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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0918.PDF
28 FLIGHT, 1 July 1955 CIVIL AVIATION BRITANNIA'S FIRST EXPORT ORDER THE first export contract for the Britannia turboprop airlinerwas signed simultaneously on June 22nd in Tel-Aviv and Bristol by El Al Israel Airlines and the Bristol Aeroplane Co.El Al, who first expressed their intention to buy Britannias in March this year, have ordered three Mk 300 L.R.s for deliveryearly in 1957. The order follows several visits to Bristol's Filton works by the airline's managing director, Mr. L. A. Pincus, accom-panied by other of the company's executives. The Israeli Minister of Communications, Mr. J.Saphir, has also visited Filton and has sampled the Bri-tannia's flying qualities. Britannias will replace Con-stellation 049s on El Al's international routes to NewYork via London) and to Johannesburg. They will befurnished to carry 93 pas- sengers in two compartments(a first-class cabin, with sleepers, and a main compart-ment for tourists), compared with the 58-seat, one-cabin layout of El Al's existing all-tourist Constellations. Notwithstanding claims made for the piston-engined DC-7Cand L.1649A, Bristols say that the 300 L.R. will be "the first aircraft capable of operating a scheduled high regularity non-stopservice both east and west between London and New York all the year round." El Al, whose choice of the Britannia followed "a thoroughexamination of all aircraft available and consultation with experts with international standing," expect its introduction to their net-work to bring spectacular reduction of journey-times. Thus, it is planned to operate non-stop from London to New York in 12-13hours instead of 18-20 hours as at present. The 2,250-mile flight from Lod Airport, Tel-Aviv, to London should be completed inabout six hours, whereas the fastest time achieved on this route by the Constellation is 9 hr 9 min. The Britannia should linkTel-Aviv and Johannesburg in about 12 hours' flying time, com- pared with the present schedule of 16 hours. Powered by four Proteus 755 turboprops each delivering 4,120e.h.p., the 300 L.R. can carry its maximum payload of 28,000 lb over a still-air range of 4,600 miles. With a reduced payload of17,000 lbj which approximates to the capacity payloads of the DC-7C and L.1649A, its still-air range is 6,210 miles. True meancruising airspeed is quoted by Bristols as 385 m.p.h. The 300 L.R., of which ten examples have been ordered byB.O.A.C., is one of five marks of Britannia now in production. Its companion types are the Mk 100 (now flying, and due forintroduction on B.O.A.C.'s Commonwealth routes next year) with Proteus 705 turboprops and "short" fuselage; the Mk 300 withfuselage extension of 10ft 3in and Proteus 755 engines (this ver- sion, also ordered byB.O.A.C.lacks the extra tankage of the 300 L.R. but can carry a30,000 lb payload over a stage of 33450 miles); the Mk250 L.R., resembling the 300 L.R. but with large forwardcargo door and strengthened floor in the front fuselage; andthe M.R. Britannia which is being built under licence byCanadair for the Royal Canadian Air Force. B.O.A.C. have ordered a total of 33 Britannias—15 Mk 100s, eight Mk 300sand 10 Mk 300 L.R.s. Now operating a fleet of four Constellations and four C-46s,El Al were incorporated in November 1948 and began scheduled services to European cities about six years ago. Most of thecompany's share capital is owned by the Israeli Government. The airline's Constellation service to New York began in May 1951and regular flights to Johannesburg began later the same year. The airline is thus among the smallest and youngest of the trans-atlantic carriers. Its order for Britannias comes at a time when most of its largercompetitors have pinned their hopes for non-stop transatlantic services on semi-proven piston-engined types. To describe El Al's£3m investment in the Britannia as a courageous action does not? imply any slur on Bristol's highly promising but—from the airline-viewpoint—relatively untried turboprop airliner. It is unlikely: that El Al could afford to follow B.O.A.C. (who are buying £13nv.worth of DC-7Cs "to secure their competitive situation") in placing- an "insurance" order for piston-engined equipment. There is,however, every prospect that the Britannia 100 will have won its operational spurs by the time El Al's improved versions are readyfor delivery. HOME MARKETS AND EXPORT ORDERS T TNDOUBTEDLY the greatest of the problems faced by the*-* British aircraft industry in its effort to export airliners on a large scale is the relative smallness of its home market. InAmerica, the pump is lavishly primed by military-transport orders, and the national airline industry is sufficiently large toaccept the bulk of subsequent output; export orders have (until recently, at least) represented the overspill. A forceful reminder of the extent to which the West Coast isunderwritten by military orders was given on June 21st by Mr. W. E. Nixon, chairman of the de Havilland Aircraft Co., atthe company's annual meeting. Before closing the meeting, Mr. Nixon said:"In my circulated address I referred to the need which we have for a bigger home market for our airliners. In support ofthis I think you may be interested to have the following figures which have been compiled from reliable sources. In Americaapproximately 3,000 airliners have been recently produced or arc on order. Of these about 1,200 have been or will be forhome commercial use and 1,300 for military purposes. These do not include the Boeing 707, for which we understand 250 areon order, for military jet tankers. I thought it as well to bring these figures to your notice to show you the need which we havefor all possible national support, if Britain is to be established in the airline business; if you have channels through which youcan bring this to the notice of those capable of giving support and help, this will be to the benefit of the company." In view of B.O.A.C.'s continued support for the Comet 4,it can reasonably be inferred that Mr. Nixon's remarks apply more to British military, rather than civil, air-transport policy. GERMAN-AMERICAN BILATERAL ATTACKED FOUR United States airlines have protested against the termsof the proposed bilateral agreement between America and Western Germany. The agreement is reportd to give Lufthansatransatlantic traffic rights at Boston, New York and Philadelphia, plus fifth-freedom rights between all three cities and (a) theCaribbean area and (b) one point in South America. It would also permit the revived German airline to carry transatlantictraffic to and from Chicago by way of Canada and to operate a Polar service to San Francisco or Los Angeles. The protesting airlines included PanAm, Eastern and BranifrVObjections to the proposed agreement have also been raised by two members of the Senate Commerce Committee—SenatorMagnuson and Senator Pastore. The claim of Senator Magnuson, chairman of the committee, that the United States had beenout-ranked by the German negotiators was denied by Mr. Kalijarvi, assistant secretary of state for economic affairs, whosaid that the State Department considered the exchange of rights to be "wholly equitable and in the best interests of theUnited States". Some of the concessions made to Germany, he said, were necessary because PanAm insisted on retaining trafficrights at five German airports. NEW SERVICES APPROVED THE M.T.C.A. announce Ministerial approval, after considera-tion of the Air Transport Advisory Council's recommen- dations, of the following scheduled air services; —Eagle Aviation, Ltd.—An inclusive tour service between London (Blackbushe) and Zurich until September 30th, 1955.Hunting-Clan Air Transport, Ltd.—Inclusive tours between London Airport and Basle (until August 31st, 1955); Newcastleand Dublin, and Liverpool and Dublin (until September 10th, 1955); Manchester and Dublin (until September 17th, 1955);London Airport and Munich (until September 30th, 1955). B.E.A. AND THE RAIL STRIKE THE chairman of B.E.A., Lord Douglas, has received a letterfrom the Postmaster General, Dr. Hill, expressing apprecia- tion of the part played by the Corporation in maintaining postalservices during the railway strike. Altogether 503 extra flights within the United Kingdom were operated by B.E.A. during the
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