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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0471.PDF
15 April 1955 471 Air Ministry and held a succession of senior posts in variousministries. He was knighted in 1949. Sir Maurice, who is now 48 years of age, was educated at St. Olave's School and TrinityCollege, Cambridge. Byrd for the Antarctic '"TWENTY-SIX years since his first flight over the South Pole,-*• Rear Admiral Byrd is to lead another expedition to the Antarctic next year—his fifth trip to those regions. Organized by the U.S.Navy, the expedition will leave the U.S.A. next November. It will be composed of 1,250 men, 14 aircraft of various types (thesewill operate from New Zealand), and five ships—two ice-breakers, two cargo ships and a fleet oiler. A New Department at Cranfield A NEW department—to be known as the Department of Air-craft Electrical Engineering—has been created at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield, and Mr. G. A. Whitfield, B.Sc, has beenappointed as its Professor and Head; he will take up his duties on June 1st. The appointment is in fulfilment of the governors'policy of expanding the electrical section of the Department of Aircraft Design into a full teaching department. Mr. Whitfield, who graduated with special honours in physicsat Sheffield University, is at present Head of the Controlled Weapons Division in the Armament Department at the R.A.E.,Farnborough, and has held the rank of senior principal scientific officer since 1951. Viscount Ferry Record IMPRESSIVE flight times were achieved by the CanadianDepartment of Transport Viscount, CF-GXK, on its recent delivery flight from Wisley to Montreal via Prestwick, Keflavikand Bluie West One. Favourable winds enabled Vickers-Arm- strongs' chief test pilot, "Jock" Bryce, who was in command, tofly direct from Bluie West to Montreal without making the usual refuelling stop at Goose Bay, Labrador. This 1,600-mile stagewas covered at an average ground-speed of 345 m.p.h. Between Bluie West One and Goose Bay the tail-wind com-ponent was some 3 m.p.h., giving a ground-speed of 335 m.p.h. Arriving over Goose, Bryce decided to continue direct to Montreal,and on this 825-mile leg a 30-m.p.h. tail component brought the ground-speed to 360 m.p.h. This final part of the journey took 2 hr 18 min—an unofficial record; previously, Viscounts hadstopped to refuel at Goose Bay, and the best time achieved was 3 hr. Total Atlantic flying time of the D. o. T. Viscount on its3,338-mile journey from Prestwick to Montreal was 11 hr 6 min. In addition to Mr. Bryce, the aircraft carried Mr. W. Gadsozof the D. o. T. (co-pilot); Mr. D. L. Jones and Mr. C. N. Scott (navigators); and Mr. R. Pullin (flight engineer). Mr. Gadsoz isat present attending the Empire Test Pilots' course at Farn- borough. As reported elsewhere in this issue, CF-GXK willinitially be used for the training of Canadian Viscount pilots, under an agreement between T.C.A. and the D. o. T. The "Dam Busters" Film "INDICATIVE of the hold which No. 617 Squadron's operations•*• against the German dams still retains on the public imagina- tion is the news that the world premiere of The Dam-Bustersfilm was "sold out" almost as soon as the date was announced. Organized jointly by the Pathfinder Association and theR.A.F.A. the premiere has been arranged for Monday, May 16th, and H.R.H. Princess Margaret has graciously consented to attend.All the seats, priced at from 5s to 5 gns, were sold within 24 hours of the announcement, so the possibly unprecedented stepwas taken of arranging a second premiere for the following night, May 17th. Seats for this second night have been selling almost asfast, but a few at prices from 5s to 3 gns remain as we go to press; a telephone call to the Premiere Hon. Secretary, R.A.F.A., atLangham 8181 or 8187 (night; might be worth while. There will not, of course, be royal attendance on the secondnight, but a number of R.A.F. senior officers and other notabilities will be present. On both