Tuesday at 2.15 p.m. The Royal party were due to 1 arrive at Kentucky Airport at noon the following I day, having slept in the aircraft. Names of the crews | were given by B.O.A.C. as (London-Khartoum) Capt. A. P. W. Cane, ist/Off. D. Whitham, Eng/Off. I W. L. Bennett, R/Off. D. H. Kelly, Steward R. H. | Bennett and Stewardess E. M. Bartholomew; and -: • (Khartoum-Salisbury) Capt. E. E. Rodley, ist/Off. R. Langtry, Eng/OfT. J. Kingston, R/Off. R. J. Dolman, Steward C. R. Smith and Stewardess P. Hollister. Steward E. Charlwood was to have accompanied the party throughout the journey. AUSTRALIAN VISCOUNTS SOME of the preparations being made by Trans-Australia Airlines for the introduction on domestic routes of their six Viscounts, delivery of which will begin next year, have been out lined by the company's director of operations, Mr. John Chapman. One of the first steps, he said, was to tiain a group of DC-3 captains to replace a number of DC-4 and Convair pilots, who, in turn, must be trained in Viscount operation. The first Viscount pilots will come to Britain towards the end of this year and those chosen to ferry the new aircraft to Australia will arrive here about two months before the company takes delivery. Some of T.A.A.'s senior engineers are already studying Viscount main tenance and operation in this country, and on their return to Australia they will organize technical courses for both engineering and flying personnel. The T.A.A. flying staff, incidentally, now numbers 266—captains, first officers, junior officers and radio officers. BRITISH BREGUET AS announced in the previous week's issue, Silver City Airways • have hired from the French Breguet company the second of three pre-series Breguet 761 Deux Ponts, powered by four 2,020 h.p. Pratt and Whitney R-2800S. This is the aircraft which, as related in Flight of April 10th, has flown 700 hours as a freighter with Air Algerie. It was flown away from Toulouse last week by ROYAL CREW: The honour of flying H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and H.R.H. Princess Margaret between London and Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, has fallen to B.O.A.C. Two crews were selected to staff the Royal Comet, which was due to arrive at Kentucky Airport on Wednesday. Those shown are (left to right) Capts. Rodley and Cane and Stewardesses Hollister and Bartholomew. PRECURSORS of B.E.A.'s projected large helicopters are two Bristol 171s, first British rotorplanes' bought by the Corporation, which will shortly be used on passenger-carrying internal services. The first aircraft is seen in the hands of Capt. 'Jock" Cameron shortly before he took delivery at Filton last week. Captain C. I. Hopkins for a period of service on the Berlin- Hamburg airlift, where Silver City are operating under contract to the German Senate. The company's intention is to evaluate the big Breguet for possible application to the cross-channel vehicle ferry services. The Deux Ponts will be capable of carrying six cars (three on each of its two decks) and, if its economic and handling qualities prove suitable, Silver City say they will put several into service next year. As the French aircraft are available for relatively early dehvery, the ferry company's proposed order for Blackburn Universal Freighters would presumably be dropped. At present, however, none of the company's terminals (Lympne, Gatwick and Southampton) has a runway capable of handling a Deux Ponts : hence the decision to carry out trials in Germany. Silver City expresses the hope that "at least one British runway will be ready soon," which confirms suggestions that the company intends to build its own terminal in south-east Kent. JAN SMUTS AIRPORT OPENING AN official announcement from Johannesburg gives September •• 9th as the opening date for the city's massive new Jan Smuts Airport. All the services now using Palmietfontein will be transferred to Jan Smuts Airport on that date. At present, B.O.A.C. Comets are the only aircraft using the new terminal. A NEW DOUGLAS AN extremely flexible interior layout is the chief feature of the - latest addition to the DC-6 series of transport aircraft, announced recently by the Douglas Aircraft Co. Designated DC-6C, the new model can be converted "in a matter of minutes" from an airliner carrying 76 passengers and baggage plus 2,400 lb of cargo to a freighter capable of lifting almost 13 tons. Its dimensions are identical with those of the DC-6B and DC-6A, and it retains the large fore and aft loading-doors of the latter type. A movable bulkhead, which can be placed at any one of four stations in the DC-6C fuselage, enables the proportions of pas sengers and freight to be varied according to traffic conditions. Seats are of a special lightweight type which fold against the fuse lage walls when the aircraft is being used solely for freighting. Like the DC-6A and B, the new Douglas is fitted with four Pratt and Whitney R-2800 CB engines giving a cruising speed of just over 300 m.p.h. Since there are virtually no design differences between the DC-6A and the DC-6C, the announcement seems to reflect a sales gambit rather than a major technical development. B.C.P.A. RE-SHUFFLE DETAILS of administrative re-organization, necessitated by expansion of the company's operations, are announced by British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines. The re-organization involves the regrouping of responsibilities into two major branches. They are commercial and finance, and operations. The former is controlled by the commercial and finance director (Mr. I. O. Lawson) and contains three divisions—traffic and sales, finance and publicity. The operational branch, under the director of
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