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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0028.PDF
28 FLIGHT CIVIL AVIATION . . Operation of Herons by B.E.A., which will begin next month, was fore- shadowed by the ap- pearance of G-ALZL in B.E.A. livery three years ago. This air- craft, de Havilland's Series I demonstrator, is shown in company with a Dove. The B.E.A. Herons will be registered G-ANXA and G-ANXB. PROJECTED BREGUETST HE Breguet company is reported to be working on two newtransports designated the 766 and 767. The former is said to be a 60-ton airliner which, with four turboprops of Britishmanufacture, will be capable of carrying 150 passengers for 2,175 miles or 100 passengers from Paris to New York direct.The Breguet 767, with British turboprops or by-pass turbojets, is described as an 80-ton airliner carrying up to 130 passengersfrom Paris to New York non-stop. HUREL-DUBOIS DEVELOPMENTS AMERICAN sources say that a United States or CanadianL licensee is being sought for the Hurel-Dubois H.D.32. The company's general sales manager. M. E. J. Escande, is quotedas saying that the licence fee would be nominal. While aircraft could be made available from French production, he consideredthat North American operators would prefer to buy locally built aircraft. It is also stated that a stretched-fuselage version of the H.D.32will fly next month, and that the H.D.70, with Darts, will be flying next year. One of the two existing prototypes (the firstH.D.32 and the lower-powered H.D.31) is due to fly to Brazzaville this month for hot-weather trials. Flying time logged by thesetwo aircraft now exceeds 600 hours. Current price of the H.D.32 fully equipped is stated to be£160,000. Orders are said to total 150 aircraft, customers being Air France, the French Navy and other French operators, andtwo airlines outside France. FRIENDSHIP FINANCES THE subsidy paid by the Netherlands Government towards thedesign and development of the Fokker F.27 Friendship and for construction of two prototypes is reported to be about£1,500,000. In addition to the two flying prototypes, the wings and fuselage of a third aircraft are being constructed for tests. The possibilities of Friendship production by the Fairchildcompany in America are still being discussed, and Fokker also hope that their new factory in Brazil will build Friendships. TheDutch company recently said that it would have to build 50 or 60 aircraft before showing a profit. For Fairchild, however, thebreak-even number is said to be at least 200, due to higher labour costs. It is reported from Holland that the first prototype of theFriendship, due to fly this summer, will display a large dorsal fin. COAST-TO-COAST AIR COACH 'EYEBROWS were raised in U.S. airline circles last month when•*—' an enterprising "non-sked," North American Airlines, in- augurated daily air-coach services between Los Angeles and NewYork. The company began operations with the first of two DC-6Bs bought from Douglas. The aircraft carries 102 passengersat a one-way fare of $88, compared with the $99 charged by the big certificated carriers, who offer less cramped accommodationin DC-7s and Super Constellations. North American's schedule for the eastbound flight, madeovernight with one stop, is about 9ihr. Westbound flights are scheduled to take 7 hr 55 min non-stop, but this is an unrealisticestimate made in deference to the U.S. air regulation which forbids non-stop domestic flights of over 8 hr duration. The inauguralflight from Los Angeles to Burbank took nearly 9\ hr. This regulation was recently waived to permit continuance ofnon-stop trans-continental services by American Airlines, and North American have applied to the C.A.B. for similar exemption. American Airlines announced on December 27th that they hadrequested C.A.B. "not to take any action that would aid or abet the non-scheduled air carrier 'North American Airlines' in furtherviolations of the law." The statement added that, in earlier proceedings, the C.A.B. had found the airline's use of the nameNorth American Airlines to be "an unfair and deceptive practice and an unfair method of competition." AIRLINE TRAFFIC LAST YEAR CTATISTICS showing the total traffic results in 1954 of all>~* scheduled air services (Russian and Communist Chinese excepted) were released last week by the International CivilAviation Organization. The I.C.A.O. figures, which are pre- sented in tabular form on the page opposite, show that scheduledair transport continued to expand—but that the average post-war rate of expansion was not maintained. The total number of passengers carried rose by 11 per cent to57.8m, and the number of passenger-miles flown increased in proportion. Aircraft miles flown went up by only 4 per cent,from which it may be inferred that increased aircraft capacity, rather than additional service frequency, was largely responsiblefor the extra traffic. This added capacity resulted mainly from the further spread of tourist services, with consequent increase inseating densities—as shown by the fact that the "average" airliner carried 7 per cent more passengers than in 1953. The introduc-tion of newer, larger aircraft made a less significant contribution to this trend. There was practically no change in the averagedistance per passenger (554 miles), indicating that extra traffic The clover-leaf cowling over this Alvis Leonides Major engine in the H.P.R.5 flying test-bed (formerly the Mamba-Marathon) is an easy- maintenance feature of the forthcoming Handley Page Herald, the first prototype of which will fly this year. Nominal power rating of the Leonides Major is 870 h.p.
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