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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0853.PDF
FLIGHT, 28 June 1957 859 The first Vanguard fuselage—as shown in this photograph taken at Weybridge last week—is now being assembled on its massive production jigs. Note the size of the aft freight hold door and the pattern of rivet heads through the heavy layer of protective coating. The first aircraft is scheduled to fly in September next year; five aircraft are to be used for certification trials. CIVIL AVIATION "Flight" photograph VISCOUNT BRASS TACKS T^HE representatives of 32 Viscount customers who gathered at-*- Weybridge last week experienced an aspect of after-sales ser- vice that probably has no parallel. For three days, these customersfrom all over the world got together to discuss with Vickers-Arm- strongs and with one another common problems and to learn of themeans that had been found of resolving them. A completed questionnaire, submitted to Weybridge earlier, enabled theoperators' reports and manufacturers' comments to be correlated in a printed volume, and this formed the basis for preliminarydiscussion. Afterwards, individual queries were answered during sessions with representatives of the company's technical staff and,on the final day, accessory manufacturers were invited to discuss their own equipment with the operators. In arranging this fourth annual Viscount operators' conference,Vickers were continuing a policy that they started soon after the first Viscounts entered service. The manner in which criticismwas welcomed (there was down-to-earth discussion on every aspect of training, maintenance and operation) is evidence of the con-tinual process of improvement applied to the Viscount. The advantages of such a frank interchange extend a good dealbeyond revised operating methods or modifications. Since not only the service department but also every appropriate Vickersdesign is represented at each conference, operating experience is quickly translated into better design. The Vanguard's detaildesign no doubt owes much to this fact. NEW PILOT FOR THE A.R.B. COUNCIL THE Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Mr. HaroldWatkinson, has appointed Capt. T. H. Farnsworth of B.O.A.C's Britannia Fleet as a member of the Council of the AirRegistration Board in place of Capt. A. M. A. Majendie, whose term of service as the pilots' representative on the A.R.B. expireson June 30. (Capt. Majendie, formerly of B.O.A.C, is now with Smiths Aircraft Instruments, Ltd.) Capt. Farnsworth joined the R.A.F. in 1924 and has beenflying since 1929. In 1936 he joined Imperial Airways, and was concerned with the development of the Short-Mayo Compositeaircraft and the D.H.91 Albatross airliner, later flying B.OA.C.'s transatlantic Boeing flying-boat services. From theend of the war until 1951 Capt. Farnsworth was engaged on development work and had experience of Comet, Stratocruiser,Argonaut and Constellation aircraft; he joined the Britannia fleet in 1953. He received the Queen's Commendation for valuableservice in the air in 1954. LOCKHEED ON SUPERSONICS TWO Lockheed engineers have spoken during recent days aboutsupersonic and nuclear-powered transports. Dr. Louis N. Ridenour, director of research and development of Lockheed'smissile division, says that he expects the supersonic generation to begin in about 1975 with a transport capable of speeds up to 1,500m.p.h., or Mach 2.3 (This is ten years later than the date fore- cast by Mr. Hall L. Hibbard, Lockheed's engineering vice-presi-dent, in an interview with Flight recorded in our January 4 issue.) Mr. F. A. Cleveland, in charge of nuclear-powered aircraft pro-jects at Lockheed's Georgia division, makes some predictions about the appearance of "infinite range" nuclear-powered aero-planes. Wings—thin, simple and efficient, since the powerplant, landing gear and fuel would be carried in the tail; empennage—small, because there would be no centre of gravity change result- ing from fuel usage; windows—few, to avoid radiation; landinggear—very strong, because landing weight would.be equal to take- off weight. MEXICO ORDERS BRITANNIAS /~\N June 20 Bristol Aircraft, Ltd., were able to confirm that^^ Aeronaves de Mexico has purchased two Britannias. First reports that the airline had decided to buy Britannias came someweeks ago: it seems that the confirmation has been made possible by the fact that there is no longer any doubt that the Mexicanairline will operate between the new route from Mexico City to New York. The aircraft concerned are Britannia 302s, part of B.O.A.C.'soriginal order for seven 300-series aircraft. These, it will be re- called, were released for export by B.O.A.C. (five went toNortheast). Within 24 hr of the announcement of the order, Aeronaves'first 302 made its maiden flight at Belfast. Both aircraft are due for delivery in the autumn. This is the fifth export order forBritannias, and the fourth from the dollar area. Compared with Mexico's chief airline, C.M.A., Aeronaves is arelatively small company, with a domestic route-network of 7,500 miles. The fleet comprises 15 DC-3s, three DC-4s, four Convair340s and Constellations. The award of the route to New York, and the choice of Britannias to operate it, should considerablyincrease the airline's stature. Commenting on his company's choice of the Britannia, Sefior Carlos Ramos, chief executive andgeneral manager of Aeronaves, said: "The competition we face on the Mexico-New York run is extremely stiff; not only does 70per cent of the traffic originate in the United States, but our American competitors have a hundred sales offices to our one;furthermore, the natural tendency of the American is to fly with his own flag carriers. But I believe that the Britannia, availabletwo to three years ahead of any competitive type, will put Aero- naves in a leading position on all its routes, by setting entirely newstandards of passenger comfort, quietness and lack of vibration. These advantages, together with its superior speed, will, I amconvinced, obtain a fair share of the traffic for Aeronaves." CONSERVATIVE CRITICS OF B.O.A.C. THE Bow Group, a body of "younger Conservatives," has issueda memorandum entitled "Private Enterprise in British Air Transport." In it reference is made to the recent Central AfricanAirways/B.O.A.C./Hunting-Clan controversy. The Bow Group asks whether it will be worth B.O.A.C's whileto pay C.A.A. the agreed £1,750,000 (over ten years) for the right to operate CA.A.'s services between the U.K. and the Federation."The existing volume of C.A.A. traffic is," says the Group, "quite small. In 1956 C.A.A. carried only about 2,000 passengersin each direction. Assuming a somewhat optimistic growth rate of 15 per cent per annum, this would represent a total of 96,000passengers during the ten-year period of the B.O.A.C. offer. Related to the B.O.A.C. price of £1,750,000 this is equivalent toover £18 per passenger. (At the more realistic growth rate of 10 per cent per annum the cost per passenger would rise to £25.)With an average net revenue of no more than £100 per passenger it is difficult to see how B.O.A.C. can expect to make a profit outof this extra traffic, for between 4s and 5s out of every £1 will be paid to C.A.A. If the traffic failed to increase for any reason (civildisturbance in the Federation for instance) the loss to B.O.A.C. would be considerable."It would appear," concludes the memorandum, "that no air- line today, and certainly not B.O.A.C., is so profitable as to offersuch terms for acquiring new business. The inescapable con- clusion is that B.O.A.C. has deliberately, as an act of long-termpolicy, undertaken to incur heavier losses, or reduced profits, for the express purpose of avoiding competition from private enter-prise British companies."
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