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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0339.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 March 1956 339 Vickers staff at Hum took a few minutes off last week to celebrate the rolling out of the 100th production Viscount (see next page). CIVIL AVIATION THE BRITANNIA'S SALES TOUR LAST Sunday, March 18th, Bristol Britannia G-ANBE, one of' the four Mk 100s now delivered to B.O.A.C, left London Airport on a sales demonstration tour of Europe. Due to returntoday, March 23rd, the Britannia was to undertake demon- stration flights in Hamburg, Cologne, Stockholm and Copen-hagen. On board were Mr. Peter Masefield, managing director of Bristol Aircraft; Dr. A. E. Russell, Bristol's chief engineer; SirAlec Coryton, chairman and managing director of Bristol Aero Engines; Mr. W. H. Farnes, sales director of Bristol Aircraft;and Mr. J. R. Bradford, sales manager of Bristol Aero Engines. The flight may be taken to be real evidence of the stronginterest being shown in the Britannia—interest which is certain to be considerably sharpened when the first Mk 100s make theircompetitive presence felt when B.O.A.C. begin operations in July. The present tour will be witnessed by Lufthansa, whowill be Bristol's guests at Hamburg and Cologne, and by S.A.S. at Stockholm and Copenhagen. G-ANBE will be flown by aB.O.A.C. crew and demonstrated at each city by Mr. Bill Pegg and a Bristol crew. EASY PAYMENT CAR FERRY T^OR families or individuals buying tickets valued at £20 or•*• more, Silver City are offering easy-payment terms on their air ferry routes to the Continent. The scheme requires a deposit of 10per cent and an undertaking to settle the balance in monthly instalments over a period of up to 21 months, depending on thevalue of the tickets. The minimum period is six months. This means, for example, that a family of four, taking their car to theContinent, pay a deposit of just over £3, followed by twelve monthly payments of less than £3. The scheme applies also to theNorthern Ireland and Channel Islands air ferry routes. ELAND SALES-PROSPECTING ALTHOUGH not ready as yet to disclose details of their world-• marketing plans for the Eland, the Napier company have confirmed reports that negotiations are taking place "with Ameri-can interests" for the setting up in the U.S.A. of a sales agency for the Eland. The Convair 340 which the company have engi-neered to take Elands has now completed the first phase of its flight tests at Luton, and as mentioned in our description of theaircraft (Flight for February 3rd) it is intended to demonstrate the aircraft in the U.S.A. later this year. A programme for a tourto include the main Convair 340 operators is understood to be well advanced, and the negotiations for the opening of a sales agencyprovide an encouraging indication of the interest which American Convair operators are showing in Napier's turboprop conversion.The company's plans for demonstrating the aircraft extend to Convair owners in Europe also. A production line for the Elandis ready to deliver and the design and engineering of Convair conversion kits is now completed. T.C.A.'S TRIBUTE TO THE VISCOUNT TCOR the fifth successive year, records T.C.A.'s annual report,*- the airline had an overall annual surplus in 1955. A net surplus of £67,891 was earned during the year, and the heaviest passenger,cargo and mail loads in the company's history were carried. The report, which was presented to the Canadian House of Commonssaid: "Particularly satisfying was the performance of the Viscounts. Normally it can be expected that a new type of air-craft will present some operating troubles when first introduced to service. The Viscount, however, produced few such difficulties,and showed promise of giving reliable, popular, and economic ser- vice summer and winter for many years; from both the operationsand traffic viewpoints they proved the ideal medium-range aircraft." .. ' •: DC-3 REPLACEMENT SALES NOW named the Safari, the F.I four-engined high-wing DC-3replacement designed by the Frye Corporation of Fort Worth, Texas (Flight, September 23rd and October 7th, 1955) has beensold to two U.S. airlines—Northern Consolidated of Alaska, and Wien Alaska Airlines. A total of six aircraft is involved, withoptions on a further unspecified number. "In addition," states Mr. Jack Frye, "negotiations are under way which we believewill result in enough early commitments to provide a substantial production quantity." The prototype is scheduled tofly by the end of this year, with production deliveries starting in the middle of 1957. The Frye companystates that the aircraft is expected to be built in Europe, "possibly by a British manufacturer" as wellas in the U.S.A., and also in Latin America. Mr. T. H. Davis, managing director of PiedmontAirlines, U.S.A., stated in London on March 15th that his company intended to replace their DC-3s eitherwith Handley Page Heralds or Fokker Friendships. The decision as to which type would be chosen wouldbe made in about six months time; if the Herald were decided upon "they would spend over £lm" (indicat-ing a total of four or five aircraft). Mr. Davis had been visiting the Handley Page and also the Rolls-Royce companies. "Bravo Echo," the Britannia which has been on a Euro- pean proving flight this week, is seen here being handed over to a B.O.A.C. crew at Bristol before delivery to London Airport. From left to right, Captain E. C. Hill; Engineer Officer C. N. Waite; Radio Officer B. E. Bone; and Mr. W. Spencer, B.O.A.C. resident projects engineer at Bristol.
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