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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0013.PDF
4 January 1957 13 passengers about cabin noise level and vibration, it is impossibleto pass unchallenged judgement on most airliners. But we venture to say of the DC-7C that it is probably the quietest and smoothestpiston-engined airliner flying—with the Stratocruiser lying a close second. There seems no doubt that much of the improvementover the DC-6 and DC-7 is owed to the fact that the DC-7C's Wright Turbo-Compounds are spaced 5ft further away from thecabin—the result of the extra wing section added to house more fuel and to increase span. Our Seven Seas, G-AOID, left London for New York viaMontreal on Saturday, December 15, on the fifth and last training flight before the inaugural service on January 6. In command ofthe trainee and supervisory crew of eleven was Captain Bernard Frost, one of the old school of B.O.A.C. skippers, whose trans-atlantic experience dates back to the pre-war flying-boat era of Imperial Airways. Like many another former flying-boat captain,he gauges the surface wind by the run of the sea, checking the trend of hourly-changing upper-air met. charts by reference tothe shapes of clouds. And, as was to be proved on our flight, he is an expert in the art of riding jet streams. On the day of our flight there was a depression just south of thetip of Greenland, and, by turning round it to the north—even though it meant going 350 miles off our track to Gander—weavoided the teeth of a 100 m.p.h. headwind, and cut our flight time by no less than two hours. At one point we were surprised todiscover—from the direction of ice-floe wakes 20,000ft below in the freezing Arctic sea—that we actually had a tailwind. The round-about 2,725-mile journey was completed in 8 hr 40 min at an average speed of 314 m.p.h.—a remarkable performance for awestbound Atlantic crossing in the blustering month of December. Jet streams are not, it appeared, mysterious inhabitants of theupper air whose assistance or resistance are matters of good or bad fortune: an experienced skipper who knows how to use them can,by zig-zagging perhaps hundreds of miles off course, give his passengers a faster and (by avoiding discomforting fronts) asmoother ride. One can imagine the speedy crossings that will be made by DC-8s and 707s: four-hour eastbound flight timesbetween New York and London are not at all beyond the bounds of possibility. Conditions for the Montreal to New York sector were ideal for 4s practised by B.O.A.C., first-class cabin service is a fine art. Here is one of the now-famous stewards' serving trolleys in action over the Atlantic being used to dispense a five-course luncheon. familiarizing the crews with the local airports: visibility wasperfect for practice approaches at Stephenville, Boston, Newark, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Only Washington, which reportedfog, declined permission for us to join the usual heavy traffic there. On this section of the flight we experienced the transformationof the Seven Seas from the decorous, autopiloted transport that the airline passengers will know into the alert and lively flyingmachine it is at heart. We were now being hand-flown along the airways from one airport to another, the flight deck packed withcrew-members making the most of the excellent conditions to observe the terrain and A.T.C. procedures at each airport. Everymoving part of the aeroplane, it seemed, was being exercised in the course of long, low approaches, roaring climb-aways themoment before touch-down, and steep climbing turns back into the circuit before lining up for another go. The voices of the Turbo-Compounds varied directly with the intensity of their charac- teristic pale-lilac exhausts, momentarily faltering when—inboardsfirst and then outers—revs were reduced for high blowers to be cut in en route for the next airport. The landing gear thudded up anddown, being used plentifully in its role of speed brake (see photo- Climbing away from Philadelphia after two practice approaches had been made there for the benefit of the trainee crews on board. graph), and the flaps moved constantly back and forth to thetypical DC-7 accompaniment of hydraulic chuffing noises. By now our titanium engine cowlings, clean and pristine on leaving Lon-don, had a well used, workmanlike look about them. Up front the engineer's hands were (his own words afterwards)"moving like bees-wings," while Capt. Frost supervised operations in the crowded cockpit, making sure that everyone saw everythinghe should—for example, the new Strobeacon approach lighting at Newark, with its ingenious "come-hither" beckoning effect. Thefinale, before landing at Idlewild, was a relaxed circuit of Man- hattan Island, an exhilarating experience of the kind which is rarein these days of hustle and congestion in the air. The Seven Seas is liked by the B.O.A.C. crews—even by thosewho look back affectionately on years of Stratocruiser flying (one of whom during our flight summed up his opinion of the newaircraft with the old aphorism: "I'll fly anything so long as it's Douglas"). One hesitates to venture into the "cockpit of politics,"as modern airliner flight-decks have come to be termed, but nonetheless we shall submit that the crew layout of the SevenSeas seems happily to reconcile the opposing views of (1) the operators, who want the minimum number of crew memberscommensurate with safety and efficiency; (2) the crews' unions, who view with concern the growing tendency to oust engineersand radio operators, despite increasing operational complexity, and who have the loudest voice in the matter of flight-timelimitations; and (3) the crews themselves—who just want a pleasant, well ordered place in which to work. The Seven Seas cockpit was not consciously designed to recon-cile these views: like Topsy, it simply growed—out of U.S. domestic experience. The layout is such that almost every essentialitem is visible and accessible—without contortions—to any one of three crew-members: captain, co-pilot and, between them in thejump-seat, the engineer. This is a compact and self-sufficient layout, which might be said to please most people most of thetime. But in addition there are, on the rear flight deck, compre- hensively equipped stations for both navigator and radio operator,and—essential on long Atlantic flights—two bunks. A general observation of the DC-7C cockpit: like those of most Americantransports, its instrument panels are an attractive pale blue-grey, contrasting pleasantly with the black crackle-finish sombreness ofother transports. The DC-7C is the ultimate exploitation of the long-range piston-engined airliner. As fast as a 1939-45 fighter (cruising speed at 50 per cent power, 20,000ft, is 355 m.p.h.), it has been acclaimedas the first transport to possess regular,. non-stop, transatlantic capability—air transport's accolade. It will provide B.O.A.C.with an efficient and long-lasting tool with which to prise an increased share of revenue out of the world's most lucrativelong-haul route. J.M.R. Capt. Bernard Frost, one of B.O.A.C.'s most experienced At- lantic skippers, looks out across Manhattan Island at the end of the Seven Seas' train- ing flight described in the text.
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