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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0036.PDF
22 FLIGHT, 1 January 1954 CIVIL AVIATION BRITANNIA PROGRESS D EVELOPMENT of the Bristol Britannia during 1953 was brought to a satisfying climax on December 23rd by the first flight of the second prototype. Manned by A. J. ("Bill") Pegg and a test-crew of six, it made a local flight lasting one hour from Filton. With delivery of the first four production Britannias expected towards the end of 1954, the introduction of this great turboprop airliner on B.O.A.C.'s routes grows steadily nearer. There is naturally a growing enthusiasm for the prospect of opera ting Britannias among the Corporation's em ployees, and, to meet the demand for news of progress, the B.O.A.C. Review recently pub lished an informative summary of the Britannia programme. Several extracts from this article merit wider circulation and are accordingly summarized below. "Overhanging the whole problem of initial production and delivery and setting the pace for manufacture," observes the Review, "is the question of the Certificate of Airworthiness." The intention is to obtained the C. of A. by June 1955, although many people closely connected with the work are hoping that the date may be sooner—possibly as early as December 1954. Development flying and crew training will go ahead during the early months of 1955, and by the summer of next year nine production Britannias should be ready for immediate service. Subsequent Britannias will appear at the rate of one a month for four months. By the time the last part of B.O.A.C.'s contract —a batch of 10 "stretched" Mk. 300s—is under way the rate will have been doubled. Much of the test flying on the first prototype, G-ALBO, has been conducted by W/C. W. Gibb, Bristol's assistant chief test pilot, who told B.O.A.C. Review that this machine was now doing long spells of night flying; overseas flights would be the next stage. The aircraft had then made 152 flights involving some 200 flying hours and was practically ready for a Check 3 inspection. He confirmed that the test flying programme was well up to schedule. As reported last week in Flight, seven airlines, so far unnamed, are negotiating for a total of 51 Britannias in addition to the 33 firmly ordered and two provisionally ordered by B.O.A.C., and the six Britannias covered by Qantas Empire Airways' letter of intent. The Filton factory's capacity for building Britannias has been given as 25 complete aircraft a year, plus components, and the doubling of this output will be made possible by the recently announced Bristol-Short agreement providing for Britannia production at Belfast. When the B.O.A.C. article was written last month six aircraft were in various stages of completion on the hangar floor. The Review states tliat "From the sixth production aircraft onwards the policy of prefabrication will have got into its stride and all major sections of wing and fuselage will be delivered to the assembly hall complete with all services installed—the remain ing work will be merely the linking together of all these major portions. This process will take between 12 and 13 weeks for each aircraft. The present first batch of five production machines are having the services installed while they are on the floor of the assembly hall. Only the bare shells have been pre fabricated, representing some 40 per cent of the work. Chiefly, the reason for this is that design of services had not in all instances been 'finalised' until flying experience with trie proto type had given the designers facts on which to work." WEATHER SHIPS: THE LATEST MOVE rTi HE implication that America might alter her decision to with- •*- draw from the North Atlantic weather service was contained in a letter sent to I.C.A.O. on December 22nd by the State Department. The letter said that an American delegate would attend the ocean stations conference in Paris on February 9th to discuss the possibility of continuing the programme. "If such a determination is reached," the letter added, "the United States would expect to co-operate in a modified programme, subject ANOTHER BRITANNIA : Flight trials with G-ALRX, the second prototype Britannia, began at Filton on December 23rd. It is pictured landing after a maiden flight of 1 hour. Recent announcements concerning Britannias are summarized in the adjacent paragraph. to the availability of necessary appropriations in which it would seek to meet its appropriate share of the cost." Under the present agreement America provides 14 of the 25 ships required to maintain ten stations in the Atlantic. This contribution was clearly thought to be out of proportion to the benefits received by American operators from the weather- ship service, and the U.S. delegate at Paris is likely to demand increased financial and material support from other countries. It has been suggested that last October's announcement of America's complete withdrawal was intended to produce a suit able atmosphere for these demands; it may also have been expressive of American impatience with a series of protracted and inconclusive I.C.A.O. conferences. There is wide agreement that abandonment of the ocean stations would have an extremely adverse effect on the reliability of weather forecasts, and thus on the continued safety of transatlantic airline operations. The need for accurate forecasts will, of course, become even more pro nounced when jet airliners are introduced on the North Atlantic route. There is now little doubt that even if America had com pletely withdrawn her support, most of the other 14 participating nations would have maintained the weather-ship service— although perhaps on a reduced scale. THE AMERICAN SCENE REPORTS from observers in the United States give the impres sion that, on the whole, celebrations of the 50th anniversary of powered flight made little impression on the American public. At the same time there appears to have been another inexplicable outburst of aviation nationalism, characterized largely by mislead ing statements calculated to discredit new British transports. Information of general interest concerning American jet trans ports is that the overall reaction to Fairchild's proposal for the M.186 airliner announced on November 17th does not appear to have been entirely favourable. "Too small, and a bit too radical" is a typical comment. A correspondent quotes the latest views on the Boeing, Lock heed and Douglas plans: "The opinion of those operators with whom I have discussed the Boeing is that it will be a good aero plane—probably a bit faster than the Comet 3 but no better in any other respects; and as it will be a purely transcontinental (perhaps one stop westbound) aircraft, there won't be a rush of orders for it. It is now known that Lockheed and Douglas are both holding their horses over the medium-range jet and concen trating on a true Atlantic (at least 85 per cent of schedule) aero plane with ducted-fan engines, though where these will come from remains to be seen. As British strength lies largely in our engines, it might well prove bad business for us to supply any to America. Lockheed are back on the engines-in-the-tail con figuration, with Douglas probably favouring pods. Lockheed are said to have started to build." U.S. INDEPENDENTS JOIN F.I.T.A.P. FOLLOWING the latest management committee meeting of the International Federation of Independent Air Transport Opera tors (F.I.T.A.P.) held in Barcelona last month the total number of aircraft operated by the Federation's members has increased to 370, of which 110 are four-engine machines. Six American carriers
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