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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0197.PDF
195FLIGHT, 17 February1956 A DC-7 of United Ah Lines (right) is seen ready to take on passengers at the Whiting Loadair installed ;iin over o year ago at Idlewild The sketch suggests a method of .ncorporat.ng Loadans ,n a permanent terminal building; in developed form the Loadair would idelude refuelling hoses, and the height of the dock could be raried to suit different types of aircraft. IDLEWILD . . . the purely mechanical needs of present-day traffic. The tempor-ary passenger buildings, however, leave much to be desired, and travellers are looking forward to the opening of the new terminalfacilities now in the initial stages of construction. A unique feature of the New York International developmentplan is that it provides for the construction of passenger terminal buildings by individual operators as well as by the Port of NewYork Authority. The $15m international arrival building, due to be opened next year by the P.N.Y.A., is intended primarily forthe use of overseas airlines. In addition, up to $30m (£10|m) will be spent on seven separate airline-operated terminals. Fourcompanies—American, Eastern, PanAm and United—have already expressed the intention to build their own terminals at Idlewild. When completed, the new terminal will be capable of handling4m passengers annually, increasing to 8m by 1965, and there will be parking space for 140 aircraft. The 165ft control tower, in-cidentally, will be embodied as a permanent part of the rebuilt central terminal area. The Whiting Loadair illustrated above has become a familiar part of the Idlewild scene over the past year. Consisting basicallyof a mechanical parking device and a covered walkway enabling passengers to embark or disembark without venturing into theopen air, it was installed at New York on an experimental basis to enable the Port Authority and operators to assess in practice itsmany theoretical advantages. It is not yet known whether Loadairs will be included in the final development plan. An aircraft using the Loadair places its wheels on dollies and,after stopping its engines, is moved sideways by an electric winch until its doors are flush with the entrance to die Loadair dock.The operation, during which the aircraft moves some 90ft in about one minute, is controlled by two push buttons (one at thedock and one on the ramp), and there are limit switches which automatically stop the aircraft at the proper point. Conversely, adeparting aircraft is moved sideways away from the dock to the point which it starts its engines and taxies off the dollies. In addition to the Whiting Loadair machinery, cars and trucks,the facility includes a dock building which is 94ft long and 10ft wide; the "air" end is two storeys high. The upper storey isused for boarding of passengers on the larger airliners and the lower for loading smaller aircraft and for baggage-handling. CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns;the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. Veteran Constellations IN your issue of January 27th Mr. Dennis Powell poses the*• question as to the number of hours flown with Air France by the veteran Lockheed 749, F-BAZR. Actual details are notavailable, but at the date of its last C. of A. inspection on May 18th, 1955, F-BAZR had done no fewer than 18,210 hours'flying. Perhaps if Mr. Powell knows the number of hours it flew in Mexican service, and cares to contact the Bureau Veritasin Paris, he could ascertain the required figure, but the flying hours at the various C. of A. renewals are not without interest: — July 15th, 1950 3,536June 15th, 1951 -r 5,769 August 21st, 1952 8.791September 12th, 1953 12,368 August 19th, 1954 15,675 May 18th, 1955 18.210These figures are taken from the aeronautical register of the Bureau Veritas.Desford, Leicester. DONALD A. S. MCKAY. Thanks to Flight and Mr. Dennis Powell for the excellent1 photograph of that little-known Constellation XA-GOQ. Myself an aircraft historian, I can supply the details of hoursflown for which Mr. Powell asks, also some further information. Up to June 1955 it had flo'vn a total of 18,210 hours. It wasregistered by Air France in March 1949, by which time it had flown 1,434 hours As it was unlikely to have accumulated nearly1,500 flying hours during its brief spell with Aerovias Guest, it can be assumed that it flew for a considerable while under itsfirst civil registration, which was United States N86520. London, S.E.5. L. T. MASON. The Felixstowe Boats F SHOULD like to say a few words in reply to the letter from1 Mr. Lance R. Rudd which appeared on January 20th. It may well be that Mr Rudd has exposed one of those myths whichhave a habit of establishing themselves in aeronautical history when he writes of the crash of the Felixstowe Fury and Maj.Moon's death. I felt I was on fairly safe ground in saying that Moon was killed in the Fury crash, because I found this passage in the April 1923 issue of The Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society:— "Several months before the accident Colonel Porte and myself [i.e., Major J. D. Rennie] were demobilized, there was therefore no technical officer in charge. No one knew where the e.g. ought to be or took die trouble to find out. The result was that the boat was loaded up with spares, etc., and the fuel, of which there was tankage of 1,500 gallons, most likely distributed in the tanks such that the final e.g. position was at least at .5 of the chord. Further, from a reliable and intelligent member of the crew, the late Major Moon attempted to take her off, as he had done on a previous occasion, before the minimum safe flying speed had been reached. As loaded, she was underpowered, there was therefore little available h.p. for acceleration, once clear of the water, with the inevitable result." I also seem to recollect that the late Mr. C. G. Grey, in his book Sea Flyers, stated that Major Moon died in the Fury crash. As for the performance figures, I can only repeat that those I quoted came from official performance reports, and represent actual speeds, times of climb and ceilings achieved at the weights quoted in each case. Birmingham, 32. J- M. BRUCE. South Bank Helicopter Freight To assist future historians, who will already find it difficultenough to follow the slow progress of urban helicopter opera- tions through the vicissitudes of Ministerial planning, may Ipoint out that the first commercial air freight delivery to the South Bank Site was on June 21st, 1954, by an S. 51, G-AJOV, belong-ing to Autair, Ltd. A load of pressure cookers was delivered from Derby on this occasion.This is with reference to the comment, in your issue for January 6th, on a recent landing at the South Bank. Boxworth, Cambs. L. R. LORD. IN BRIEF \ Mr I. G. Campbell, 19, Malfin Drive, Belfast, who is seekingto record the inception and development of air traffic control in Great Britain, would be grateful for information, especially fromthose who were "aerodrome officers," on early ground assistance to aircraft, particularly in the 1919-1926 period.
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