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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0057.PDF
57FLIGHT 11 January1957 The long-range Britannia 312 is seen here at Filton—early in the morning of December 31—at the moment of becoming airborne for the first time. CIVIL AVIATION BRITANNIA 312 FLIES THE first of the long-range Britannias—a 312 intended even--•- tually for service with B.O.A.C. but as yet in Bristol Aircraft colours—made its first flight on December 31. Filton thus sawtwo outstanding first flights in 1956; the forebear of the 312, the Britannia 301, flew on July 31. Flown by W/C. Walter Gibb, thenew aircraft, G-AOVA, was airborne for 1 hr 20 min. In addition to the pilot, there was a flight-test crew of five. Of the 65 Britannias on order, 26 are of the Series 310 typewhich, like the 300 series, are powered by Proteus 755 engines each developing 4,120 e.h.p. The long-range aircraft is practicallyidentical with the Series 300 except that the fuel-tank capacity has been increased to 8,486 Imp. gal, giving a still-air range of 6,000miles. The close similarity between the 300 and 310 has enabled Bristol to get C. of A. flight trials under way for the long-rangeversion by using the 301 prototype: G-AOVA will undergo a further series of tests before being delivered to B.O.A.C. The Britannia 312 will be capable of year-round non-stop cross-ings of the North Atlantic, and—together with B.O.A.C.'s DC-7Cs —it could be operated on the trans-polar routes which the Corpora-tion has under consideration. It has been announced that the Britannia 100s, which will gointo service between London and Johannesburg on February 1, will be introduced onto the Kangaroo Route to Sydney on March 2.There will be three flights a week from London Airport, leaving on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. One flight will be all-first-class; the others will be mixed. The first service in the opposite direction will leave Sydney on March 5. Journey-time from London to Sydney—the B.O.A.C. Constella-tion service night-stop at Singapore will be discontinued—will be reduced on Britannia flights from 75 hours to 47, and the returnjourney will take 51 hours instead of 75. ROUND THE WORLD IN FOUR DAYS TRANS WORLD AIRLINES have been granted a major ex- -•• tension of their route mileage by the U.S. Civil AeronauticsBoard. Their efforts to establish a globe-encircling network (the trans-Pacific link is flown by Northwest) have been recognizedby the Board examiner and approved—as must all route authoriza- tions—by the C.A.B. and President Eisenhower. By granting T.W.A. permission to operate into Bangkok andManila, C.A.B. has extended the airline's network by 2,900 miles over the existing 12,150 east-about miles between the company'spresent terminals of San Francisco and Colombo. The C.A.B. point out that Manila generates nearly twelve times as manypassengers as Colombo and should provide the airline with the necessary "firm route anchor." The authorization will be reviewedin 1959. According to T.W.A.'s senior sales vice-president, Mr. E. O.Cooke, the number of people who travel around the world has increased from about 6,000 in 1952 to nearly 15,000 a year at thepresent time. He expects this number to double again by 1960, because "round-the-world travel is the ultimate goal of all tourists." T.W.A. are using their newly won route extensions to advertisea round-the-world service which occupies less than four days— a breathtaking prospect for a breathless long week-end. Thetourist fare from London will be £481 and the service can be flown westerly (starting on one of T.W.A.'s regular transatlanticflights) or eastbound (starting from Paris). At Manila the connec- tion for San Francisco is flown by Northwest Orient Airlines—Northwest's advertisement name—to re-join T.W.A.'s westerly extremity of their routes on the U.S. West Coast. ITALIAN AIRLINE CONTROL TPHE background to recent rumours of an impending merger-*- between Alitalia and L.A.I, (referred to in these pages last week) is filled in by a dispatch from our Italian correspondent. On December 22 [he writes] a DC-3 of the Italo-Americanairline L.A.I, crashed in the Alps near the Austrian frontier, causing the death of the 21 people on board. The aircraft wasflying the daily Rome-Milan service and had gone some 93 miles off its route. In November a DC-6 of the same company crashedafter take-off from Paris (Orly) for New York, almost all those on board losing their lives. These two successive accidents have aroused public and Pressopinion, and the Government is now looking into the matter. For the moment the principal result is the replacement of someL.A.I, directors, but it seems that there is a move towards the merging of L.A.I, and the Anglo-Italian company Alitalia. This[says our correspondent] would almost certainly have distinct advantages, though competent technicians hope that control ofcivil aviation will not be taken away from the Air Ministry. Certain politicians have tried to do so in the past and are tryingto do so again now. They seek to justify themselves bv enlarging on a crisis in which it is nevertheless easy to discern that neitherthe Air Ministry nor its air traffic assistance services are in the least implicated. Pilots of foreign companies who have entrusted their safety tothe Italian traffic-control services have always aDpreciated the qualities of the personnel; and, if the ground stations are not atthe moment numerous, that is only because the budgets allocated to the Air Ministry have always been small, although the Ministryhas used them wiselv. It is to be hoped [the corresoondent concludes] that Italy's civilaviation organization, and particularly the efficient traffic-control services, will not suffer damage in the process of resolving thisotherwise purely national problem. On January 2—on the eve of the announcement of T.C.A.'s Vanguard order—Lord Douglas of Kirtleside opened a public exhibition built around the aircraft that put Vickers firmly on the American map. "The Viscount Exhibition—a Story of Achievement in British Civil Aviation" will remain open at Self ridges', London, until January 75.
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