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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1730.PDF
11 June 1954 773 Leaving Brussels within half an hour it landed at Luxembourg at 9 a.m. Here the equipment was unloaded within 30 minutes. NORTHERN RADAR RADAR service on similar lines to that now provided in the south of England is now available to civil aircraft using air ports in the Manchester/Liverpool area. Northern Radar, as the new service is called, went into operation on June 1st. The unit is situated at R.N.A.S. Stretton, some 14 miles west of Manchester and provides surveillance coverage of most of the Manchester Control Zone together with sections of the airways extending from the zones. Initially operating from 0745 hours to 1315 hours on each weekday, Northern Radar uses the same radio frequencies as the Manchester Control Zone and Preston Airways. Its primary function will be to avoid delays to peak summer traffic by reducing separation where necessary. TWO MORE L. 1049s FOR QANTAS "TWO of six Super Constellations originally ordered by North- * west Orient Airlines for trans-Pacific service between the United States and Japan are to be delivered instead to Qantas Empire Airways, increasing the latter company's fleet from eight to ten. Northwest, who will introduce their four Super Connies to service next Spring, say that the two aircraft were sold to Qantas in keeping with the company's programme "of maximum aircraft utilization and economy." As reported on another page Qantas have so far taken delivery of three of their new Lockheeds. The deal may help to solve B.O.A.C.'s current equipment problem. When the Comets were first withdrawn from service the British airline negotiated with Qantas with a view to obtaining four of the latter's six Constellation 749s. Such an arrangement, however, would have had die disadvantage of leaving Qantas with BEAM RIDER: Demonstrated publicly at the recent Staverton air display, this probe-equipped Dakota (G-AMZE) is owned by the Ministry of Supply and operated by Smiths Aircraft Instruments; its role is approach- and-landing research. "Flight'^photograph two only of these aircraft—too small a number to integrate into the route pattern. Now that it has been found possible to acquire extra Super Constellations, Qantas will probably make over all six Model 749s to B.O.A.C. It was originally intended that these aircraft should be sold in the United States for dollars in order to help pay for the Model 1049Cs. It seems possible that, with the prestige of B.O.A.C. at stake, Britain may have helped Australia to find the hard currency—totalling about $23m— required to buy ten Super Constellations. NEW FERRY SERVICES ON June 1st Silver City Airways opened their new cross-Channel route between Lympne and Marck, Calais. The company reports that more than 6,000 flights are scheduled to be made between the two points by mid-October, and that a Freighter or Super Freighter will land or take-off from either airport every seven minutes of each working day. Over the same period 8,500 flights will be made on the Le Touquet ferry. Fares on the new Calais route are the lowest ever offered by Silver City: the cheapest single fare for a car (£6 Is 6d for a Morris Minor) is 20 per cent less than last year's Lympne-Le Touquet rate for a vehicle of this length. A bicycle can be flown to Calais for as little as 4s 6d and a motor cycle for 27s. The company points out that passengers without vehicles can, by using train services from London to Lympne and from Calais to Paris, com plete the inter-city journey in an elapsed time of six to seven hours for about £8 return—which is claimed to be £4 cheaper than normal scheduled air services between London and Paris. BRITISH TRAFFIC IN FEBRUARY FEBRUARY traffic statistics issued by the M.T.C.A. reflect the effects of the grounding of B.O.A.C.'s Comets. The capacity available on the Corporation's eastern routes fell by 13 per cent and traffic carried fell by 10 per cent; however, there was a 13 per cent increase in traffic on western routes, and the overall traffic carried by the Corporation, compared with the amount for the corresponding period of 1953, was only 3 per cent lower. Both capacity offered and traffic carried on B.E.A.'s routes increased by the same proportion—14 per cent. Most of the scheduled services operated by British independent airlines are comparatively new and the traffic figures suggest that some of these companies are passing through a lean period. Independents offered 48 per cent more capacity on domestic services, but their total traffic on these routes rose by only 8 per cent. On inter national services independents offered 2 per cent more capacity and carried 26 per cent less traffic. Their overall load factor dropped from 42 per cent to 30 per cent on domestic services and from 62 per cent to 49 per cent on international services. AFRICAN ACCIDENT REPERCUSSIONS (Continued from page 751) ance, which are not a matter of workshop process, the Board specifies in precise form the properties required of an aircraft and also details tests to be undertaken to prove them. It would appear, therefore, that in reaching this particular recommendation the Court had not the advantage of full knowledge of the relations of the Board to the industry. "A number of the Board's requirements are statements of the object to be attained, and in respect of matters concerning basic engineering practices are written intentionally in terms which leave the method to the manufacturer. It would be highly dangerous and quite impracticable to issue mandatory instructions describing in detail the methods to be used in aircraft manufacture. "To provide explicit instructions covering engineering practice would involve the publication of a complete range of textbooks; and might have serious consequences in preventing continuous improvement in a rapidly changing industry. All requirements have to be read in conjunction with the interpretation given in the introduction to them:— 'The Requirements with or without explanatory matter should not be regarded as constituting a textbook of current aeronautical know ledge; interpretation of the Requirements against a background of such knowledge is essential.' "Without this background D.18 may well appear to be platitudinous, but it is a typical general requirement based on an assumption of adequate knowledge on the part of the constructor of basic workshop practices such as the protection of primary structures. A constructor would not be 'approved' unless the Board were satisfied that the prac tices followed attained a proper standard in this respect. "The Court also referred to the 'apparent self-complacency on the part of the Board/ This comes as a surprise if only because the Board expressed no opinions. It is true that a specialist surveyor was present and Crown Counsel called him to speak on particular points, but beyond this the Board took no part. Far from being complacent the Board feels that it is in a constant state of change and development in attempt ing to keep abreast of an industry which is itself developing with extreme rapidity. The Board has to try to maintain airworthiness, sometimes in uncharted fields of knowledge, but it has also to maintain to the utmost the freedom in which lies the surest hope of improved efficiency and, with efficiency, safety. "The system of delegating to manufacturers the responsibility for the fulfilment of airworthiness requirements, both specific and general, which the Court considers should cease is, in fact, the only possible method whereby an authority such as the Board could fulfil its func tions. The system involves making spot checks during the design and manufacturing stages of a large variety of features. To go further than this and check every detailed phase in the manufacture of every aircraft would be quite impracticable. "The principle of delegation followed by the Board is also followed by Government departments in the United Kingdom in relation to mili tary aircraft and by comparable airworthiness authorities in other countries." Criticisms of the S.B.A.C. were answered by that Society in the following terms: — "Sir John Gray's reported criticisms of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors are based on incomplete information and misunderstand ing of the role of the S.B.A.C. in regard to the airworthiness of civil aircraft. The chart in question, which the report states was never produced, was prepared by the Society to help aircraft constructors to comply with Government requirements for protection against corrosion of metal parts of Service aircraft. Contrary to what the report says, this chart was completed and circulated to the Members of the Society, and communicated to the Air Registration Board. Its purpose was to provide quick and convenient reference in chart form to Government requirements. It was not in itself a mandatory document. The S.B.A.C. does not control the airworthiness of civil aircraft, which is the function of the Air Registration Board." In reply to a Commons question on June 4th, Mr. A. R. W. Lowe, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Supply, confirmed that the original conclusion as to the cause of corrosion was taken from an R.A.E. technical memorandum compiled for purely departmental purposes and not written in contemplation of its being tendered in evidence.
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