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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1061.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 July 1955 173 CIVIL AVIATION VISCOUNT NEWS AN order for five Vickers Viscount 700D aircraft from Indian* *• Airlines Corporation, deliveries to begin in the summer of 1957, was announced by Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), Ltd., lastFriday. This brings the total number of Viscount sales to 234. The first Viscount service inside the U.S.A. was due to beginon Tuesday last, July 26th, on Capital Airlines' Washington- Chicago route. Scheduled westbound and eastbound times are2 hr 20 min and 2 hr 10 min respectively. Capital's first Viscount, delivered last month, has now completed the first part of anextensive programme of training and demonstration flights, visit- ing New York, Rochester, Buffalo, Chicago and other cities. Pioneer Viscount operators in North America, T.C.A. are tointroduce a second service into New York from Montreal, at a frequency of three each way per day; flying time will be 1 hr 35 min.T.C.A.'s Toronto-to-New York service has been flown at a five- per-day frequency each way since early April—with a resultingpassenger increase of 32.6 per cent on this route. AGREEMENT WITH GERMANY AN agreement on air services between the United Kingdom and**• the Federal Republic of Germany was signed in London on July 22nd by Lord Reading, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,Herr Hans von Herwarth, the Ambassador of the Federal Repub- lic of Germany, and Dr. Kurt Knipfer, Ministerial Director (CivilAviation) of the Federal Ministry of Transport. Under the agree- ment the United Kingdom grants rights to airlines of the FederalRepublic: to fly to London, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh; to call at Manchester on routes to Dublin and to North America;at the Bahamas on a route to the South American republics; at Singapore on a route to Australia; and at Kano or Lagos on aroute to South Africa. In return, the Federal Republic has granted rights to U.K.airlines to fly to Hamburg, Hanover, Diisseldorf, Cologne, Frank- furt, Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremberg and beyond, if desired;to Scandinavia, Prague, Jugoslavia, Austria, Athens, Istanbul, Cyprus and Cairo; also through Frankfurt, Diisseldorf andMunich to the Middle East, Malaya, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australasia, China and Japan; and to West Africa andSouth Africa. The agreement is subject to ratification. B.E.A. PROGRESS IN the July issue of the B.E.A. Magazine, Mr. Peter Masefieldreports a steadily improving B.E.A. economy, and gives the current revenue-earning rate as some £2m per month. May andJune, he states, produced even bigger profits than the £52,000 earned in April. The continued steady growth of traffic wasreflected in the 22 per cent increase in business in the first six months of 1955, compared with the corresponding period lastyear; statistics of passengers carried over the same periods showed an increase of 135,000 this year. The Corporation's drive for freight, Mr. Masefield writes, hasbeen "somewhat handicapped by inadequate freight space at London Airport—and by archaic methods still insisted on by theCustoms and Excise who, among other things, clear only urgent priority freight at night and at week-ends." B.E.A.'s freight targetfor the year was £3m of revenue. STRATOCRUISER ACCIDENT REPORT ACCORDING to the official report* of the public inquiry into**• the accident to B.O.A.C. Stratocruiser G-ALSA on Christmas Day, 1954, at Prestwick Airport, the cause of the accident was"errors of judgment on the part of the Captain." In a reply to one of the questions put by the Lord Advocate, the court stated thatthe captain (a) started his final approach to land at too steep an angle and (b) flared out too late and too severely, with the resultthat the aircraft sank and hit the ground short of the runway. "During the flare-out," the report continues, "the aircraft passedthrough low cloud, thus reducing the captain's visibility. The accident was also contributed to by the failure of the First Officerto carry out the order of the captain to put on the landing lights, which prevented the captain from observing timeously the lowcloud over the approach lights." Commissioner of the inquiry was Mr. C. W. Graham Guest,Q.C., who was assisted by two assessors. Capt. E. D. Avary (ot Pan American Airways) and Capt. I. C. Grant. The court met atAyr from March 28th to April 6th; made visits to Prestwick, where they inspected the wreckage of G-ALSA and viewed anotherB.O.A.C. Stratocruiser; observed the G.C.A. system and the con- trol tower in operation; and visited London