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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0777.PDF
FLIGHT, 7 June 1957 783 Loct,t>Lcd"i ultimate in four-engined piston transports: the 150ft span L.1649A siariiner. "Jetstream" is the name given by T.W.A. to the aircraft and also to the mixed-class coast to coast U.S. services and the 74-seat transatlantic tourist services which were inaugurated on June 7. An initial eight return flights a week between London and New York will increase to ten a week in July. CIVIL AVIATION BRITANNIAS FOR CUBANA? AN American source reports that Cubana are to buy two•**• Britannias. The aircraft would be delivered in 1958 and used on the airline's routes from Havana to New York and Madrid.This is the second report of intended purchase by a Central American airline; Aeronaves de Mexico are understood to haveon order two Britannia 302s, which they will use between Mexico and New York. Neither of these orders has yet been confirmed.Cubana already have turboprop experience. They operate three Viscount 755s and have four Viscount 810s on order; theremainder of their fleet consists of L.1049Gs, two Constellations and six DC-3s. FORWARD SCATTER (COMMUNICATIONS across the North Atlantic are still one^-/ of the biggest stumbling-blocks to efficient air traffic control. The auroral regions, it must be accepted, are not the most suitedto radio communications over long distances, and sooner or later bottle-necks occur because transmissions become "blacked out." This is the problem that faced the I.C.A.O. Special NorthAtlantic Fixed Services Meeting in Montreal: to devise ways of improving the certainty of communication between ground controlpoints and between aircraft and the ground. The results of their deliberations were surprisingly clear-cut and unusually encouraging.They were able to reach a promising solution to the communica- tions problem and they pushed a plan for its implementation tothe limit of their terms of reference. The meeting concluded that the U.S. plan for using a "V.H.F.forward scatter communications system" as a solution to the fading of communications between control points (I.C.A.O.'s "fixed ser-vices") should be recommended for implementation. As a result of successful trials over a period of several years three links areenvisaged: one between Newfoundland and Greenland, a second between Greenland and Iceland, and a third between Iceland andthe United Kingdom and Ireland; all of which would be integrated and would provide four teletypewriter channels and one telephonechannel between the points served by the system. The meeting's alternative proposal to the link between Iceland and the UnitedKingdom and Ireland is an undersea cable telephone-telegraph communicationschannel that could be integrated with the forward-scatter system between Icelandand North America. In contrast to North Atlantic black-outsof an hour or more associated with con- ventional radio communications systems,the performance expected of V.H.F. for- ward scatter is of a high order: a tele-graphy error-rate not exceeding one character in a thousand in more than oneper cent of the total ten-minute intervals during the year; and a single-link telephony The proposed point-to-point communications systems for the North Atlantic. The dotted lines show high frequency radio teletype; solid lines undersea cables; and stepped lines . V.H.F. forward scatter. service reasonably adequate 99 per cent of the time and satisfactoryfor at least 90 per cent of the time. (The V.H.F. forward scatter system operates in the V.H.F. bandbetween 30 M/cs and 60 M/cs, using highly directional antennae and relatively large (SO to 100 kW) transmitter towers. Forwardscatter does not depend upon reflection from the ionosphere in the normal manner but upon a relatively constant scatter, much as finedust scatters in the light from a searchlight. Two frequencies—one of about 40 M/cs and the other in the neighbourhood of 55 M/cs—have been chosen as available alternatives so that reflection of the signals by the ionosphere can be kept to a minimum.) MERCHANT VENTURER SPECULATION was aroused about a T.W.A. order for theCaravelle when, last week, the aircraft touring America departed from schedule to visit Los Angeles. A Press demonstra-tion flight between Kansas City and Chicago was cancelled in favour of a flight to the west coast for a "personal inspection" byMr. Howard Hughes, and it was reported in Chicago that T.W.A. (through the Hughes Tool Company) was "on the verge of placinga substantial order for Caravelle jet transports." T.W.A. already have an unusually varied fleet (28 L.1049G, nineL.1049A, 71 Constellation, 10 DC-4, five DC-3, 11 Martin 2-0-2, 37 Martin 4-0-4 and one Fairchild C-82) apart from 25 L.1649A"Jetstreams" now being delivered, and eight Boeing 707 and 30 Convair 880s which are on order. Last week we reported theirinterest in the 15 "off-the-peg" ex-Capital Viscounts. To obtain an order before departure would crown the Caravelle'ssuccessful tour. Up to the time the aircraft left Miami on May 20 it had made 51 flights in the Americas totalling 81 hr 56 min.Demonstration flights had been given to sixteen airlines and 1,419 people had been carried. The only departure from schedule wasat Caracas, where a "technical detail" caused a 15-minute delay. Sud Aviation say that across the U.S. the aircraft continues toexcite "astonishment, interest and admiration." It is reported that since the Caravelle's recent tour of SouthAmerica orders have been placed by Varig and by the Argentine Government. These reports could not be confirmed by SudAviation in Paris last week.
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