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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0184.PDF
184 FLIGHT An assembly line of eleven Viscount fuselages, including Nos. 4 to 10 for T.C.A., fills this erect- ing shop at Hum. The shop is one of two recently extended to permit simultaneous work on a total ..... of 24 aircraft. ,.-..,. G' CIVIL AVIATION . . . signature. It replaces an earlier agreement with the PhilippineGovernment signed in January 1948. The Ministry recall that on August 11th, 1953, the UnitedKingdom Government gave notice of termination of this earlier agreement with a view to negotiating a new one at an early date.B.O.A.C. will now be able to operate through Manila on a route from London to Tokyo with no restriction on the exercise of trafficrights there. In addition, the agreement provides for regional services by British operators from Hong Kong and Singapore andfor services by Philippine operators to United Kingdom territories in the Far East, and to London. B.O.A.C, do not at present operate through Manila. The air-port was used by Tokyo-bound Comets as a refuelling stop, but under the old agreement they were not allowed to pick up or setdown traffic. HELICOPTERS FOR CHARTER A NEWCOMER to the British helicopter scene is Rotorfilms,Ltd., who will shortly operate the first rotorplane to be con- tinuously available for Press and publicity purposes in the UnitedKingdom. The aircraft, which is expected to be operating by April, will be a new float-equipped Bell 47G, assembled underlicence by the Italian Agusta concern. Rotorfilms have been formed by one of Britain's leading helicopter pilots, Capt. J.Crewdson, who will himself fly the Bell. Capt. Crewdson, who has more than 1,000 rotating-wing hoursto his credit, is a former member of the B.E.A. Helicopter Unit and was until recently chief pilot of Autair, Ltd. Formedlast year, Autair are pioneers in the operation of helicopters solely for charter work. The company's fleet consists of threeSikorsky S-51s formerly operated by the B.E.A. Helicopter Unit. Contrary to one report, thereis no connection between Rotor- films and Autair other than—toquote the latter—"a friendly associa- tion." Hitherto much of the flying timelogged by Autair has been for adver- tising and publicity purposes, togetherwith a number of freight and survey nights. Work during the coming yearwill be more varied: among the most interesting tasks ahead of Autair'sS-51s will be "hoyermissions"—air- borne test transmissions—to deter-mine the best sites for certain Continental television stations. Theuse of a helicopter, hovering at the proposed height and location, obviatesthe time and expense of setting-up jury masts. Interior view of the second Hum erect- ing shop, which will be ready for use at the end of this month. The extension is 454ft long, bringing the total length of the shop to 796ft. VISCOUNT PRODUCTION EXPANDED OOD progress is reported by Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., in increasing the pro- ductive capacity of their main Viscountfactory at Hum. The purpose of the expan- sion programme, which was first announcedlast August, is to make possible the comple- tion of 55 aircraft in 1955—niore than doublelast year's output. During 1956, which will see the introduc-tion to the line of the first 800-series, it is intended to build 80 Viscounts. A "consider-able further expansion" could take place in 1957, but the exact output would, of course,depend on the number of Viscounts ordered by then. Viscount orders to date total 178aircraft, of which 46 have been delivered. There are two main erecting shops at Hum,both of which were originally 342ft in length; each was capable of holding five fuselages—three with wings fitted and two without. Both these shops have now been extended to a length of 796ft, and side annexes housingelectrical shops have been added. Each shop can now accom- modate 12 fuselages, six with wings and six with inner planes.Erecting shop No. 106 (illustrated above) has been in full opera- tion for some time, and the extension to shop No. 107 (below)will be in use by the end of this month. Other parts of the Hurn factory have also been extended tokeep pace with the demands of the new erecting shops. The fuselage shop has been doubled in size and the number of fuselageassembly jigs is being increased from three to eight; in addition, the number of fuselage sub-assembly jigs has been more thandoubled. In taking over the former R.A.F. station headquarters site justoutside the airport, Vickers have gained 49,000 sq ft extra floor space for metal treatment and for fitters' shops. A second flightshed has been provided, and new drawing-office accommodation will treble the space available for such work as special customerrequirements. Steps have been taken to increase the supply of sub-contracted components (which include the wings, tail unit,ailerons, flaps and part of the undercarriage), and the labour force at Hum has been practically doubled. IRON-CURTAIN AIRLINE NEWS TV/fOSCOW reports say that regular air traffic was opened on±TX February 2nd between the Soviet capital and Tirana, Albania. The service operates weekly via Kiev, Budapest andBelgrade, and the distance of about 1,525 miles, with landings, is covered in 11 hr 35 min. Another new Aeroflot service is between Moscow and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, via Kazan, Sverdlovsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasno- yarsk, Irkutsk, Chita and Khabarovsk; the service takes 25 hr. Following negotiations in Moscow between Soviet and
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