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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0844.PDF
850 CIVIL AVIATION . . . FLIGHT in a sad dispersal of skilled labour. The "nigger in the wood-pile" that had brought about the impending closure, it was sug- gested, was the "hungry eye" of the local councils. There hadbeen complaints of noise, but these were inseparable from any airport and no worse at Croydon than in many places elsewhere.Agitation by the operators for the continuation of Croydon as an airport carried the day. In an "About, seek, burn, fire,kill" mood the meeting was wound up by a considerably more militant Geoffrey Dorman, after tentative resolutions had beenadopted to include representatives of the operators in the Chamber of Commerce committee. Discussions are to be heldwith the local and county councils, and a deputation formed to try to persuade the Minister to reverse his decision. KANGAROO U.S. JUMP QANTAS, who are anxious to acquire approval for a route fromSan Francisco to New York, have recently been doing some bargaining in Washington in an endeavour to bolster what lookedto be an unhopeful situation. The State Department apparently decided to pass the final decision on their request to the C.A.B.,who seemed likely to turn it down. As an exchange concession the Australian Government said that it would be willing to grantPanAm rights to fly beyond their present terminal at Sydney to Darwin, and it wouid also consider granting the U.S. routes acrossAntarctica linking South America and South Africa with Australia. Later, Australia's Civil Aviation Minister, Senator Shane Palt-ridge, confirmed that America had offered Qantas fifth-freedom rights in New York in return for permission to establish a serviceacross Antarctica to Sydney and on to South-East Asia. He is reported to have said that although Australia has the position underreview, "a further exchange of routes would be to the mutual benefit of the two countries and to the travelling public." On completion of these negotiations a delegate of the U.S. StateDepartment and a C.A.B. official were due to leave for London on June 18 to discuss the present air agreement between the U.K. andthe U.S. and long-term U.S. route proposals. In particular, T.W.A. are anxious to fly on from Frankfurt to Zurich at the endof their transatlantic flights via London, and Northwest would like to extend their trans-Pacific service to Tokyo on to Hong Kong. ROLLS-POWERED DOUGLAS TURBOPROP AN American source reports that Douglas are negotiating thek sale of the Tyne-powered and strengthened freighter ver- sion of the DC-7 with American Airlines, The Flying TigerLine and possibly Slick. If orders are placed, production would go ahead and the project—which has previously been known asthe DC-7D—would probably be designated DC-10. Douglas are also expected to announce shortly an 86-passengerversion with a fuselage 10ft longer than the DC-7C. This is to be called the DC-7T; it would make its first flight in the spring of1959 and be available for delivery in the summer of 1960. Pro- visional specification figures give the cruising speed with Tyne Isas 428 m.p.h. and with Tyne 2s as 442 m.p.h.; capacity range as 2,680 st. miles; maximum gross weight, 143,000 lb; landing weight,111,000 lb; fuel capacity, 6,050 gal and the price as just over £lm. The DC-7D freighter version would be heavier. The maximumgross weight is quoted as 162,500 lb and the landing weight as 143,500 lb. The capacity range with the considerable paylpad of70,717 lb would be 1,000 miles. Flying Tiger's interest in the 7D (or DC-10) has been specula -tively quoted as up to 20 aircraft for delivery in 1959. This would be a handsome addition to their fleet, which now standsat ten L.1049Hs, seven DC-6As, six DC-4s and 23 C-46s. CARGO CODE NEW cargo-handling regulations issued by I.A.T.A. have beenpublished in a revised version of The I.A.T.A. Regulations Relating to the Carriage of Restricted Articles by Air. The code,which already lists over 2,000 materials requiring special handling, packaging and stowing, now includes several hundred more.Methods of packing and stowing everything from abrasives to zirconium are covered, and the list includes radioactive isotopes. OLYMPIC SPREADS ITS WINGS OLYMPIC AIRWAYS, which was recently formed from T.A.E.National Greek Airlines by Mr. Aristotle Onassis, the ship- ping magnate, now plans to organize a national Libyan airlineunder the auspices of Olympic Airways. This rapid expansion of Olympic's activities appears to be part of a plan for increasedeconomic interchange between Greece and Libya; Mr. Abdul Rayek Shagloub, Permanent Under-Secretary of the LibyanMinistry of Economy, negotiated for a domestic airline during trade talks with the Greek Government. On June 14 an OlympicAirways team left for Tripoli to make an on-the-spot examination of the technical problems involved in organizing Libya's internalair communications. For "Boomtown 1"—a standard Aero Commander 560-f—a world record is being claimed in the 1,750-3,000 km class for a flight last month from Guatemala City to Oklahoma City. The pilot was Miss Jerrie Cobb, who took 8 hr 35 min to cover about 1,522 miles. The Commander took off at less than its gross weight of 6,500 Ib and used 197 gal of fuel out of the standard tankage of 223. HURRYING ON AT HURN A VISIT last week to the Vickers-Armstrongs' recently**-opened drawing offices at Hurn provided an opportunity of seeing the newest developments at the southern Viscount-production plant. The new drawing-office building—light and airy, and in almost ideal surroundings—houses about 130draughtsmen, and the design organization at Hurn now numbers over 350. Additional draughtsmen, stressmen, weights-engi-neers, tracers, and so on, make up the balance of an effective design team under the chief designer, Mr. E. W. J. Gray (recentlychief designer to Handley Page, Reading). Much of the organization's work has been concerned withtailoring the Viscount to suit the needs of different customers—a well developed technique at Vickers—but more recently it hasassumed "experimental D.O." status with Vanguard work. The team is now strong enough to initiate original designs if required,and it should serve Vickers well in their busy days ahead. Production of Viscounts continues apace. Hurn and Weybridgewill this year reach a combined output of ten aircraft a month. Viscount 700 assembly at Hurn is mostly from sub-assembliesbuilt at Weybridge or by various sub-contractors, although Viscount 700 fuselages and 800 fuselages for Weybridge are builtmore or less in toto. Front and rear sections are constructed first and joined to the centre section in the fuselage shop; thennose and tail sections are added and the pressure-tested whole is trolleyed to the erection shop for completion of the aircraft. Viscounts at Hurn are painted as they pass down the twoassembly lines; there is more than a suggestion of romance in the sight of completed or semi-completed aircraft assembled underone roof for operators all over the world. Colour schemes are in great variety: pale green for Iraqi Airways, vivid yellow ochrefor Lloyd Aero, bright red for Capital (although at the time of our visit three ex-Capital aircraft were being stripped in prepara-tion for new paint schemes). L.A.I.'s fourth aircraft is registered I-LARK. With orders in their books for 368 Viscounts, 40 Vanguardsand 35 VC-lOs, production at Vickers' factories will be at capacity for a reassuring number of years. And it is worth rememberingthat of the £105m of British aircraft export business secured last year, £29m went to Vickers. Vickers' new drawing offices at Hurn. Particular attention has been paid to good lighting, and the view through the windows is distractingly pleasant. Note that the drawing-boards face in both directions.
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