Airport, where theywere shown a Stratocruiser simulator. *To be available in printed form from H.M.S.O. in a few weeks' time. At the time of the accident, G-ALSA was approaching to landon runway 31 at Prestwick after a flight from London Airport. It carried a crew of eleven, four of whom were killed, and 25passengers, of whom 24 were killed. Captain W. L. Stewart was in command, and his first officer was K. A. King. The report of theinquiry states that the flight from London to Prestwick was un- eventful up to the time of the final approach to the runway. Arecording of the G.C.A. talk-down had shown that Sugar Able was above the glide-path during much of the talk-down; theevidence of the captain and the first officer, however, disagreed concerning what happened during the final stages of the approach.Capt. Stewart reported that, after completion of the talk-down the aircraft broke into V.F.R. conditions approximately a quarter ofa mile short of the approach lights, or three-quarters of a mile from the runway threshold. The aircraft's height at this point was esti-mated to be 700ft. Eye-witness accounts had shown that, a few seconds later, the aircraft struck 127ft short of the threshold. Examination of the wreckage had shown that the flaps wereset at 35 deg, and Capt. Stewart had submitted that a sudden retraction from the 45 deg position had caused the aircraft to sinkand so hit the ground. A Boeing test report, however, had shown that there was little difference in stalling speed between the twosettings; and as the aircraft did not approach these speeds prior to the accident, the Commissioner concludes that the retraction ofthe flaps to 35 deg did not contribute to the accident. "Flap retraction may have played a minimal part in the final sink," hisreport continues, "but in our opinion, owing to the captain's errors of judgment, the aircraft would in any event have hit the groundat about the same point." Among the court's conclusions and recommendations are: —Capt. Stewart's orders to put on the landing lights were not carried out by 1st/Off. King. The landing lights would have enabled the captainto observe earlier the presence of low cloud into which the aircraft passed immediately prior to striking the ground.Weather conditions were such that the captain's decision to land was correct. The weather minima of B.O.A.C. on runway 31 at Prestwickare adequate to ensure the safe operation of aircraft. The light at Prestwick was adequate, although this will be consider-ably improved when the Calvert cross-bar system is installed. S.A.S. ORDER MORE DC-7Cs A FURTHER six Douglas DC-7Cs have been ordered by Scan-•**• dinavian Airlines System, at an estimated cost of 200m crowns (approximately £13,800,000). Eight machines of this type hadalready been ordered by S.A.S. NEW FOREST ACCIDENT A DOVE of Cambrian Air Services, Ltd., crashed in the NewForest, near Fritham, Hants, on July 23rd. The pilot, Capt. Robert Carson, was killed and six passengers were injured (twonot seriously). The Dove, having left Rhoose Airport, Cardiff, was flying to Paris and was to call at Southampton. K.L.M. AND CEYLON "IVTEGOTIATIONS have been opened between K.L.M. and the•^ Ceylon Government for the formation of a corporation "in the field of international aviation." The first talks have been heldbetween Hr. J. Boender, the K.L.M. representative in Ceylon, and Major Jayewickrima, the Transport Minister. The airline's vice-president, Hr. B. van Delden, is due in Ceylon shortly for talks with the Government before concrete proposals are put forward. THE SOUTH BANK SERVICE THE inaugural flight of the scheduled B.E.A. helicopter servicebetween the South Bank site and London Airport was made last Monday, with Mr. J. Boyd-Carpenter, Minister of Transport andCivil Aviation, Mr. Profumo, Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the M.T.C.A., Lord Douglas of Kirtleside and Mr. Peter Masefield,respectively chairman and chief executive of B.E.A., as passengers. Mr. Masefield said that the service would provide experience witha view to city-centre flights between London and Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Manchester and Birmingham. Mr. Norman G. M.Pritchard, chairman of the L.C.C., Mr. I. J. Hayward, leader of the L.C.C., and Sir George Cribbett, Deputy Secretary of theM.T.C.A., were taken for a flight. There are eight return services every day except Saturdays andSundays. Single fare is 35s, and the journey of some 17J miles takes 15 min. From South Bank the route follows the courseof the river as far as Putney Bridge, and thereafter lies over Twickenham and Hanworth. The return flight is by way ofHarmondsworth, Boston Manor and Kew Gardens to Putney
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