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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1579.PDF
FLIGHT, 2 November 1956 737 An impression of the Boeing 707 in the livery of its latest purchaser. CIVIL AVIATION B.O.A.C.'s BOEING 707 ORDER '"THE only element of surprise in the formal announcement last-1- week of B.O.A.C.'s order for 15 Boeing 707-320s was the emollient news that the Corporation is considering also thepurchase of a new and comparable British jet airliner—provision- ally named the D.H.118. It is clear that discussions betweenB.O.A.C. and de Havilland on the exact specification of this aircraft—discussions which are still going on—have been thereason for the long delay in announcing the 707 purchase. (B.O.A.C.'s requirement for American jet airliners has been knownsince last May.) We comment on this news in a leading article: here we recordthe bare facts as announced by the parties concerned. The following statement was issued on October 24 by Mr.Gerard d'Erlanger, B.O.A.C.'s chairman, after Mr. Harold Watkin- son, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, had announcedin Parliament that the Government had approved B.O.A.C.'s purchase of Boeing 707s, powered by Rolls-Royce Conways. "I am convinced," he said, "that the acquisition by B.O.A.C.of large, high-speed and long-range turbojet airliners is imperative if the Corporation is to secure its competitive position on worldroutes, especially across the North Atlantic, from 1960 onwards. "It is always the aim of B.O.A.C., of course, to fly Britishaircraft whenever and wherever practicable. Already the Corpora- tion has ordered 33 Bristol Britannias, 19 de Havilland Comet 4sand 12 Vickers Viscounts (which are required for its associated companies). The Corporation's contracts outstanding for Britishaircraft, engines and spares represent total business for the British aircraft industry amounting to nearly £85m."Our decision to seek Government approval for the purchase of Boeing 707 aircraft, equipped with Rolls-Royce Conway engines,for operations in the Western hemisphere, was dictated solely by the fact that no comparable British airliner will be available at thetime when this and similar long-range turbojet types are being introduced on the North Atlantic and elsewhere in the Westernhemisphere by major airline competitors of the Corporation. Indeed, I am firmly of the opinion that unless we obtain this newfleet B.O.A.C.'s ability to maintain and improve its share of business over the highly important North Atlantic routes would begravely jeopardized. "In the meantime we are urgently discussing with the deHavilland Aircraft Company, Ltd., the technical details of an air- craft that will be sufficiently flexible to meet our requirements onour world-wide routes, including the North Atlantic. We shall need an aircraft with acceptable economies and outstanding per-formance. Such an aircraft should be ready to enter passenger service in 1962. "Our plan for the Boeing 707s is to operate them on routesbetween Britain and the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A.; between Britain and Canada; between Britain and the west coast of theU.S.A., possibly across the polar region; and, subject to Govern- ment approvals, from Britain over the North Atlantic, the U.S.A.and the Pacific, to Australia. "They will operate both first-class and tourist services and willbe particularly useful in catering for the tourist traffic which is expected to develop to a very marked degree during the next fewyears. "The value of the order for the 15 Boeing 707s is approximately£44m, including spare engines and overhaul spares. Of that total some £9m represents the cost of die British engines, spare enginesand engine overhaul spares." From de Havilland on October 25 came the following statement: "Yesterday the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Mr.Harold Watkinson, stated in the House of Commons that B.O.A.C. are intending to buy 15 American jets for service starting in 1960.He went on to say that the Corporation is urgently discussing with de Havilland the technical details of an aircraft to suit B.O.A.C.'sworld-wide needs including the North Atlantic, to be in service by 1962, and that as soon as the specification is agreed B.O.A.C. willplace an order. "The de Havilland aircraft now under consideration is, for thetime being, known as the D.H.118. Details of the specification are still being discussed but the intention is that the new aircraftshould have speed and range capabilities comparable to the large American jets, but would be somewhat smaller in size. Thecarrying capacity envisaged would offer operational flexibility on the majority of the world's air routes, which did not have the largetraffic potential of the North Atlantic. It would also be capable of operating in and out of existing mainline airports without callingfor runway reconstruction and lengthening." A de Havilland spokesman subsequently mentioned the possi-bility of the Rolls-Royce Conway engines being mounted in pods (contrary to the previous rumours that the so-called "Comet 5"would have buried Conway engines) and said: "The important thing is that it will be rather more flexible in passenger capacitythan the big American aircraft and therefore more economical on the less busy air routes while still giving the range and speedof the large American machines." Rolls-Royce, in a statement issued on the night of Mr. Watkin-son's statement in Parliament, said that B.O.A.C. were the fourth airline to announce the Conway for long-range airliners [T.C.A.,Air-India and Lufthansa have already ordered DC-8s or Boeing 707s with Conways.] "Two of the most important aircraft inB.O.A.C.'s fleet, Comet 4s and Boeing 707s, would thus be powered by Rolls-Royce gas turbine engines." TEST OF FRIENDSHIP STRUCTURAL testing of the fuselage of the Fokker F.27 seems^ to have vindicated many of the original features of the Fokker design philosophy. In bending tests made last summer it wasfound that the application of the ultimate load caused only a few small permanent buckles in the skin under one window—the doors,emergency windows and floor panels still fitted perfectly. The fuselage/wing joint was designed by Fokker after a dynamicconsideration of the whole aircraft during and shortly after the wheel spin-up period on landing. The test loadings have shown,claim Fokker, that an ample strength margin exists over those required by C.A.R. and that the stresses in the skin structurearound the joint are better than predicted. Although strength of this order has been achieved at the cost of a slight weightincrease, the fatigue stresses are low and an unusually high resist- ance of the fuselage frames to downward acceleration of the winghas been provided. Particular care was taken in the design to avoid distortion andleakage of the pressure hull from wing and fuselage bending. The fuselage skin adjacent to the wing has been given flexibilityby divorcing it from its reinforcing stringers and leading it into the underside of the wing. The stringers and three longeronsrun dirough the wing torsion box; the beam stringers are riveted to the centre section ribs, and are thus claimed to resist relativeaccelerations between the wing and the fuselage—a case which reaches a maximum in a wheels-up emergency landing. Further-more, the floor and lower fuselage form a torsion box which is reinforced by twin beams running beneath the floor; these act asload distributors in the frames and provide the seats with supports that will withstand 20 g. To reduce the possibility of fatigue caused by cabin pressurestresses, the stress level in the skins has been kept to 9,300 lb/sq in above the floor and 11,800 lb/sq in below; all riveted joints havebeen stressed to a level of three times working pressure. An unusual feature of the window design is that the pane isencastre with the skin and window frame and acts as a membrane. Detail tests, according to Fokker, show that panels with thewindows fitted are as stiff as adjacent panels without cut-outs.
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