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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0351.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 March 1957 353 Snowstorm take-off at Boeing Field by the 707 prototype, which is pressing on with its flight-tests in wintry Seattle. A SURVEY OF ACCIDENTS FROM the M.T.C.A.'s latest Survey of Accidents to Aircraftof the United Kingdom (for the year ending December 31, 1955) we reproduce the table below, summarizing the essentialaccident statistics for the years 1950 and 1955. It will be noted that the fatal-accident rate, measured as passengers killed per100 million passenger miles, shows a downward trend. Copies of the survey are obtainable at 2s 6d from H.M. Stationery Office. ACCIDENTS ON REGULAR PASSENGER SERVICES OF U.K. OPERATORS, 1950-1955 THIRTY-MINUTE TRIUMPH Stage flights per fatal accident Stage flights per accident involving death or serious injury ... Aircraft miles flown per fatal accident Aircraft miles flown per accident involving death or serious injury Passengers carried per passenger killed ... Passengers carried per passenger killed or seriously injured Passenger miles per passenger killed Passenger miles per passenger killed or seriously injured Fatal accidents per 10,000 stage flights ... Fatal accidents per 1,000,000 aircraft miles Passengers killed per 100,000,000 pas- senger miles 1954 58,100 58,100 19,032,700 19,032,700 29,100 28,700 18,004,700 17,792,900 0.17 0.05 5.6 19SS 95,400 63,600 32,290,500 21,527,000 230,300 142,600 138,569,800 85,781,300 0.11 0.03 0.7 1950-54 107,400 107,400 38,405,000 38,405,000 46,100 44,100 31,152,900 29,771,700 0.09 0.03 3.2 1951-55 116,800 102,200 41,217,100 36,065,000 68,200 61.900 44,625,000 40,522,000 0.09 0.02 2.2 FRIENDSHIPS TO CHECK AUSTRALIAN AIDS /CONFIRMATION of the Australian Government's order for^ two Friendships (previously forecast in Flight) is now forth- coming from Fokker. The aeroplanes wilJ replace DC-3s usedby the Australian Department of Civil Aviation for checking and calibrating the country's radio navigation and safety aids.They will also be used for routine checking of commercial airline pilots. About a ton of special equipment will be installed ineach aircraft. From Aviation Week comes an unconfirmed report that Sabenaare likely in the next few weeks to place an order for between ten and 15 Friendships. THE PILOTS TAKE STOCK "\J'ILITANT though moderate in its efforts to ensure that the•"•*• pilot plays his due part in the shaping of air transport affairs, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations can-not be accused of wisdom-after-the-event or hindsight in its technical recommendations. Looking back at the year 1956, the Federation appears to have good cause for satisfaction. In that year recommendations maturedwhich I.F.A.L.P.A. had been putting before the authorities for two or three years. "It is," writes the technical secretary in hisannual report, "a sad reflection on the aviation industry that there has to be this two-to-three-year lag before a requirement whichhas been obvious to pilots for some time can be recognized by others."Examples were: (1) The introduction of 100-per-cent-controlled flight in the U.S. at levels above 24,000ft, with early prospects of35,OOOft. This regulation was introduced after the Grand Canyon disaster, but had been on I.F.A.L.P.A. books for four years.(2) Recognition that jets required at least the same margin above the stall as piston-engined types. Acceptable Means of Compliancehad been introduced by the I.C.A.O. Third Air Navigation Con- ference after two Comet take-off accidents at less than the conven-tional margin—a recommendation on the I.F.A.L.P.A. books for four years. (3) Recognition of the value of buoyant cushions forditching. A C.A.A. proposal had been introduced after the North- west ditching in Puget Sound, after I.F.A.L.P.A. had sought thisfor three years. (4) Recognition of the need for an anti-collision device, demanded by the airlines after recent mid-air collisions,but which had been on I.F.A.L.P.A.'s books for four years. THE possibility that the crowded story of world air transportcould be illustrated in a half-hour film might be considered remote. Certainly the Shell Film Unit must have had somemisgivings when, at I.A.T.A.'s suggestion early in 1955, they decided to attempt the feat.Their new film Song of the Clouds, privately shown in London last week, achieves the seemingly improbable: in the space of30-odd minutes it distils the very essence of air commerce today as no film, to our know-ledge, has done before. It was made from ten miles of colour film (shot by a film crew whichtravelled 75,000 miles) selectively edited to 4,000ft of the choicest aviation photographyyet screened. Song of the Clouds, directed by John Armstrong, moves with a zip appro-priate to the pace of its subject. Copies (16 mm or 35 mm, with sound) canbe borrowed free by approved organizations from the Petroleum Fi'ms Bureau, 39 NewBond Street, London, W.I, or from the Shell company in the country concerned. JET SPRINGBOK ? SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS' healthyfinancial position—the estimated profit last year was £1,122,000—and the circulation bythe airline of a questionnaire seeking technical information on jet aircraft has been the signal for some ardentwooing by aircraft companies offering jet transports, says a South African correspondent. A report that the South African Minister ofTransport will authorize the purchase of three new airliners has brought representatives of de Havilland, Boeing and Douglas to JanSmuts Airport, Johannesburg, and Lockheed agents are also on hand to press the virtues of the Electra. THE BRISTOL 200 SPECULATION about the Bristol jet transport project which^ Mr. Peter Masefield has publicly said is now undergoing wind-tunnel tests was heightened last week by American reportsthat it is to be powered by four Bristol B.E.47 engines, a new 6,0001b-thrust design which is reported to be offered also for theVickers jet transport project. Designation of the Bristol transport is said to be Bristol 200.A British newspaper report last week stated that B.O.A.C. and B.E.A., as suggested in Flight of February 22 (page 233), haddecided that their jet transport requirements could not be met in a single design. Passengers on the firstB.O.A.C. Britannia service on March 2 to Australia included Mr. C. F. Uwins (right), chairman of Bristol Aircraft, with Mrs. Uwins; and Sir George Cribbett, deputy chairman of B.O.A.C., who was flying as far as Zurich. They were being seen off by B.O.A.C.'s com- mercial director, Mr. Keith Granville.
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