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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2267.PDF
220 FLIGHT, 13 August 1954 STRIKE-BOUND, some of the 177 aircraft of American Airlinei are seen lying idle at La Guardia Airport, New York. On August 3rd, four days after the com pany's pilots came out, American Airlines filed suit against the Air Line Pilots' Association for $1m compensating damages. The strike is in protest against the 8hr 35min non-stop DC-7 flight from New York to Los Angeles. CIVIL AVIATION . . . SUPER CONNIE FROM SYDNEY HPHE first Qantas Super Constellation to visit the United King- -•- dom was VH-EAH Southern Sky, which arrived at London Airport on August 5th, inaugurating a new weeklx-^service on the Kangaroo route. The return flight to Sydney began the follow ing day. With the introduction of the new aircraft on the 12,000-mile London - Sydney route, Qantas schedules have been revised. The Super Connie service departs from Sydney each Monday and from London each Friday, calling e&'route at Darwin, Djakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Calcutta, Karachi, Beirut, Rome and Frank furt. In addition, there is a weekly tourist service routed via Colombo and Bombay, operated with Constellation 749s and leaving London each Sunday. The remaining weekly first-class service, also operated h>/ 749 Constellations, through Bangkok, Calcutta and Cairo, leaves London on Thursdays. As employed on the London - Sydney route, the Super Connie has 35 tourist seats, 20 first-class teats and seven de luxe reclining seats. CENTRAL AFRICAN VISCOUNTS THE number of Vickers-Armstrongs Viscounts firmly ordered -•- was increased to 106 on August 4th when the chairman of Central African Airways, Colonel Ellis Robins, signed a contract in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, for five Viscount 700Ds. As reported on an earlier page, the total soared to 143 a few days later when Capital Airlines took up their option for 37. The value of the C.A.A. order is quoted as £lim, including initial provision for spares. The designation 700D, which has not previously been published, has been applied to an improved Viscount with the same basic fuselage and capacity as existing models, but with improved performance throughout the range- scale. Some of the improvements are to be incorporated in the Viscount 720s ordered by Traris-Australia Airlines. Central African Airways, nStional operator for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland,Aave a network covering more than 8,000 unduplicated miles of routes within Central Africa, in addi tion to the Colonial Coach "Zambezi" service to London. The airline is now carrying passengers at the rate of 126,000 a year, the bulk of whom travel in C.A.A.'s fleet of nine Vikings. Federal Government authority to replace Vikings with Viscounts was officially granted last May, and it is hoped that the new aircraft will be in service by the beginning of 1956. The outstanding feature of the 700D will be the installation of Rolls-Royce Dart RDa.6 (Mk 510) turboprops developing 1,550 s.h.p. for take-off—an increase of 150 s.h.p. Various advantages accrue from the increase in take-off and cruising power. Maximum take-off weight is increased from 57,000 to 60,000 lb and maximum landing weight from 50,000 to 54,000 lb. Fuel capacity is raised from 1,720 gallons to 1,950 gallons in the 700D, which will be equipped to carry external slipper tanks carrying a further 290 gallons. These tanks, to be situated outboard of the engines on the wing leading edge, will be easily removed though not jettisonable. Three other new feaHires of the Viscount 700D will be: a four-tank fuel system providjng individual feed to each engine; "high-activity" airscrews to absorb the additional take-off power of the RDa.6; lower gear ratiojreducing cruising tip-speed by 10 per cent and thus lowering airsdrew noise level. TAie higher landing weight, coupled with a 100 lb increase in zerp fuel weight, will enable the Viscount 700D to carry its maxi mum payload of 12,800 lb over shorter stages than the present series. Long-haul performance benefits from both the extra tank age and the lower specific fuel consumption of the improved Dart. The still-air range of the 700D with a full payload will be 1,450 miles (1,655 miles with slipper tanks) compared with 1,100 miles for the present Viscount 700; cruising speed at mean weight will be 320 m.p.h. as against 303 m.p.h. BREVITIES A NEW Air-India service between New Delhi and Tokyo is due to be inaugurated on Sunday, Abgust 15th. Operated by Super Constellations, the service will take 22 hr, with calls at Calcutta, Bangkbk and Hongkong. * • * M.T.C.A. airport statistics for June show a continued increase in United Kingdom air traffics-figures for the month, and the percentage increases over Aecorresponding totals for June 1953, were: 25,930 air transport movements (10); 462,000 passengers (21); 9,800 tons of freight (27) and 1,200 tons of mail (8). * * • An Englishman, Mr. Murray Barnes, has been appointed advertising manager of P.A.W.A. Mr. Barnes served with the Navy during the war and joined PanAm in 1948. * * * • New terminal buildings costing about £100,000 are under con struction at Durban Airport and are expected to be ready by March next year. In keeping with the policy of "apartheid", the building provides for segregation of European and non-European pas sengers. It is also reported from South Africa that work is pro ceeding well on the new Bellville Airport near Cape Town. Two runways—of 6,600ft and 5,000ft respectively—have been com pleted and new terminal and control buildings are being erected. * * * The first of the two Handley Page Marathons ordered for service in Japan with Far Eastern Air Lines left Blackbushe for Tokyo on August 7th. The Marathopsfs being ferried by Airwork, Ltd., its crew consisting of Sen..M*/Off. Riley and Rad/Off. Rylands. The 10,000-mile flight is»<5cpected to take nine days and is being made in short stages;, refuelling stops are Nice, Bari, Athens, Tripoli, Basra, Bahrein,' Sharjah, Karachi, Delhi, Allahabad, Calcutta, Rangoon, Tourane, Hongkong, Tai Pai, Okinawa and Iwakuni. AFRICAN VISCOUNT: An impression of the Viscount as it will appear in the styling of Central African Airways. The company's initials might be confused with those of America's Airworthiness Administration, which is still studying the question of accepting the British certification. A favourable decision is confidently expected.
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