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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0681.PDF
20 May 1955 AIRCRAFT INTELLIGENCE 679 Great Britain Civil Registrations. Among recent addi- tions to the register of British civil aircraft is G-AOBG—the Somers-KendaU SK.l single-seat jet racer; its owners are given as Somers-Kendall Aircraft, Ltd. Others in- clude G-ANYK, a D.H.90A Dragonfly acquired by B.E.A. and formerly registered F-OAMS; G-ANYB, a C-54B Skymaster bought from the United States by Air Charter, Ltd.; and G-ANCA, the first Bristol Britannia 300. The latter aircraft, now well advanced in construction, was to have been G-AMYL, but this registration, together with G-AMYK (the letters allo- cated for the Britannia 200), has now been cancelled. Formerly operated by West African Airways Corporation, Marathon 1 As VR-NAS and VR-NAT now appear in the British register as G-AMHS and G-AMHV. The owner is given as the Minister of Supply; the aircraft have, in fact, been acquired for transport and com- munications flights between various M.o.S. establishments. U.S.A. Boeing B-47. According to Aviation Week, the present fly-away cost to the United States Air Force of a Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber is $2,225,000. Lockheed XF-104. The destruction, a few weeks ago, of one of the two Lockheed XF-104 supersonic air-superiority-fighter prototypes while on an armament test flight over the Mojave desert was caused by "an armament explosion." Lockheeds give the assurance that there was no diffi- culty with aerodynamics, structure or powerplant. Beechcraft and the Paris. As already recorded, Beechcraft have taken an option for production under licence of the Morane M.S.760 Paris, and are paying the expenses for shipping the prototype to America The basic trainer on the right is a North American T-28B, powered with a Wright R-1820 Cyclone and having a top speed of over 280 m.p.h. The fighter below it is an F-86H Sabre, apparently with four 20 mm guns in place of the former 6 X 0.5/n armament. and demonstration there. The U.S. Navy has also asked for demonstrations and has shown interest in the aircraft for training and communications. In these roles the Paris would be a direct competitor of the Cessna XT-37, a two- seater which strongly resembles it. France S.O.9000 Trident That this fighter- research prototype, with Armstrong Sid- deley Vipers at its wing tips in place of the original Turbomecas, and with an SEPR liquid-fuel rocket in the rear of the fuselage, has achieved supersonic speed both in level flight and on the climb is already known. The sequence of its early testing, at the beginning of March, was that after exceeding Mach 1 "by a large margin" in a shallow dive without switching on the rocket, tests were initiated under rocket power. Three days later the machine greatly exceeded the speed of sound during the last stage of a climb, using only a fraction of the available rocket power. Tests are now being conducted by the S.N.C.A.S.O. test pilot Goujon with a view to obtaining much higher perform- ances. The Trident will be a star exhibit at the 21st International Salon de l'Aero- nautique, which opens on June 10th. Marcel Dassault Mystere IV. Another impressive item scheduled for the Salon— on June 18th and 19th—is formation flying by twelve Mystere IVs from the Mont-de- Marsan base, during the course of which all aircraft will simultaneously "break the sound barrier." S.E. Alouette II. Three examples of this Turbomeca-powered helicopter, tests of which are now under way at Buc, are on order for the French Navy. Unofficial performance figures show that the machine has a considerable reserve of power at a gross weight of 2,870 lb, and the results obtained exceed the French Naval speci- fications. Cruising speed is in the order of 110 m.p.h. Potez 75. A pilot officially appointed by the Venezuelan Government, M. Oswald Gibelli, has made several flights in this twin-boom pusher ground-attack proto- type, as a result of which he has stated that the machine "corresponds to the require- ments of his country." AVRO VULCAN B.I (Four Bristol Olympus) Span 99ft Length 97ft 1 in
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