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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2025.PDF
60 FLIGHT CIVIL AVIATION . . . FIRST OF MANY landings to be made at Ferryfield by Bristol 170s was per formed last week by G-ANWG, itself the first of three neyy_-£upA(>- freighters for Silver City Airways. ThtfrtitlpUffls now expected to come into operation on July 14th, the sixth annivers ary of the company's cross-Channel ferry. COMET TESTS: OFFICIAL STATEMENT AN interim statement on the progress of tests on the Comet 1 **• aircraft was made to the House of Commons on July 5th by Mr. Duncan Sandys, the Minister of Supply. He said that die technical examination of the Comet by the Royal Aircraft Estab lishment at Farnborough was making good progress. Wreckage recovered from the sea near Elba had been most thoroughly examined and an intensive programme of trial flights and experi ments had been carried out on Comets withdrawn from service. ; In particular, the wings, tail and main structure had been tested for metal fatigue and for possible weaknesses. The/strength of the pressurized cabin had been extensively tested and trials had been carried out to discover whether excessive pressure might have been built-up in the tanks from the use of high pressure fuel pumps. These and other tests were still proceeding. It would be premature to announce the results obtained. When the investigations were completed all information would be subr mitted to the Court of Inquiry. Meanwhile, rhe manufacturers were being kept fully informed so that they might consider what modification might be neces sary. Replying to Mr. George Strauss, who had asked whether some indication might be givenfas to when the tests were likely to be completed, Mr. Sandys said that he was hopeful it would not be too many weeks more—just how many he was not prepared to say. These investigations were still going on and he would prefer not to speculate in any way about the results which would emerge. But nothing had emerged which caused him to be less optimistic about the outcome than before. WELSH PIPELINE SURVEY TJSING an S-51 helicopter chartered from Westland Aircraft *-' and piloted by John Fay, the chairmafi and the distribution engineer of the Wales Gas Board made a three-hour flight on June 22nd to survey the route for a 130-mile pipeline between Maelor, Wrexham, and Shotton, Chester. The distribution engineer said that the flight had done in hours what would have taken weeks by any other metfod; it had been possible to view the whole route of the proposed pipeline, and to assess its suit ability on both technical and aesthetic grounds. TROOPING BY AIR CHARTER TT is announced that Air Charter, Ltd., of ,<Stansted anc -*• Southend, have won a 50 per cent share bLUne Govemmen contract for trooping to the Canal Zone^^fhis will entail at average of one flight daily in each dirpcfion throughout the 12- month period from August 1954^>Air Charter state that thej are now undertaking the large.st^brtion of Government trooping widi their fleet of Yorkv-'The company entered the trooping field in April last year*"with a contract entailing a fortnightlj flight to Fiji, and last May it obtained a contract for carrying troops to West Africa. BREVITIES IN pre-war days a traffic officer with Imperial Airways, Mr A. Laurence Young ha*'been appointed secretary of I.A.T.A He succeeds Mr. J. Af MacD. Henderson, who recently resigned * * * B.E.A. coaches travelling to Waterloo Air Terminal from L.A.P. or Northolt are now permitte<WSy the licensing authority to set down passengers in Crornw^BIRoad, near Gloucester Road Under ground Station. J^-^*^ ~ * • * The M.T.C.A. has produced a pamphlet surveying accidents to aircraft in the United Kingdowauring the calendar year 1952. Accidents are classified undjarithe following headings: apparent cause; type of accident^ .pn'ase of operation; nature of flight and degree of injury sys*tfined. The pamphlet is obtainable from the Stationery Office at Is 6d. * * * Unspecified "aerodynamic refinements" to the ten L.1049 Super Constellations operated by T.W-fltT'will give these aircraft a 10 m.p.h. increase in cruisingspeea. The airline is believed to have pressed for the extra..performance as a result of American Airlines' better schedulej^with DC-7s on competitive coast-to-coast services. *r In reply to a recent Parliamentary ques tion, Mr. A. T. Lennox-Boyd, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, said thflt the capital cost of London Airport/'up to March 31st was approximately §d9m, plus about £1.5m for the purchasejdf land and certain costs outside the aypp'ort. Mr. J. Profumo, replying to another question, gave an estimated figur*?" of £6m for the first stage of developed Gatwick Airport. The annual cost, .including all technical services but eseluding capital charges, would be £|S6,000 and the estimated annual reveaue was £400,000. In addi tion, savings at other London-area aero dromes affected by the Gatwick project were estimated at £450,000 per annum. SPADEWORKERS: World airline fares for 1951 will be established by the I.A.T.A. traffic con ference at Venice in September. Meanwhile, preliminary discussions are being held in Montreal by the I.A.T.A. cost committee, por trayed here: (Seated) R. Bouvatier, Air France; J. Dillenbeck, S.A.S.— vice-chairman; J. B. Scott, B.O.A.C.—chairman; £. S. Pefanis, I.A.T.A.—secretary; A. van Putten, K.L.M. (Second row) J. Bertucat, Air France; Paul C. Brabant, Sabena;J. D. Wayte, B.O.A.C.; Paul C. Velte, Jr., P.A.A.; C. A. Herring, B.F..A.; H. E. Shenton, I.A.T.A. (Third row) N. £. Taylor, T.C.A.; Leo Bollhalder, Swissair; A. Torres Garcia, Aerolineas Argentinas; F. A. Kane, P.AA., Donald Kittelberger, T.W.A.
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