evenings there will be a stage presenta-tion in which will appear Miss Gladys Ripley, the famous contralto; the R.A.F. Association Mixed Choirs; and the R.A.F.Central Band under W/C. Sims. We understand that the film interests concerned have beenparticularly helpful in the arrangements for the two shows and that a number of their members who themselves served in theR.A.F. have done a great deal to forward the preparations. The proceeds of the premieres will go to the R.A.F.A., R.A.F. Benevo-lent Fund, the Pathfinder Association and the R.A.F. Escaping Society.In the film—made by Associated British Picture Corporation from a script prepared by R. C. Sheriff from Paul BrickhilPsbook—Guy Gibson is portrayed by Richard Todd, "Mutt" Summers by Patrick Barr and Dr. B. N. Wallis by MichaelRedgrave. The sequences showing the training for the attack on the dams were made at Windermere with the help of R.A.F. crews ASSAYED: The spoil-heaps of a gold mine give a clue to the location in this new picture of Bristol Britannia G-ANBA, which began its successful tropical tests in Johannesburg and has now concluded them at Khartoum. It was due to return on Wednesday. flying recommissioned Lancasters. The major part of the loca-tion work was done at Scampton—the station from which No. 617 Sqn actually took off on the famous raid. Photographs taken atScampton and elsewhere during die making of the film were reproduced in Flight of June 18th, 1954. Renfrew Developments T ITTLE or no redundancy should result from the closing-down-'—'of B.E.A.'s maintenance base at Renfrew, according to a state- ment in the House of Commons on April 6th by Mr. J. Boyd-Carpenter, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation. The Minister said that, in the circumstances, he no longer felt justifiedin pressing B.E.A. to continue operation of the base. The Canadian Government was placing a contract with ScottishAviation, Ltd., for repair and overhaul of Sabres at Renfrew, and this was expected to provide employment for some 300engineers. Lord Douglas, B.E.A.'s chairman, has said that another 100would be needed for servicing of B.E.A. aircraft at Renfrew, and that expansion of the Corporation's operations at London Airportwould create up to 300 vacancies for skilled engineers and associated staff. National Air Race Entries HP HE Royal Aero Club has announced the entries for the first* meeting in the 1955 National Air Races series, to be held at Fairwood Common, Swansea, on April 30th. This year's series offour meetings, it will be remembered, is based on a progressive points system covering six classes, and a seventh has now beenadded—for the Goodyear Challenge Cup (and prize money), open to Miles Gemini owners.A novel entry in the Grosvenor Cup class (aircraft capable of up to 130 m.p.h.) is an Agusta-Bell 47G helicopter. The entrylist is as follows : — S.B.A.C. Cup Class.—G. Marler (Falcon Six), R. R. Paine (HawkS. Six)—(Mew Gull entered by F. Dunkerley), F. Dunkerley (Sparrow- iet).Goodyear Trophy Class (for Gemini aircraft).—P. Blamire (Gemini la), F. Dunkerley (Gemini la), J. N. Somers (Gemini 2).Air League Cup Class (for Proctor aircraft).—E. Noel Husbands (Proctor 1), T. G. Knox (Proctor 3).Kemsley Trophy Class.—A. J. Spiller (Messenger 2a), D. F. Ogilvy (Somper Swift), J. R. Johnston (Hawk Trainer 3), C. G. Wheatley(Globe Swift), J. N. Somers (Chipmunk), J. de Luigi (Ambrosini S.1001).Norton Griffiths Trophy Class (for Tiger Moths).—B. J. Snook, B. Maile, P. Vanneck, J. H. Denyer, J. M. Donald.Grosvenor Cup Class.—J. Crewdson (Agusta-Bell 47G), Miss F. M. Leaf (Tipsy Trainer 1), C. Gregory (Taylorcraft Plus D),—(G. A.Cygnet entered by R. Lamprell), D. Westoby (Aiglet J. 5K). "FLIGHT" STAFF APPOINTMENTS The following appointments on the editorial staff are announced:— H. F. ("Rex") King, M.B.E. (who has been assistant editor since May 1949), associate editor. W. T. ("Bill") Gunston, technical editor. Roy Casey, production editor.
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