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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1133.PDF
24 August' 1956 279 A Solent of Aquila Airways is seen in this fine picture, taken after alighting at Southampton last week. On board were wives and children of British civilians employed at Suez, who were being evacuated by air owing to the political situation. Brit a via Hermes shared the airlift. CIVIL AVIATION BRITANNIA IN THE U.S. LIMELIGHT TPHE glare of the limelight in which the Britannia has beenA touring the U.S.A. and Canada seems to have been exceed- ingly strong. As we went to press, 30,000 Americans had walkedthrough the aircraft (15,000 of them at Los Angeles International) and an estimated 300 U.S. airline executives had flown in it. Upto the time of its arrival in Vancouver last Sunday evening, the Britannia had made eight demonstration flights. Three of thesewere given at San Diego, whence, last Friday, the aircraft flew to Burbank, the home of its keenest U.S. rival, the Electra. Mr.Masefield and his colleagues lunched with Lockheed before mak- ing the short hop to Los Angeles International, where two moredemonstration flights were given. By the time of its arrival in Vancouver (1,100 miles from Los Angeles at a block speed of325 m.p.h.) the Britannia had flown about 9,000 miles in 30 hr. AIRWORK ACQUIRE TRANSAIR "D UMOURS earlier in the summer of a move among the British•"• independents to consolidate their strengths (Flight, June 8) could, it now appears, probably be traced to discussions betweenAirwork and Transair that they should join forces. Formal announcement that Airwork have in fact acquired the sharecapital of Transair was made on August 20. This in no way affects the identities of either company, both of which will continue tofunction as separate units. Arrwork's chairman and managing director, Mr. M. D. N. Wyatt, and the director and secretary,Mr. R. L. Cumming, have joined the Transair board, while Mr. G. H. Freeman (who is, incidentally, chairman of the BritishIndependent Air Transport Association) remains chairman and managing director of Transair with a seat on Airwork's board. CAPITAL'S FIRST VISCOUNT YEAR WE published in our issue of July 13 a comparison betweenCapital s estimate of Viscount costs made in Mav 1954 with actual operating results over the first nine months. Capital havenow issued some details of their first full Viscount year—July 26, 1955 to July 26, 1956. The results have, they say, "exceeded thefondest hopes," and Capital sum the aircraft up by saying that "its new sound in the sky" had created "a new sound in the cashregister." Load factors on the Washington-Chicago route increased byno less than 199 per cent; in the first four months of 1956 a total of 33,802 passengers were boarded on the route compared withonly 11,322 for the same period in the previous year—a growth which is the more astounding since it is on a route served byfour major airlines. Engine time of Capital's Viscount fleet amounted to 88,000 hr without a single failure in the air. IN- FILLING UP THE BIG JETS "1VTO need for panic" is the conclusion drawn by M. Gilbert•L^ Perier of Sabena from his study of the questions as to whether the 218 DC-8s and 707s now ordered will provide morecapacity in the sixties than anticipated traffic-growth can fill. In an article in the Summer 1956 issue of the I.A.T.A. Bulletin(M. Perier is a member of I.A.T.A.'s executive committee) he points out that the average growth of world traffic has been about16-18 per cent annually; in 1955 about 4,600 million long-ton miles were sold on international operations, and "if we are willing tobe just slightly optimistic and to assume that this figure will increase at the rate of 18 per cent annually," it will be about12,000 million ton-miles in 1961. Assuming that the average load factor of I.A.T.A. airlines remains constant at 60 per cent, acapacity of 20,000 million ton-miles will have to be available in 1961 to meet demands. He estimates the output of DC-7Cs,L.1649As, Britannias, DC-8s and 707s now on order at 11,000 million ton-miles by 1961. And, Mr. Perier continues, add to thatthe 7,350 million ton-miles capacity of the existing fleet, and "there will still be an important margin between supply and demand."This "important margin" is actually—on M. Perier's figures— the ratio between about 18,000 "C.T.M.s provided" and a 12,000"L.T.M.s sold"—i.e., a load factor of 67 per cent, or more than I.A.T.A.'s average. In other words it appears that in 1961 theremay still not be enough seats available on international routes. Perhaps M. Perier's assessment of DC-7C, Britannia, 1649A,707 and DC-8 capacity, which he estimates at 11,000m ton-miles, is not high enough? But our own calculation of this capacity,based on present orders, is even lower than his—about 6,500m ton-miles. And we have assumed a high 3,000 hr annual utiliza-tion per aircraft, and included Comets and all 210-odd 707s and DC-8s which are on order—many of which will not be used oninternational operations at all. Thus on either reckoning it looks as though there is still not enough capacity on order to meetinternational demand in 1961. "TEX" JOHNSTON ON THE 707 "DOEING'S chief test pilot, "Tex" Johnston, was one of the-" speakers at the recent National Turbine-Powered Air Trans- portation Meeting at San Diego. "Tex" had quite a lot to sayabout his experiences flight-testing the 707, and two of the snags encountered are worth recording, as they seem to be the sort ofthing that could "happen to anyone." The brake failure that occurred early in the programme, and which resulted in the lossof the nose leg in the subsequent ground-loop, was caused in the following way. Prior to take-off braking tests had increased thetemperature of the hydraulic fluid which at high altitude cooled off and contracted. The cut-outs interpreted this as a break in thehydraulic line and no pressure could be metered to the brakes. A second incident occurred when a tyre blew at 22,000ft andcaught fire (the explosion, said Tex, was "similar to someone shooting both barrels of a 12-bore shotgun in the cockpit"). Aninvestigation later revealed that the particular type of brake concerned was a very good heat reservoir, storing heat in theinternal portion of the brake. This had not been noted by Boeing inspectors after pre-flight braking tests, and during the sub-sequent flight this heat had radiated out into the tyres. The prototype 707, a report on which appears en this page, was recently the subject of "airport behaviour" tests at Boeing Field, observed by airline and C.A.A. officials. Here is a good view of one of its JS7 sound-suppressors. Based on the Greatrex (Rolls-Royce) principle, it comprises eight channel segments within the jet pipe. :.-,•••
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