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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0992.PDF
92 FLIGHT, 19 July 19V "Flight" photograph CIVIL AVIATION ACCOUNTANT AIRBORNE /"\N Tuesday of last week the prototype Aviation Tradars^-' Accountant made its first flight from the company's base at Southend. In the hands of Mr. L. P. Stuart-Smith, the firm's testpilot, the smart red and white aircraft was in the air for about 11 minutes. Mr. D. S. Turner, chief of flight test, was theobserver. The Accountant's interior is as yet furnished only with record-ing equipment, and the aircraft has a special metal-covered floor to which these installations are bolted. Latest data for theaircraft are as follows: — Span, 82ft 6in; length, 62ft lin; overall height, 25ft 3.5in; wing area,632 sq ft; aspect ratio, 10.77; wing loading, 44.3 lb/sq ft; total fuselage capacity, 1,670 cu ft; gross weight, 28,500 1b; initial max. landingweight, 27,100 1b; zero fuel weight, 26,500 lb; fuel, 1,280 Imp gal; max. V.F.R. stage-length 2,420 st. miles; max. V.M.C. stage with 28 passengersand luggage, 1,020 st. miles; operating altitude, 25,OOOft; mean cruising speed, 295 m.p.h.; S.L. balanced field length at 28,500 lb I.S.A.,3,220ft; at I.S.A. + 15 deg. C, 3,400ft; at I.S.A. and 5,000ft altitude, 4,000ft; rate of climb, S.L. and I.S.A., 1,500 ft/min; single-engineclimb, 500 ft/min; time to 25,000ft (two engines), 27.6 min; stalling speed, 69 kt. ANOTHER DART-POWERED EXECUTIVE TUST before the first flight of the Accountant last week came** news of a twin-Dart executive transport project from America —a 12-passenger design by Grumman, designated Design 159. Ageneral arrangement drawing appears on the right. There are evident similarities between the Grumman project(the company's first civil venture since the Malard amphibian of 1947, and yet another design to pay court to Rolls-Royce) and theAccountant. An important difference is that the Accountant uses Dart RDa.6s (1,740 e.h.p.), while the Grumman 159 is to have themore powerful (2,100 e.h.p.) RDa.7 Mk 2s—with structural pro- vision for the absorption of higher-powered Darts.It is reported that Grumman do not necessarily intend their executive turboprop to meet the U.S.A.F. and U.S. Navy speci-fications (sec Flight last week, pp. 36-38) but are offering the 159 primarily to the civil market. It is their intention to sellonly "bare-hull" aircraft, and to appoint distributors to sell to customers. This would mean that the business of furnishingexecutive interiors and of installing special radio, navigation and accessory equipment would be the responsibility of the distribu-tors. It has been estimated that for this type of aircraft ten per cent of the purchase price can be absorbed by custom-builtinteriors alone. A certain amount of special equipment such as integral stairs (angled to clear the propeller) and an auxiliarypower unit for ground-conditioning and so forth would, however, be included in the delivered airframe.A full-scale mock-up of the Grumman 159 has been built but, although the roll-out date has been given as May 1958, assemblyhas not yet begun. Two prototypes are to be built, and it is reported that Grumman will go to Florida for flight-testing ifthey are delayed by New York's weather. A comparison of the following estimated data for the 159 withthose of the Accountant confirms the impression that the two aircraft will be direct contestants for a similar market: — Grumman Design 159. Span, 78ft.; length, 64ft; height overall,22ft 1.5in; cabin length, 31ft 6in; height, 73inj window area, 330 sq in; A big moment for a small firm was last week's maiden flight of the Aviation Traders Accountant. Here, after the event, "Flight's" photo- grapher catches (from left to right): Messrs. F. A. Laker, director; D. S. Turner, chief of flight test; A. I. Johnson, Accountant project manager; L. P. Stuart-Smith, test pilot. gross weight, 31,000 lb; empty weight, 12,000 lb; take-off power,2x2,105 e.rLp.; cabin altitude at 25,000ft, 5,000ft; cruising speed at 25,000ft, 370 m.p.h.; fuel, 1,230 Imp gal; maximum stage-length includ-ing 230-mile diversion and 30 min hold at 25,000ft, 2,200 st. miles; S L rate of climb, 2,300 ft/min; single-engine climb at S.L., 700 ft/min;C.A.A. field length at 31,000 1b gross weight at S.L., 4,000ft; at 26,000 lb, 3,000ft; at gross weight and 5,000ft altitude, 5,000ft. THE LIFE OF CAPITAL'S VISCOUNTS FOR many months now the U.S. domestic airlines have beenpressing the Civil Aeronautics Board for an increase in fares. The C.A.B. have resisted this pressure, arguing that the industry'sbalance sheets are not as gloomy as the airlines are suggesting. In many cases the C.A.B. have looked into individual airlineaccounts, and in doing so have adopted accounting methods different from those of the airlines. It was inevitable that someanimosity should ensue. For example, Capital Airlines depreciated its Viscounts overseven years with a ten per cent residual value. But C.A.B.'s staff depreciated the company's .Viscounts over ten years, with 15 percent residual value, saying: "There appears to be no technical development which would make the Viscount obsolete in less thanten years." Capital disagree with C.A.B.; and the airline's chief of finance,Mr. S. B. Goldthorpe, says: "We believe that the competition of the newer turboprops and the jets will force the Viscount into[obsolescence] long before 1967, probably by 1963." He feels that such "arithmetical extension" of depreciation rates create a falseappearance of better results, and is a "dangerous" technique to use in evaluating a rate structure. Capital also maintain thatC.A.B's staff made an error of £260,000 in computing Viscount flying costs. OFF THE BEATEN TRACK /"\NE of the problems to be resolved before an ideal North^-* Atlantic air traffic control system can be established is that of maintaining separations between aircraft engaged in so-calledpressure-pattern or Jetstream flying. The advantages to be gained by making use of favourable winds can be very large; anestimate at an Institute of Navigation meeting in Washington recently put the potential value at 12 kt of wind per crossing. Interms of hard cash, this was estimated by a PanAm representative to be worth about £600 per trip to the operator, representing aformidable total for the 45,550 Atlantic crossings, civil and military, made last year. Detours of several hundred miles are often made by captainsto take advantage of favourable winds, and if maximum economic advantages are to be gained north Atlantic navigation aids will,it was said, have to accommodate the resultant scatter from the most direct routes. A speaker at the Institute meeting suggestedthat more information was required on the detours made by captains following pressure-pattern routes. A glance at the coverage offered by Dectra, the new northAtlantic navaid now being tested, does in fact indicate that the system promises considerable flexibility and accuracy well off thebeaten track. Grumman 159 project (two Rolls-Royce Darts).
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