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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1705.PDF
824 FLIGHT DASSAULT DELTA: Bearing a remarkable resem- blance to Britain's Fairey F.D.2 is the Marcel Dassault M.D.550 "Mystere Delta" intercepter, seen in this first flight view. The power units are at present two Dassault M.DJOs (licence-built Armstrong Siddeley Vipers, without reheat), but a SEPR liquid-fuel rocket will eventually be added. FROM ALL QUARTERS Royal Tour of Nigeria THE Colonial Office announced this week that on their tourof Nigeria in the New Year the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will travel mainly by air. They will leave Londonin a B.O.A.C. Argonaut on January 27th and fly direct to Lagos. Thereafter, aircraft of the" Queen's Flight will be used. OnFebruary 1st the royal visitors will fly to Kaduna for a State dinner; on the 3rd they will go by air to Jos, on the BauchiPlateau, for the week-end; and on the 6th they will fly to Makurdi, then on to Enugu. They will return by air to Lagoson the 9th, and their return flight to London, with a brief stop at Kano, will begin on February 16th. Forty Tons on Skis TWO Lockheed P2V Neptunes fitted with skis have completedtests at Thule, Greenland, in preparation for the forthcoming U.S. expedition to the Antarctic. The aircraft form part ofSquadron VX-6, whose mission, in addition to survey and the support of surface parties, will be the air delivery of materialsfor the construction of a base at the South Pole. The Neptunes, which at 40 tons gross are probably the heaviest aircraft ever fittedwith skis, will have rocket-assisted take-off gear. They are due to leave Christchurch, New Zealand, for McMurdo Sound onDecember 15th. Bon Voyage, Comet 3 AT dawn this morning, December 2nd, the Comet 3 prototypewas due to leave the de Havilland airfield at Hatfield on the first stage of a three-week world proving flight as part of thedevelopment programme for the Comet 4. The aircraft is flying first to Sydney, Australia, via Cairo, Bombay, Singapore andDarwin. Normal jet airliner operational procedures will be followed throughout the tour, and B.O.A.C. are providing ser-vicing facilities along the route and a senior captain to accompany the flight crew. Although record-breaking is incidental to the main purpose ofthe flight, which is to assess performance under realistic world airline conditions, it is of interest that, circumstances permitting,the Comet 3 is capable of traversing the 11,400-mile route to Sydney within 30 hours, about half the present airline scheduledtime. (Appropriately, the official London-Sydney record still stands at the 80 hr 56 min, set up in 1938 by Clouston in aD.H.88 Comet.) The fastest flight ever from England to Australia was by an English Electric Canberra (F/L. L. M.Whittington) in January 1953: elapsed time London to Darwin —1,965 miles short of Sydney—was 22 hr 8 min. Decision as to which route the Comet will follow on its return flight will be made in Sydney; it is possible that, after flights inAustralia, it will return via the Pacific Ocean, Canada and the North Atlantic. The opportunity will be taken during the proving flight todemonstrate the aircraft to airline executives in Australia and else- where. The Comet will be flown by John Cunningham, de Havil-land chief test pilot, with a crew of 14 observers and technicians. Germany's Industry Pessimistic AT a meeting of the Association of West German Aircraft Con-- structors in Diisseldorf on November 25th, Dr. Rothe, presi- dent of the Association, indicated that unless the GermanGovernment made up its mind soon about the financing of a new West German aviation industry, it would be too late. Thenew Luftwaffe, he said, had certain time schedules to fulfil for the formation of its squadrons. If preparations for equippingthem partly with aircraft built under licence in Germany were delayed much longer, the Luftwaffe would become dependentsolely on aircraft bought from abroad. Another speaker at the meeting was 70-year-old Dr. ClaudiusDornier who expressed the view that it would be three years before West Germany could build modern military jet aircraft, evenunder licence. Six Do 27 communications aircraft would be built in his own works at Munich next summer. They arebelieved to have been ordered by the Defence Ministry. Other news that emerged from the meeting was that WestGerman aircraft builders had, with two exceptions—Dornier and Focke-Wulf—formed themselves into two manufacturing com-bines. These were Blohm and Voss, Henschel, Siebel, and the Krupp-controlled Weser company in northern Germany; and theHeinkei and Messerschmitt groups in the south. These combines intended to share only production orders for airframes built underlicence; development of new types could be undertaken individually. So far (writes a correspondent in Germany) the West GermanGovernment has not shown much sign that it favours the financial outlay necessary for the rebuilding of the aviation industry. Prof.Kurt Tank recently told the Press that in the foreseeable future the chances of producing modern high-performance aircraft inthe Federal Republic were nil. The V.1000 : Supply Minister Questioned CONSIDERABLE misgivings about the decision to cease^ development of the Vickers-Armstrongs V.1000 were expressed in the House of Commons on Monday when theMinister of Supply, Mr. Reginald Maudling, was questioned by M.P.s on the reasons for that decision. Mr. Maudling said it had taken longer than was hoped toovercome some of the problems and to meet specifications laid down tor the V.1000. In view of the urgency of re-equippingTransport Command, it had been decided to take the long-range Britannia, which had been developing well and which could bemade available earlier. In these circumstances, contracts for one prototype and six production aircraft had been cancelled. Mr.Maudling added that it had been decided not to provide public funds for the development of the civil version of the V.1000, sinceB.O.A.C. had no requirement for it. MR. PAUL WILLIAMS (Con., Sunderland South) remarked that free-enterprife America had found it necessary to subsidize civil air develop- ment. Would the Minister not agree, he asked, that unless this countrycould also find some suitable method of assisting civil aircraft develop- FOR THE 55th PARALLEL: A Sikorsky H-34 (that being the U.S. Army designation of the Sikorsky S-58) has become a recent addition to the R.C.A.F.'s expanding fleet of helicopters. Six are scheduled to be delivered for transport duties connected with the mid-Canada radar chain along the 55th parallel.
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