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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1842.PDF
1006 FLIGHT, 28 December 1956 CIVIL AVIATION ... THANKS FOR THE AIRLIFT UNSTINTED aid was given by the independents and theCorporations to the British Red Cross Society in their work of Hungarian relief (see Flight, December 21). An appreciation oftheir contribution has been sent by Lord Woolton, chairman of the Society, to B.O.A.C., Eagle Aviation, Dan-Air Services, Air Kruise(Silver City), Skyways, Derby Aviation, B.K.S., Starways, Cambrian Airways and Transair in a telegram which reads: —"The British Red Cross Society wishes to express its most sincere thanks to all the pilots and aircrews, the ground crews and others behindthe scenes who have laboured so hard and long during the Hungarian airlift. Their continued efforts have resulted in over 7,000 Hungarianrefugees travelling to this country speedily and in comfort." ELECTRA ASSEMBLY BEGINS ^ the scheduled date for the first flight now only a year away, Lockheed's Electra programme is in full swing. Initialassembly operations on the 42ft milled wing-skins, the wing spars and trailing edges—following the intensive stockpiling of Lock-heed-fabricated and bought-out parts—are expected to begin early in the New Year. The build-up of the main wing box-spar will startin February and will then be followed by assembly of the fuselage structure. Lockheed intend to start final assembly-line operationsin August and to deliver the first aircraft to the Burbank engineer- ing flight test department in December. The flight-test programmefor the first eight months of 1958 will involve "intensive" flying with six aircraft. While manufacture of the airframe gets under way, Lockheedare hoping to establish a "head start" of 800,000 Allison 501 D-13 engine hours before the first Electra is delivered. A Constellation(the "Old 1961") had accumulated 207 hours' flying with a T56 military engine modified to resemble the civil D-13 when the testprogramme was completed. A genuine D-13 is now being fitted, and should be flying in the same airframe in February.A more ambitious project is the complete re-engining of a Super Constellation test-bed with these engines and with Aero-products 606 propellers. The laboratory airframe will also incor- porate "major Electra systems," and it should fly in July. TheConstellation will be used to accumulate as many engine hours as possible—Lockheed's goal is 1,000—under all climatic conditionsand at altitudes up to 30,000ft. An innovation on the Electra—still tentative at the time of ourJuly 6 "Airliners of the World" issue—is the use of four pre- loaded baggage containers and hoists to expedite ground handling.The "tubs" will be graded according to destination, and are arranged to slide into the lower fuselage or rollers, filing-cabinetfashion. It is claimed that all four can be removed and replaced in four minutes. > ,T, The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is encouraging the owners of all U.S. civil aircraft —private and commercial- -to display this shield as "a deter- rent to intending saboteurs." WARNING •T AN ENACTtO FEDERAL LAW, WHOEV1I VllFULLV DISABLES OR INCAPACITATES THISAIRCRAFT OR PAN SUSJtCT TO FEDERAL PROSECUTION AND PENALTIES RANGING FROM A MAXIMUM FINE OF $10,000 AND 30 YEARS IMPRISONMENT TO THE DEATH SENTENCE, SHOULD DEATH RESULT. THE AIRCRAFT OWNIR$ AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION Will ASSIST THE OWNER OF THIS AIRCRAFT AND AU LAW EN- FORCEMENT AGENCIES IN APPROPRIATE APPSL HINSION AND PROSECUTION ACTIVITIES. AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION P. 0. MX (t40 • WAJHINCTON M, D. t. • OUVIt 40100 BREVITIES Dragon Airways are to suspend services from Newcastle-upon-Tyne airport from January 5. * * :•"*., - y.'c . • -:":;,• - Swissair has received its second DC-7C. The aircraft carrieda ton of clothing for Hungarian refugees from California. * * * A joint sales and operation agreement has been filed for approvalfor the C.A.B. by the Flying Tiger Line and T.W.A. * * * The Ceylon Ministry of Transport is planning a network ofinternal air services as part of the civil aviation expansion scheme for the island. * * * I.A.T.A. have appointed an international turbine operationspanel to co-ordinate the airlines' efforts in developing efficient flight procedures. * * * A Dictaphone service is available for first-class passengers fly-ing in B.O.A.C. Stratocruisers between London, New York and Montreal. . * * * During