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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1011.PDF
FLIGHT, 26 July 1957 101 Six-abreast spaciousness appears to be the most striking feature of the Antonov Ukraine 350 m.p.h. turboprop transport, soon to enter Aeroflot service. Cabin width and height compare with the DC-8 and 707. The aircraft seats 84 passengers. CIVIL AVIATION B.E.A.'s JET ORDER THE chief executive of B.E.A., Mr. Anthony Milward, said at•*• London Airport on July 19 that his Corporation would decide "within the next two weeks" on its pure jet re-equipmentprogramme. He added: "We will be meeting representatives of some of the four aircraft firms who may be able to meet ourrequirements. The time is very close when we will have to make a decision." Delivery, he said, would be needed by the end of 1962.Avro, Bristol and de Havilland are known to be offering short- haul jet transport projects to B.E.A.'s specification; the fourthfirm mentioned by Mr. Milward is presumably Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), Ltd., although it would be remarkable if this firm, withits new VC-10 commitments to B.O.A.C., were to embark on the different design for B.E.A. STRONG WORDS IN THE HOUSE A DEBATE in the Commons on Monday of this week concerned•<*• a financial formality (the £5,989,700 vote for the M.T.C.A.). In the event the Opposition used it as an opportunity for someangry, and in our view unjustified, criticism of the Minister for his policies concerning the Corporations and the private airlines.The nub of the Opposition's argument was that the Minister had appointed as B.O.A.C.'s chairman someone with financialinterests in the private airlines; and that the Minister had gone on to make depredations into B.O.A.C.'s future business bypromising private enterprise a 30 per cent share of third-class traffic to Africa.Mr. Harold Watkinson said that he had listened to the debate with "astonishment". His policy had been "a simple bit ofelementary justice to allow the airlines concerned to keep the traffic which they had created". PRESSING ON AT GATWICK 1 I 'O a muted accompaniment of bulldozers and runway-layers, -*• Mr. Airey Neave, joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministryof Transport and Civil Aviation, last Monday visited Gatwick and gave the Press some details of progress there. Amidst the lumberof civil engineering on every hand, the airport is rapidly taking shape. On August 1—less than a week away—the London toBrighton road (the extension of which has been completed for some time) will be diverted under the new terminal building. Thelatter is substantially advanced, a skeletal runway and taxi track has been laid, and die control tower is largely complete. It is claimed that Gatwick will be the first airport in the worldto combine air, rail and road transport, and it seems likely that Gatwick will require no counterpart to the city terminals whichserve other airports. The passenger building has been so designed that those arriving by train or by car remain under cover until they A picture which adds weight to reports from India that the Fokker Friendship may be licence-built in that country. It shows Mr. Nehru examining the aircraft during his recent visit to Holland. leave the central finger to board their aircraft. Another innovationadopted from the system in use at Paris-Orly is that for out-bound Customs inspection; luggage is collected and customed on arrival,but the passengers themselves do not come under Customs con- trol and are not segregated from their friends until they are calledto join the aircraft. Asked what the total cost of Gatwick's development would be,Mr. Airey Neave quoted a new figure of £6.8m, including £420,000 for telecommunications, navigation aids and radar. This is for anairport with a single 7,000ft by 150ft runway; but an additional shorter runway sited roughly north to south, as well as furtherfingers from the terminal building, could be added if warranted by traffic growth.Gatwick has been shown to be usable on 55 per cent of the occasions when London Airport is below minima and, as an alter-nate, will be able to accept Boeing 707s at their landing weight. B.E.A. are expected to use Gatwick for their Channel Islandsand shorter Continental services soon after the airport is opened in April 1958, a date that—in spite of the enormous amount ofwork remaining to be completed—the contractors expect to achieve. Transair are so far the only independent operators tohave started to build their new headquarters at Gatwick, although British Aviation Services are likely to follow suit. Others areclinging hopefully to Croydon. BOEING RELEASE 717 DETAILS ALTHOUGH Boeing announced the medium-sized member of- their 707 family, the 717, some months ago, fuller details have not been made public until now. It appears that, although the 717 will be built on the 707 produc-tion line at Renton, and will have the majority of components in common with the 707, it will in fact be a very much lighteraeroplane. With a maximum take-off weight of "from 185,000 lb," the 717 falls into the medium-jet category. Fuel tankage, about68,000 lb, is only a little more than half that of the domestic 707-120; range with maximum payload (32,500 lb, compared with42,700 lb of the -120) is given as 1,700 miles. Passenger seating varies between 88 and 130—a large passenger capacity for thisclass of aeroplane. Engines are Pratt and Whitney JT3s. Boeing claim that the 717 will operate economically over stagesof between 200 and 1,700 miles, cruising at between 550 and 600 m.p.h. at altitudes of from 25,000ft to 40,000ft. This suggeststhat the 717 is being offered also as the answer to the airlines' short-haul jet requirements, and that Boeing's specialist short-haulproject, the so-called 727, continues to be shelved. "The 717," say Boeing, "is the third step in the Boeing plan toprovide the airline industry with a complete family of modern airliners, one or more of which will provide the best possibleeconomics for any particular airline routepattern, while retaining a very high degree of commonness. ..." .Boeing 717: Span, 130ft lOin; length, 128ft 10m; height, 38ft 7in; cabin width, 12ft 4in; sweepback, 35 deg at 25 per cent chord; grossweight, 185,000 lb plus; design payload, 32,500 lb; fuel capacity, 10,092 U.S. gal. K.L.M.'s LOSS ON Monday, July 15, a Lockheed L.1049E Super Constellationof K.L.M., PH-LKT Neutron, crashed into the sea immedi- ately after taking off from Biak, Dutch New Guinea. Of the 68 passengers and crew on board, 57—three of them British—lost their lives Eleven people were rescued by Papuans in their native craft, including the stewardess, who was the only member of the crew to survive. No likely cause has been suggested for the accident, which wasthe worst in K.L.M.'s history. The aircraft was operating the regular twice-weekly service between Biak and Amsterdam. Themajority of the passengers killed were Dutch military personnel and government employees and their families.
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