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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0091.PDF
FLIGHT, 18 January 1957 91 Production in perspective: the pattern of assembly through one of Vickers' two 1,200ft halls at Weybridge, V.800 production centre. About 160 Viscounts Ziove now been delivered. CIVIL AVIATION ROUTE APPLICATIONT HE recommendations of the Air Transport Advisory Councilon route applications from the Corporations and independents are mostly of a workaday, unspectacular nature and rarely attainheadline status. But a minor landmark was reached recently, when route application No. 1,000 was received from Air Kruise,who were requesting permission to operate a Wayfarer and DC-3 service between Ferryfield and Tarbes starting in March. The Council are careful to point out that they have not, in fact,had one thousand applications for new routes since they received their terms of reference from the Minister of Civil Aviation inJuly, 1952—many applications are for renewals when the period of approval has expired, or for different frequencies to beoperated on existing routes. Nevertheless, there has been a marked up-surge in pleas (whichare usually made at the end of the peak season) for new routes for summer 1957, and applications are still being received. Thetrend of expansion is towards the inclusive tour, where the air fare may form only a small part of the charge for accommodationand travel by coach, car or rail as well. As we remarked last week, the fares that can be offered by operators who plump formixed air and surface travel are often very low indeed, and for holiday travel—where the overall journey-time is much less thanthat of the train, yet long enough to satisfy a respect for the distance travelled—they should command a fairly substantial market. In the year ended March last, 148 applications for new routesor route alterations were approved for the Minister's decision by A.T.A.C.: the number may not be quite so high over the periodending March this year, for fleets have increased in size. Some clashes between the Corporations and the independentsare almost inevitable: a recent A.T.A.C. rejection concerned a "package tour" to Portugal offering a 15-day holiday and a returnair fare for £51 9s—a rate which B.E.A., who operate over the same route with faster and more modern equipment, but with con-siderably higher overheads, could not hope to rival. THAT "LIVING-ROOM LOOK" DURING Flight's recent visit to Lockheed and Douglas (seepages 80 to 82 and also last week's issue), we made a special point of inspecting the mock-up of the Lockheed Electra atBurbank in which is installed the much-publicized "living-room look" layout of American Airlines. J.M.R. gives his impressionsas follows: "When Flight first heard of this so-called living-room look wethought it worthy of leading editorial comment (October 19,1956, issue). Having seen it I am glad we gave it this prominence,because I venture that it is the most interesting development yet in the neglected art of airliner cabin design. Flat pictures anddescriptive text cannot do justice to the impression one gets of being in a lounge, and even colour illustrations do not convey thefull attractiveness of the contemporary, up-to-the-minute styling, in which colour plays the dominant part, or the full harmony ofthe textures. The seats are armchairs, some two-abreast and others three-abreast, facing across tables. They are non-reclining, because—it is argued—they do not need to recline for short-distance Electra travel. A big part in the general effect is played by thepresence of shaded table lamps, and the absence of overhead hat- racks (stowage is let into the bulkheads). "There are two conventional four-abreast cabins for through-travellers who prefer reclining seats, but my guess is that these will be filled up last. The surprising point is that even though thecabin is subdivided into five (two conventional cabins and three "living rooms"), more first-class passengers (62) can be accom-modated than if the whole cabin had been fitted with conventional four-abreast seats. This is because: (1) the living-room chairsare non-reclining, and therefore take up less space; (2) half these chairs are three-abreast. But they don't look at all like the triple-battery of dentist-type chairs which are the social solecism of tourist travel today—and sometimes even of first-class travel." OPERATOR SUMMONED A SEQUEL to the accident to a Rapide operated by DonEverall Aviation, Ltd., at Berkswell, Warwickshire, on October 7 was the issue last week of several summonses againstthe owner and the pilot of the aircraft. It will be recalled that the aircraft, G-AGLR, was on a return flight from Le Bourget toBirmingham Airport at Elmdon, Don Everall's home base. Two minutes' flying time short of the airport—at 2032 hr—the portengine failed owing to shortage of fuel and the aircraft crashed and burned out. All the passengers and the pilot, Mr. J. F. Davies,escaped. Two of the summonses allege that the pilot did not fly undervisual flight rules and that the company was operating an aircraft the pilot of which did not hold a night-flying licence. The companyhave also been summoned for carrying an excess load on the previous day; failing to produce a duplicate load sheet for theaircraft on December 21; and failing to keep training records of a pilot between January 1 and December 1 last year. New (fluorescent blue columnar) taxi-lamps for old. The development magician was Edward Ingraham, La Guardia airport manager. They will be installed on new taxi-ways at Idlewild and Newark in the spring.
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