one week of the Olympic Games period five of T.A.A.'sViscounts averaged 11.58 hr per day. The remaining four aircraft averaged 9.64 hr per day. . * * * . _ " * •" "' Recent reports that London Airport runway extensions are to cost £3m have been emphatically denied by the Ministry of CivilAviation; the Minister has stated in Parliament that reliable infor- mation on ground requirements is being awaited from the airlinesbefore any decision is made. ... THE NEW AIRWAYS SYSTEM NO system of control can work efficiently when it is in dangerof becoming swamped. This is particularly true of the regulation of air traffic, where congestion—resulting in earlystacking and long delays when visibility margins fall—is anathema to pilot, passenger and controller alike. The rapid growth of civilair traffic over these islands has made inadequate much of the present airways system (which was first introduced in 1950),particularly over terminal areas where the air corridors converge. Additional difficulties presented by the changing pattern of militaryaviation—higher operating speeds and altitudes, intensified night and all-weather flying and the freedom of action that Serviceaircraft demand—have also pointed to the urgent necessity of revising the existing airways system. On December 14 (as announced in Flight of December 7) theMinistry of Transport and Civil Aviation presented its plan for the much-needed changes. The new airways system (maps ofwhich appear opposite) was discussed with organizations repre- senting the pilots, the operators and the manufacturers. Notevery voice was raised in assent—the British Gliding Association have already had something to say about the airway which is topass over Great Hucklow—and the Ministry of Supply and the Royal Aero Club were on hand to contest any encroachment uponthe relative freedom of the airfields of manufacturers and private pilots. But most criticism of the plan was concerned with itsdetails: an appeal for the base of Blue Three airway to be raised to give private pilots a greater altitude for crossing the channeland slight boundary modifications to enable Red Three airway to be skirted without flying too far out to sea—suggestions thatwere sympathetically received by the Ministry. The changes in the South-East England area have beenmade to simplify the task of individual controllers at the Southern Air Traffic control and to expedite the handling of the increasingtraffic between Britain and the Continent. Comparison with the now-dated system shows that the most obvious revision has beento create new airways to Belgium (Blue X) and to Holland (Red One) passing over the Clacton area. Two more new airwayslie between Cap Gris Nez and this country (Blue 3 and Blue Y), and the one to Belgium via Dover has been realigned. Theseeasterly extensions from the London Control Zone will eventually replace the easterly legs of Red One and Green One on the oldairways map. The airway to Belgium and Holland should be in operation in April 1957, and airways Blue 3 and Blue Y shouldboth be in full service by the end of that year. By spring 1958— with a control zone and associated airways radiating from GatwickAirport—the whole new system should be complete. The problem facing the M.T.C.A. in central England was toincrease the capacity of the Manchester control zone and to permit overflying traffic to by-pass the low-level traffic. This has beentackled by splitting Amber One—the central "backbone" of the present system—into a Prestwick leg and a Belfast leg from eitherLichfield or Daventry. Two proposals are shown on the map; the dotted lines indicate the more tentative routes. The CentralEngland plan will be introduced in stages after the South-Eastern airways scheme is in operation: some minor changes, takingaccount of particular local problems, are likely to be made before the plan is put into effect in 1960, when wider surveillance-radarcoverage will also be available. Scottish systems will also come under review in the near future. The next step is to implement plans for controlling the air spacenot only above the present level of 11,000ft—a new upper limit to the height of the airways is expected to be brought into opera-tion in 1957—but when it is inhabited by the big jets. This problem is now being discussed with the NATO committee onEuropean Airspace Co-ordination, and next year it will come under the province of I.C.A.O.'s Europe-Mediterranean RegionalAir Navigation Meeting.
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