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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0596.PDF
596 FLIGHT, 6 May 1955 CIVIL AVIATION ... _•=* THE HARD-WORKING ARGONAUT A HYBRID airliner with the best qualities of a thoroughbred,the Canadair Four is undoubtedly still among the finest of the world's transports. Many operators must regret that produc-tion ceased long ago, and that its sole civil operators are B.O.A.C. and T.C.A.—both of whom have recently expressed the utmostsatisfaction with a performance which, in the commercial sense, has improved rather than deteriorated with the years. The excellence of the Argonaut, as it is styled by B.O.A.C.,is not superficially apparent. Argonauts hold no speed records, have no unique attraction to offer the passenger, and are notstrikingly handsome in appearance. None the less, the type has those vital qualities which are the very basis of air transport: itis outstandingly reliable, it flies well and it makes money. 3,000 £ 1950/51 1951/52 1952/53 1953/54 1954/55 Revenue utilization of the B.O.A.C. Argonaut fleet plotted over the past five (financial) years; the daily rate has increased by over 4 hr. The Argonaut entered service with B.O.A.C. on August 23rd,1949. Delivery of the fleet of 22 was completed on November 11th of that year—eight months ahead of schedule. In their firstfull year of operation (1950-51), Argonauts flew a total of 42,175 hr, each aircraft averaging 5.12 revenue hr daily. This rateof output has risen steadily ever since—from 6.58 hr daily in 1951/52, 6.95 hr in 1952/53, 8.13 hr in 1953/54 to 9.30 hr inthe financial year ended March 31st, 1955. Total flying hours logged by the fleet last year were 75,820.Credit for the performance of the Argonaut (and of its Canadian counterpart, the North Star) must be shared between several parties—notably the Douglas company, who provided the basic DC-4/6 airframe; Canadair, the constructors and origina- tors of the type; and Rolls-Royce, who supplied the Merlin power-units. First L.1049G Super Constellations delivered to Europe are those of Lufthansa, who plan to begin their Hamburg to New York service in June. The flagship, illustrated here, displays wing-tip tanks and airscrew spinners—two features exclusive, as yet, to this version of the L.1049. As illustrated overleaf, future DC-7s will also have spinners. S.A.S. DIRECT TO OSLO ON April 19th, two days after the opening of London AirportCentral, Scandinavian Airlines System inaugurated a direct service to Oslo with DC-6 OY-KLY. The London-Oslo flightwas completed in 3 hr 12 min. Four S.A.S. services now operate from London direct to Oslo each week, in each case the aircraftcontinuing on to Stockholm. The distance from London to Stockholm by this route is 981 miles, and the new schedules callfor this to be completed in 5 hr including a 20 minute stop on the ground at Fornebu. It was noted that passengers were not per-mitted to leave the aircraft during refuelling at Fornebu, nor at Kastrup on a return flight via Copenhagen. SCOTTISH HERONS GOOD load factors are reported on the B.E.A. feeder servicesnow flown with Herons in place of Rapides. A passenger on the second commercial service to be operated by the new aircraftobserves that full loads of passengers were taken on the Renfrew- Tiree and Tiree-Barra legs. The residents of Castlebay have now become accustomed toseeing the Herons arrive, due to many proving flights and land- ings on the famous beach (Europe's richest cockle strand). For-ward bookings show that the Herons are likely to step up passenger figures in this already air-minded part of Scotland. TURBOPROPS OUTBACK IT is expected that the first of two Viscounts ordered by ButlerAir Transport will be delivered in August and introduced into service in October. It is believed that Butler will be the firstcompany to use Viscounts solely on local, as opposed to inter- city routes. The company's operations manager. CaptainYoung, will shortly begin a three-month familiarization course with B.E.A. before taking delivery of the first aircraft. Thefounder of the airline is Mr. Arthur Butler, managing director and chairman, who still flies on regular air services at least oncea week as a first officer. NEW TOWN TERMINAL FOR B.E.A. DESIGN work has begun on a permanent city air terminalbuilding to replace B.E.A.'s existing building at Waterloo Air Terminal. The Corporation has notified the London CountyCouncil that it will vacate the Waterloo site in 1957. Construc- tion of the permanent terminal will not be completed for someyears, and temporary accommodation will be provided during the interim period. The building will be erected on a steel-frameddeck covering a triangle of railway tracks adjoining the Cromwell Road, West London. B.O.A.C. ENGINEERING CHANGES REVISED arrangements for maintenance of Stratocruisers andConstellations are announced by B.O.A.C. Formerly, engineering on both types was supervised by a single fleetmaintenance engineer. In future, Stratocruiser maintenance will take place in the south and east hangars of the new B.O.A.C.headquarters at London Airport. In charge will be Mr. E. J. Curwood, who becomes fleet engineering manager, Stratocruisers.Hangars 2, 3 and 4 will be given over to Constellation main- tenance under Mr. R. A. V. Dismore with the new title of fleetengineering manager, Constellations. Airwork Atlantic, who in- augurated DC-4 all-cargo services between London, Montreal and New York last March, have now introduced a weekly DC-6A service. The aircraft (one is illustrated here) are at present on hire, with crews, from Slick Air- ways, Airwork's own DC-6As being due for delivery in January. The DC-6A service, which phases-in with Slick's trans - continental flights, carries some 72 tons weekly in each direction; in addi- tion, there is also a weekly DC-4 service.
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