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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0919.PDF
FLIGHT, 1 July 1955 29 CIVIL AVIATION . . . SEABOARD CERTIFICATED "VpEWS of considerable significance to transatlantic operators is-L ' President Eisenhower's decision—reported from Washington a few days ago—to grant Seaboard and Western Airlines a five-year licence to operate scheduled all-freight services between the United States and Europe. Seaboard's original application tooperate such services was filed with the C.A.B. on July 17th, 1947; the application was denied in 1952, whereupon Seaboard filed anapplication for reconsideration. A C.A.B. examiner recommended Seaboard's certification in January 1954, and the Defense Depart-ment endorsed the airline's proposal on the grounds that develop- ment of the air-freighting industry was in the national interest. Seaboard have been operating non-scheduled services acrossthe North Atlantic and Pacific since May 1947, averaging 750 ocean crossings annually for the past eight years. The company'sfleet now consists of four Super Constellation freighters (two of which have been converted to passenger work and leased toB.O.A.C.) and five DC-4s. As non-members of I.A.T.A., Seaboard can offer rates wellbelow those fixed by the scheduled airlines carrying freight on the North Atlantic. The company may now seek to join I.A.T.A.,in which case its bold rates policy would further add to the traffic- conference wrangling — already considerable — which precedesI.A.T.A. airlines' "unanimous agreement" on freight tariffs. Alter- natively, Seaboard may choose to remain outside the I.A.T.A.ring; there seems no reason why the airline should not do so, though (with isolated exceptions) governments usually stipulateI.A.T.A. approval of tariff as a condition of permission to operate a scheduled international service. B.O.A.C.'s LAST "049" "pIRST type of post-war airliner to be operated by B.O.A.C., the •*• Constellation 049 ended nine years of service with the Corpora- ! tion on June 24th, when G-AKCE left London Airport on aI delivery flight to Capital Airlines. This aircraft was the seventh of its type taken over by Capital; in return, B.O.A.C. have received an equal number of longer-range Constellation 749s from the American carrier.Constellation 049s were introduced to B.O.A.C. service in 1946 and operated all the airline's transatlantic services until the Strato-cruisers' debut in 1949. In 1952 the 049s took over tourist services on the North Atlantic route, but the 749s which have now replacedthem are employed on Eastern and African routes, since Strato- cruisers are now operating the majority of tourist as well as trans-atlantic services. During their nine years of service with B.O.A.C., the Constellation 049s flew 113,207 hours and made 5,740 Atlanticcrossings. The seven ex-B.O.A.C. aircraft now in service with Capital include four of the original five 049s delivered to theBritish airline in 1949—G-AHEJ, K, L and M; the fifth, G-AHEN, was written off after a training accident but eventually returned toservice with El Al Israel Airlines. The other 049s with Camtal are G-AKCE, delivered last week, and G-AMUP and G-AMUR,both of which were bought from PanAm in January 1953. Registrations of the ex-Capital 749s now added to B.O.A.C.'sstrength are G-ANUV-Z inclusive and G-ANVA, B and D. The seventh of these aircraft, incidentally, was due to be handed overto B.O.A.C. in Washington on Tuesday. Conversion of the Capital aircraft to B.O.A.C.'s requirements, including installationof seats, galley and long-range radio equipment, is performed at London Airport, and takes about seven weeks. Despite its capitalist associations, the term "millionaire" is conferred on Soviet pilots who have flown more than 1,000,000 km (620,000 miles). Thrice a millionaire is Aeroflot Capt. G. Ivanov (centre), who recently reached the 3m km mark with a flight from Prague to Vnukovo Airport, Moscow—scene of the comradely reception recorded above. W.A.A.C. ACCIDENT REPORTT HE Federation of Nigeria has published the report of the offi-cial board of investigation into the loss of a Bristol 170 Mk 21E on February 5th, 1955. Operated by West African Airways Cor-poration, the aircraft crashed in thick jungle 60 miles from Calabar with the death of all nine passengers and four crew. The reportconfirms that the accident was caused by structural failure of the port mainplane, which was found mile from the main wreckage.Examination of the wreckage indicated that loss of the port wing followed failure of the front-spar bottom boom, and that failureof rivets attaching web to boom preceded the boom fracture. "Significant parts of the wreckage," the report added, had beenforwarded to the R.A.E., Farnborough, for a detailed examination to determine the reason for the structural failure, which occurredafter the aircraft had flown a total of 7,044 hr since manufacture. An immediate consequence of the accident was, of course, thetemporary withdrawal from service of some Bristol 170s, so that the necessary inspections could take place. The Bristol AeroplaneCo. now state that: "Modification measures were designed some time ago for incorporation as necessary in Freighter aircraft and,in the majority of instances, action to embody these modifications has already been taken." BREVITIES THE British Guiana Government have announced their decisionto take over the privately owned British Guiana Airways at a cost of about £170,000. Established as a charter company in 1934, B.G.A. operate regional services with three DC-3s and three Goose amphibians; the company will continue in active operation until the Government assume control, reportedly in October. * * * At least seven charter flights from London to New York wereoperated for liner passengers delayed by the recent stewards' strike. The airlines concerned were Sabena (who carried 132passengers on two DC-6B flights), Air France, K.L.M., Lufthansa, S.A.S. and Swissair. The Smiths S.E.P.2 automatic pilot will be fitted to the secondbatch of Viscounts for Trans-Australia Airlines. This announce- ment follows T.A.A.'s reassessment of the value of the autopilot,which is not fitted on their existing Viscount fleet of five aircraft. A new feature of the T.A.A. autopilot will be an "airspeed lock"enabling the aircraft to be flown at a constant airspeed. Aircraft equipped with D.M.E. will from August onwards bepermitted to make straight-in instrument approaches at main United States airports. This decision, announced recently bythe C.A.A., is expected to result in savings to operators of many thousands of dollars per day. * * * Maj-Gen. John B. Montgomery, commander of the U.S.A.F.Eighth Air Force until his resignation earlier this month, has joined American Airlines as assistant vice-president, operations.Before taking up command of the Eighth Air Force in May 1953, General Montgomery was for four and a half years director ofoperations, Strategic Air Command. * * * Acquisition of aviation "lines" formerly handled by the Supplyand Sales Division of MacDonald Bros. Aircraft,Ltd.,is announced by Field Aviation Co., Ltd., of Oshawa, Ontario. It is claimedthat with these additional agencies Field Aviation becomes the foremost organization of its type in Canada, capable of supplying"practically everything needed for an aircraft" as well as several types of complete aircraft.
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