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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0137.PDF
FLIGHT, 1 February 1957 139 Eastleigh Airport, Nairobi. Impressions of a B.O.A.C. Proving Flight to Africa By J. M. RAMSDEN ILLUSTRATED WITH "FLIGHT" PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR BRITANNIA DRESS REHEARSAL WITHIN one brief, happy-go-lucky week of its maidenflight on March 26, 1922, the new D.H.34 limousine-of-the-air was carrying fare-paying passengers between London and Paris. The philosophy in those days was "It'll beall right on the night," and usually it was. Today the Bristol Britannia 102, four-and-a-half years after itsmaiden flight, is entering B.O.A.C. service. Happy-go-luckiness has had no part in the evolution of this airliner: the Britanniahas received the roughest pre-service shaking down of any aeroplane to date, bar none. As everybody knows, pre-testedexhaustively though it was, the Britannia hit unpredictable engine-icing troubles when it went on its route trials, and theinauguration of services had twice to be postponed (in April and September, 1956). It is not the intent of the present story to weigh the heavinessof these blows to B.O.A.C.—the revenue lost, the costly stop- start-stop-start of the elaborate training machine. All this, nowthat it can be regarded in perspective, was the price paid for tuning the Britannia to the highest possible pitch of faultlessnessbefore it carried passengers. Elsewhere in this issue Capt. W. B. Houston, Britannia Fleetmanager, tells how the organization for administering, flying and maintaining the new fleet was built up. The proof of his organiza-tion was to be found in the route trials, and it is with one of these, which I accompanied, that this story is concerned. Like the six proving flights which preceded it, this one was toconform in every detail to an actual service—from the fuel management procedure to the dinner menu. Hence the title ofthe crew's memorandum from Fleet Manager, Britannias: "Britannia Token Service BPF Oil." The only difference betweenour flight and the real thing was that the passengers making the most of the hedonistic pleasures of Britannia travel were traineeand supervisory crews—25 in all under the command of Capt. W. R. Hutcheson—comprising four captains, six first officers,three navigators, three engineers, five stewards, and four stewardesses. The rest of the total of 65 on board includedB.O.A.C. technical staff, observers from Bristol (including test pilot Ken Ashley), and representatives of de Havilland Propellers,Ekco, Normalair, Teddington Aircraft Controls, and the M.T.C.A. The flying crews had been thoroughly checked out on the"ritannia at home, first on the flight simulator and finally on the aeroplane itself. There were few days during last summer onwhich people in the Bournemouth area did not see or hear the endless comings and goings of Britannias at Hum airport. Andpractically all of the crews—being ex-Argonaut Fleet—were familiar with the airports down the route to South Africa. For the flying crews, our journey, if not exactly an end-of-termouting—though in its lighter moments it may have seemed like it—was the culmination of a lengthy term of classroom work andflying training. Culmination is perhaps too final a word: con- tinuation would be more appropriate. There is enough to belearnt on proving flights for each man to be required to experience at least two. For example, the intricate flight-planning procedure(described later) requires regular practice before full confidence can be gained. From the moment our Britannia, G-ANBQ was a recedingblip on London Radar, training had begun. Europe means air- ways, and airways-flying provides plenty for the crew to do and "In the B.O.A.C. Khartoum station manager's office, shuttered and tanned against the heat, the icing level is found to be 16,000ft and the flight is planned accordingly . . ." From left to right, F/O. John Goulden (holding cap); Nav/Ott. Geoffrey Morel I; Capt. Howard Fry; B.O.A.C. Khartoum manager (smoking); Capt. W. R. Hutcheson. Turboprop neighbours on the Frankfurt Rhein Mein apron: an Air France Viscount as seen from the door of the Britannia.
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