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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0163.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 January 1954 77 CIVIL AVIATION FOR BRIEFING PASSENGERS PLANS are now well advanced for the introduction of public-address systems on British commercial aircraft. Such equipment, incorporated on most post war American transports, has long been considered desirable and, with the introduction of larger air craft carrying up to 100 passengers, is now becoming a necessity. With the aid of microphone and loud speakers, the time and effort involved in briefing passengers before flight, and in passing on to them en route information, are greatly reduced; and the system has obvious advantages in an emergency. B.E.A. and Murphy Radio, Ltd., have collaborated in the development of a new lightweight system— the MR 69A—initially intended for use on the Cor poration's Viscounts and Elizabethans. The installed weight of this equipment, with five loudspeakers, is approximately 25 lb; the effect on payload is there fore very slight. It employs a noise-cancelling microphone which is believed to give much greater clarity than in previous systems. Satisfactory results were obtained last week during a one-hour test flight in a Viscount carrying B.E.A. executives. American-built public-address equipment has always been fitted to B.O.A.C.'s Stratocruisers and it was added to their Constellations a year ago, but neither the Argonaut nor the Comet are so provided. Britannias will be fitted with the Redifon APA. 1 passenger-announcement system. It has not yet been decided whether Comet 3s will carry such equipment. Comet 2 crews will continue to use verbal and written methods of briefing pas sengers; it is not known whether this decision was made because of the jet airliner's lower cabin-noise level or because of the weight penalty involved in fitting the additional radio. Versions of the APA.l have also been ordered by B.C.P.A. and T.A.A. HD 32 TEST-FLOWN /~\RDERS for no fewer than 70 aircraft of six different types ^-^ have now been placed under the current re-equipment pro gramme of Air France. Types already introduced are the Super Constellation, Comet 1A, Viscount and Provence. The latest orders are for 24 Hurel-Dubois HD 32s, adopted to replace the French airline's Dakotas, and for six Sikorsky S-55 helicopters. The order for the thin-winged HD 32 was placed on the basis of performance achieved with the less powerful HD 31, which first flew in January 1953, and is powered by two 800-h.p. Wright C7BAls. Two 1,200-h.p. Pratt and Whitney R-1830-29 Twin Wasps, as fitted to the DC-3, power the HD 32, which has just made its first flight at Villacoublay in the hands of Andre Moynet. The flight lasted 35 minutes and it is described as "completely satisfactory from the designer's point of view." The high aspect-ratio (20.2) of this 42-seat airliner is claimed to confer an exceptional take-off performance; 2,130ft is quoted as the distance required to clear 50ft, and the landing run is 900ft. NEW LONDON TERMINAL PLANNED /~\UTLINE plans for building a new London terminal for airline " passengers were announced last week. A newly formed private company named International Air Travel is stated to be negotiating with William Whiteley, Ltd., the London store, for the use of part of that firm's site at Queensway, Bayswater. It is proposed to erect there a four-storey building, presumably for the use of both British independent companies and foreign airlines. Coaches now operated between London Airport and the two main passenger terminals at Waterloo and Victoria are scheduled to take up to 90 minutes for the journey, depending on traffic conditions. Use of the Bayswater terminal, it is thought, might cut out some of the densest traffic and reduce the time by at least 30 minutes. Some 30 operators are reported to have shown interest in the scheme, although an element of overstatement in this report is suggested by the fact that this is greater than the number of scheduled airlines now serving London. Most of the foreign long- haul airlines use B.O.A.C.'s Airways Terminal at Victoria and the majority of European airlines use the newly opened B.E.A. terminal at Waterloo. Airlines whose passengers travel to and ™?mr Victoria include B.O.A.C, P.A.W.A., El Al, Qantas, T.W.A., Air India International, S.A.A., C.A.A., Panair, Skyways, T.A.E. and T.C.A. Airlines using Waterloo Air Terminal include B.E.A., TWO'S COMPANY : The second Britannia prototype, G-ALRX, recently joined its predecessor G-ALBO (background) over Wales for this pleasing family portrait. Sabena, Air France, Swissair, Alitalia, Iberia, Iceland Airways, S.A.S., T.A.P., and Malta Airlines. K.L.M. (at Sloane Street) is the largest of those operators using separate terminals. Other terminals are those at Brompton Road (Airwork), Fitzhardinge Street (Hunting) and Brook Street (Aerolineas Argentinas). EAGLE TRAFFIC SURVEY FORMERLY director of the British Independent Air Trans port Association, Mr. Philip Bremridge, A.F.C., has recently undertaken an assignment concerned with traffic research for Eagle Aviation, Ltd. Mr. Bremridge started flying as a private pilot in 1932 and served in the Fleet Air Arm before the war. He served throughout the war in the R.A.F. as a flying instructor, and from 1943-1945 commanded the Flying Training Research Flight at the Empire Central Flying School. From 1945-1952 Mr. Bremridge acted as advisor on civil aviation and defence to the Conservative shadow-cabinet. PENINSULAR VISCOUNTS WHEN B.E.A.'s seventeenth Viscount (G-AMOL, R.M.A. David Livingstone) operated the first Viscount service in each direction between London and Madrid on Saturday, January 2nd, it not only replaced the Admiral-class Vikings on this route, with consequent time-saving, but it began the first stage of a complete reorganization and re-equipment of British air services to Spain, Gibraltar and Tangier. On that day, for the first time, a B.E.A. Leopard-class Pionair DC-3 (G-AMNV, Sir Eric Geddes on that occasion) operated a connecting service from Madrid to Gibraltar and Tangier. B.E.A.'s route to Madrid had previously been operated via Bordeaux and their Gibraltar route via both Bordeaux and Madrid, with Admirals working all services. Now Viscounts fly five times a week between London and Madrid. Three of these flights are direct and two via Bordeaux. The Pionair is based at Gibraltar and connects with the Viscount services in each direction. It also provides through connection to and from Tangier as part of a new arrangement whereby B.E.A. operate two return Gibraltar-Tangier services every weekday on behalf of their subsidiary Gibraltar Airways. This company had since 1947 been flying the Gibraltar- Tangier route with Dragon Rapides. Following the introduction of the Viscounts on the Madrid route B.E.A. have now replaced the Admirals on the London- Palma and London-Barcelona routes so that all of the Corpora tion's services between the United Kingdom and both Spain and Portugal are now flown by pressurized turboprop airliners. The first Viscount service to Madrid was flown in 2 hr 30 min as against the scheduled block to block allowance of 3 hr 15 min. This time was bettered on the second day of operation (January 4th) by a flight of 2 hr 11 min, which (assuming a route distance of 810 miles) gave an average speed of 373 m.p.h. Other high speed Viscount flights during the week were London-Lisbon in
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