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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0541.PDF
29 April 1955 541 "LAUNCHED" on April 21st, France's Caravelle twin-Avon transport is rapidly approaching the flight stage. The nose may appear familiar; so it may be added that the whole for- ward fuselage, with flight deck, is identical with that of the Comet. A full de- scription of this unusual machine will be published shortly in "Flight." Institution, that in the light of recent successful rescues helicoptersmight have to be provided for the Lifeboat Service. Col. Burnett Brown said: "We are very much alive to thehelicopter's possibilities, and we have appointed a special com- mittee to keep us in touch with the latest developments."He went on to say: "At present we have a useful arrangement whereby Royal Naval and Royal Air Force helicopters are calledwhen required by the coastguard," and added that helicopters were "expensive to operate and unable to cope with certain kindsof work." While agreeing that they are at present expensive both ininitial and in operating cost, Flight feels that their importance for rescue work of many different kinds has been demonstrated sofrequently during recent years that their official adoption for civilian duties of this kind should now be given the most seriousconsideration. Certainly the helicopter is unable to compete with the lifeboatin certain kinds of work—at night for instance, or in rescuing a large number of survivors—but against this must be set suchadvantages as the extraordinary speed with which it can reach vessels or persons in distress and the fact that, unlike the lifeboat,it can also effect rescues on land (a recent example was a heli- copter's attendance when a lightplane pilot crashed on a lonelymoorland). Such achievements by rotorcraft, together with the fact that they already have been found useful for police purposes,suggests that, for a start, shared use by the R.N.L.I. and the police might well make economical operation possible. It no longerseems right that dependence should be placed on voluntary Service help, however speedy and efficient the helicopter aid theycan usually provide. Einstein and Aeronautical Engineering TT is not generally known that the great physicist whose death*- occurred last week was at one time actively interested in aero- nautical design. In about 1915-1916, in connection with his warduties at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute near Berlin, he undertook some work on a theoretically developed aerofoil section forbiplanes which, according to Einstein's mathematical research, would give improved performance and stability. The Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (L.V.G.) at Johannisthal, ofwhich Franz Schneider was technical director, designed an experi- mental biplane (the D.9V) in accordance with the mathematician'srecommendations. It flew, but expectations were not fulfilled— possibly the basic design was unsatisfactory—and the developmentof the new aerofoil section was not pursued. A contributory reason for the abandonment of the project may have been thatFranz Schneider soon afterwards left L.V.G. in order to embark upon an aircraft enterprise of his own. R.A.F. in Dutch Liberation Celebrations "pIVE Lincolns of No. 7 Sqn, Bomber Command, are to take-*• part in the celebrations in connection with the tenth anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands which are being organizedby the Municipality of The Hague today, April 29th. They are to fly over The Hague and drop tulip-heads and leaflets containingmessages of goodwill. This is to symbolize the dropping of food by the Royal Air Force which began on April 29th, 1945, torelieve the starving Dfitch citizens during the final stages of the Occupation. The Germans had agreed to allow the aircraftunimpeded passage over the area. Bomber Command aircraft made 3,341 sorties and delivered 6,685 tons of food. Over The Hague the Lincolns will be escorted by F-84s of theRoyal Netherlands Air Force and a squadron of Meteors from the 2nd T.A.F.After dropping the flowers and leaflets the Lincolns will land at Valkenburg airfield and the crews will be the guests of theBurgomaster and aldermen of The Hague. Soon, after landing, a ceremony will take place at The Hague town hall, when the captains of the aircraft will hand over special messages of friend-ship. These will be from H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh to H.R.H. Prince Bernhard; from Sir Winston Churchill to Dr.Drees, Prime Minister of the Netherlands; from Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, Secretary of State for Air, to Mr. Staf, the Nether-lands Minister of Defence; from the Lord Mayor of London to the Burgomaster of The Hague; and from Lady Thurso, wife ofthe Secretary of State for Air who ordered the original operation, to Mrs. Louwes, widow of the Dutch official who organized thewhole plan for food dropping in 1945. Beech Acquire Morane-Saulnier Licence THE Beech Aircraft Corporation have announced that they areto build the Morane-Saulnier M.S. 760 Paris under licence in America, thus extending its present line of light executive aircraftby the addition of the world's first four-seat jet executive aircraft. This news is foreshadowed on page 553 (which went to pressearlier) wherein is described a visit to the Morane-Saulnier factory. Bcechcraft statements describe the Paris as "an amazingly fast,new four-place airplane, something that has never been offered before and cannot be duplicated by anybody at this time." Thecompany plans to demonstrate the Morane-built first prototype all over the United States this summer. The aircraft is at presentbeing evaluated by the French Centre d'Essais en Vol at Bretigny. Among the advantages that Beech claim for the Paris are acruising speed a little higher than that of the DC-7, a visibility "never before achieved in any aircraft of this type," full pressuriza-tion and air conditioning, a range of close on 1,000 miles, "unequalled" flying qualities, and a significant development poten-tial, particularly in the power and fuel economy of the engines, which will be Continental-built Marbore Us. Canada and the Vulcan THE suggestion has been made, in at least two Canadian jour-nals—Canadian Aviation and the Financial Post—that the Avro Vulcan may be built in Toronto by the Hawker SiddeleyCanadian partner. The Manchester firm had no comment to make on these reports;but any such development would be surprising, for it is under- stood that the company are well up on schedule with Vulcanproduction and that there is no need to look for further productive capacity; and it is thought that the Canadians them-selves would have no call for bombers of this type. In any case, the decision to build Vulcans in Canada would have to be takenby the Canadian Government. Independent Viscounts and Herons AT last there are signs of slow but positive improvements in the• equipment of British independent airlines. An important step in this respect will be the introduction of Viscounts, onJune 13th, on the domestic and international network of Hunting- Clan Air Transport, Ltd. From Newcastle, focal point of theairline's "northern network," Viscounts will fly to Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Stavanger and Oslo; at peak periods they will alsobe operated in place of Vikings on the London-Newcastle route. Following delay in the delivery of H.C.A.'s Viscounts, thecompany has arranged with Dragon Airways, Ltd., for the use of the latter company's new Herons on the internal services linkingNewcastle with Manchester and Glasgow. Herons will also operate from Newcastle to Hamburg and Copenhagen. Based at Speke, Liverpool, Dragon Airways are the secondBritish airline to re-equip with Herons (Jersey Airlines bought their first two years ago). Dragon's first Heron, G-ANYJ, wasdue for delivery this week, and a second will follow in June. During the coming summer Herons and Rapides of Dragon Air-ways will operate an extensive network of scheduled services, including week-end flights from Stoke-on-Trent to the ChannelIslands and the Isle of Man—the Potteries' first air services.
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