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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0866.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 July 1956 CIVIL AVIATION NORTH SCOTTISH DECCA CHAIN VISCOUNT Sir John Franklin was undoubtedly the rightvehicle in which to journey to Aberdeen last Tuesday week for the opening of the North Scottish Decca Navigator Chain.Like all other B.E.A. machines of her class she is fully Decca- equipped, and for the Scottish trip her skipper was Capt. E. R.Wright, a senior pilot of B.E.A.'s Viscount Flight and author of the paper Pilot and Flight Log, delivered at a recent Institute ofNavigation symposium and printed in Flight of May 18 last. The Viscount was on charter to Decca, and passengers includedMr. J. Henderson Stewart, M.P., Joint Parliamentary Under- The Decca Naviga- tor North Scottish chain, now com- plementary to the North British chain, English chain, and South-West British chain In West Europe are the Swedish, Danish, German, French and South-French chains. Secretary of State for Scotland, and Lady Tweedsmuir, M,P,for Aberdeen South. British and foreign Services and the ever- multiplying Decca-user companies and departments were repre-sented by senior officials. At Aberdeen's Northern Hotel trie new chain was declared openby Mr. Henderson Stewart, whose remarks had a mainly nautical flavour (understandably, having regard to Aberdeen's eminentposition in fishing and shipping). By touching a switch he was able "to add the last link to a chain of land stations that plot infair weather and foul the positions of a thousand vessels round our shores." The boon it would bring, he said, could scarcelybe exaggerated. No one who had been to sea in the Queen Mary and a herring drifter—and he had been in both—could ever forgetthe tense, groping, cumulative anxiety when fog enveloped the course. On behalf of the Secretary of State for Scotland, he paidhis tribute of gratitude and respect to the skill, foresight and drive of the Decca Navigator Company. Following addresses by Mr. E. R. Lewis, chairman of theDecca Navigator Co., Ltd., and Mr. H. F. Schwarz, managing director, Mr. D. C. Clark, of the Ministry of Transport and CivilAviation, announced that as he spoke a signal was being sent to all ships notifying them that the chain was fully operational andhad been approved by his Ministry. The four stations of the chain—at Peterhead, Lerwick, Butt ofLewis and Kirkwall—now complete the coverage of the British Isles by the Decca system, and coverage is thereby extended wellbeyond the Faroes to the north, to Scandinavia in the east, and well out into the Atlantic to the west. Not only liners and fishingvessels but ships of the Royal Navy, the D.H. Heron air ambu- lances of B.E.A. and other locally operated aircraft will benefitfrom the new coverage. A point of interest to Scottish observers is the re-siting of thetransmitting stations of the North British chain, one of which will be located near Stirling. This development is part of the Dectra(long-range navigation) trials programme across the North Atlantic, to be conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Supply. A NEW LOW TTHE Viscount 700 has been cleared by A.R.B. for fully automatic-•• approaches down to within 200ft over the runway when fitted with the Smiths S.E.P.2 autopilot. No change in minima isrequired when the approach is made in turbulent conditions, and the Board's approval is qualified only by its insistence that theinstallation is to the approved standard. This break-off height limit is claimed to be the lowest to beapproved by any civil authority in the world, and was achieved after a considerable period of flight-testing, some of it withg-recorders to examine the loadings imposed by the action of the automatic pilot. Mr. Harold Watkinson (left), Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, seen in the cockpit of the D.H. Comet 3 a few moments after landing from his SO-min flight at Hatfield on June 29. With him are chief test pilot John Cunningham and (right) Mr. A. F. Burke, managing director of the de Havilland Aircraft Company. BREVITIES A B.O.A.C. technical mission led by Mr. A. C. Campbell Orde,the operations development director, left for the U.S.A. on July 1 to assess the DC-8 and Boeing 707 jet airliners. Mr. Gerardd'Erlanger, B.O.A.C.'s chairman, is also expected to visit America. * * * The opening of the new civil airport at Salisbury, SouthernRhodesia, on July 1 was marked by an announcement that B.O.A.C. will use Salisbury rather than Livingstone on their London-Johannesburg service. Seven international airlines use the airport, and a further seven are considering it as a stopping place on their South African routes. * * * Bristol Aero Engines (Western), Ltd., a subsidiary of the BristolAeroplane Co. of Canada, are extending their plant at Vancouver International Airport by almost 50 per cent in order to provideoverhaul facilities for the Proteus engines of C.P.A. Britannias. * * * According to Prague radio Czechoslovak Airlines have madepreliminary purchasing inquiries for the Tu-104 passenger trans- port, to be used on their long-range international routes. * * * A cocktail party was given on June 29 by the tenants of BristolAirport—notably Aer Lingus and the Bristol and Wessex Aero- plane Club—prior to its return to the municipal authorities. Oneof the first to receive a licence (on May 8, 1930), Bristol Airport has been requisitioned since 1939. * * * The 128 passengers and crews of a United Air Lines DC-7 anda T.W.A. Super Constellation lost their lives on June 30 in the worst disaster in civil aviation history. The two aircraft, whichleft Los Angeles within three minutes of one another, crashed in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. If—as seems certain—collisionoccurred, the accident emphasizes the worst fears of the U.S. civil aviation authorities, whose most serious concern is for thecountry's congested airways. (Last year an average of ten near misses occurred every day.) * * * Two more local service airlines have ordered Fairchild-builtFriendships. They are Piedmont Airlines, who have signed for 12 plus an option on 12, and Bonanza Airlines, who have orderedthree with an option on three more. (The other airlines are West Coast, 4; Mackey, 6; Frontier, 2.) * * * In Hamburg, from June 12 to 15, there was held the fifth annualgeneral meeting of the International Aircraft Brokers Association. It was reported to the delegates of twelve countries that generalrelaxation of the formalities required of independent operators should help to develop air chartering. Following shipping tradi-tion, production of Standard Charter Parties is receiving the co-operation of lawyers in seven countries to bring documentaryproposals in line with international law. The next A.G.M. of IA.BA. will be held in London during September 1957.
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