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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1132.PDF
222 FLIGHT 16 August 1957 4 flow cfcort for //yw- s/i/n ma/or maintenance hangs in Superinten- dent Ferrenett's office at the Kiev base. Mr. John McGuire (works manager, B.E.A.'s engineering base at London Air- port) — pointing — examines Tu-104 flaps at Vnukovo. Mr. J. W. Bishop (B.O.A.C. plan- ning engineer) is at the left of the picture. AEROFLOT . . . journey. This is the same time taken to get to Vnukovo from the centre of Moscow, although that is a distance of 18 miles. There is another airfield at Kiev, used for ground and aircrew training, but this does not come under the control of Pitomez. He explained that minor maintenance was normally carried on out-of-doors. In the summertime this presented no problem, but in the winter conditions the mechanics have to be issued with fur suits, while heated tents are erected around the engines (the tents are also used for protection from the sand when performing the same operations in the desert areas). The union agreements lay down minimum temperatures for out-door work; this particularly applies in Siberia, where human hands can stick to the chilled metal sur- faces. There is little incidence of work stoppages in Kiev or Moscow, where the mean temperature is not normally below -25 C. Kiev airport has 200, movements a day (100 in and 100 out) and, owing to its favourable geographical position, has an Ilyushin major maintenance base situated there which is controlled by an engineering superintendent and not by Pitomez. Line Maintenance—which, like the base, looks after work from adjoining territories—has a primary task of servicing the 40 II aircraft in the Kiev Fleet. This is done—in a way charac- teristic of the other bases we visited—with the following staff: — Mmntrol (including inspection records), with five persons in the section. Radio Workshop, operated on a rotating shift 24 hour basis with five mechanics on each shift together with a shift leader. Instruments—minor maintenance by five instrument makers working on single day-shift. In addition to these men there are another 214, out of a grand total of 255 in Line Maintenance, who work rotating shifts to provide 24-hour cover in the hangars. These are broken down into the following categories: engineers and technicians, 140; fitters and lathe operators, 25; cleaners and labourers, 32; super- vision, 17. The checks they have to perform are on this basis: Check 1, after 10 hours; Check 2, 50 hours; Check 3, 100 hours; Check 4,200 hours. (However, the engines in the Ilyushins—iden- tified to us as the Chezov 82, of 1,830 max. horsepower—are changed after 600 hours; their total life is 2,500 hours.) We pointed out that these results were well below those of B.E.A. The engineers in reply said that they were working to fixed standards, but that they, nevertheless, expected to improve them in due course. In all, Pitomez had a total working force of 1,200 at Kiev, including all the aircrew, but excluding the staff of the overhaul base. This latter is headed by a chief maintenance superintendent, Victor Antonovitch Ferrcnetz, who sat beside a flow chart indi- cating the standard method of overhauling U-12s and 14s, while he explained the aims of his base. Some 800 skilled and semi- skilled men and women are employed there in major repair and maintenance. When an aircraft is received it is (in Ferrenetz's words) dis- assembled, cleaned and inspected; the schedule of work to be done is then drawn up. All removable equipment is taken to the inspec- tion department before being released to the specialist ancillary- trades shops. The aircraft move through six stations on a belt principle; in the absence of an undercarriage an electric truck is used. They are then delivered to "technical control" for inspection and test-flying. Menu from the "flight companion" provided on certain internal routes. A complete turn-round takes 18 days for an 11-12 and the expenditure of 6,000-7,000 man hours. This is the equivalent of a U.K. Certificate of Airworthiness overhaul and takes place after 2,400 flying hours. It normally covers 18 months and gives a theoretical annual utilization of 1,600 flying hours. The Kiev engineers insisted that the annual utilization figure was nearer to 2,000 hours, and the present target is to increase this to 2,500 by 1960. They also hope to increase engine life and get permission to lift the requirement from 600 to 1,000 hours between overhauls. They reported that, with such a low overhaul life, engine failures were almost non-existent (although they were common until 1952; since then there had been one accident—an engine blew up and caused the total loss of an aircraft which had just left Stalingrad with a load of Norwegian women). Engines have been overhauled at Kiev for over eight years, aircraft for only two years. The engine plant (with 120 workers) turns out 100 engines each month. The chief engine tester, a 38-year-old woman Varia Beinarovitch, explained that staff was "roughly on the basis of one man for each monthly engine with a single cylinder-bank and two men for double-bank engines." She had been eight years in this post following 11 years' previous ser- vice in which she had been promoted to be a checking forewoman. In general the engine factory and hangars were unimpressive, in spite of the keenness of all concerned. There was a total absence of "progressive maintenance" and no planning department. In addition, the floor space was too small and every department was overcrowded, owing to the threefold increase in work-load over the past four years. To be concluded. World copyright reserved.) twjiemu Ask in flight for light refreshments including B By<*ETE HMEJOTC5I: M A M Tea IIEHEHbE Biscuits KOHOETbl Candies Fruits •PyKTOBAfl BOAA Lemonade MHHEPAAbHAfl BOAA Mineral water Topmee nnraHM^ npejocriBiaerca naccawH- psvi B pecTopaHax aiponoproii: aasTpa^, oOen H4M yiKHH—B 3aBHCHMOCrH OT BpCMeHH CyTOK. Hot meals — breakfast, lunch or dinner—are. served at the restaurants of the airports depending on the tune of the day.
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