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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1433.PDF
FLIGHT, 27 September 1957 523 The speed with which Boeing are putting the first 707 together is evident from this new progress pic- ture when it is compared with the previous one in "Flight" nine weeks ago. All four J57 engines and the undercarriage are now installed. Roll-out will be next month, the first flight in December, and delivery to PanAm in December 1958. CIVIL AVIATION C. OF A. FOR THE BRITANNIA— THE news last week that the Britannia 310-series had been••• granted a full Certificate of Airworthiness came as a surprise: it had been generally assumed that the award of a C. of A.might have to abide the outcome of engine icing trials across the North Atlantic. The special circumstances' attending the issue of this C. of A.prompted the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Mr. Harold Watkinson, to issue a statement last week (Septem-ber 19) and to hold a press conference. Extracts from the official Ministry statement follow. "Mr. Harold Watkinson, M.P., Minister of Transport and CivilAviation, has approved the recommendation of the Air Registration Board that a normal certificate of airworthiness for the public trans-port of passengers should be accorded to the Britannia aircraft 312 and 313. The relevant Flight Manual which is an integral part ofthe Certificate of Airworthiness states inter alia that prolonged flight in cloud at altitudes above 16,000ft in a narrow band of temperatuieabout the freezing point and in heavy concentration of water or ice should be avoided. The statement is expressed in the form of adviceto the operator and is therefore not a mandatory limitation. It is quite usual in Flight Manuals to include advice affecting operations.". . . Further operating experience [has shown] that although the engine as modified could cope satisfactorily with dry ice, it couldstill be affected by certain conditions of ice crystals and water occurring together. The problem posed by this fresh discovery hasyet to be fully solved but the Gardner Committee is hard at work and a number of promising lines of investigation are being urgentlypursued. In the meantime, the Minister is advised that the aircraft can be flown normally provided due regard is paid to the advice inthe Flight Manual. With this in mind he has accepted the recom- mendation of the Air Registration Board." It is understood that Proteus icing takes place in atmosphericconditions which are a combination of the following: (1) cloud, (2) an ambient temperature between 0 deg C and — 8 C, (3)altitudes between 16,000ft and 20,400ft, (4) temperatures between I.S.A. +13 and I.S.A. +22, (5) a ground water-level content of13 gm/cu m. Bristol's next hurdle is U.S. certification of Northeast's fiveBritannia 305 s, the first of which was due for delivery in October. According to the American Aviation Daily, delivery has gone backto January, and the same source reports that the American C.A.A. were "surprised" to hear that no cure had yet been found for theProteus icing problem. At the worst, C.A.A. may now say that the Britannia cannot be certificated until the icing problem iscured. But the optimistic outlook is that they will accept the A.R.B. view and—pending Northeast route proving flights duringOctober and November—will award a full U.S. certificate with the advisory condition written into the Flight Manual. Footnote: In a recent statement, Bristol remark: "Flight trialsrecently carried out with production 310-series aircraft have indicated that they will meet contractual range requirements inall respects and that they are not, as was inferred from the per- formance of the prototype, deficient in performance to the extentof 7 per cent. Thus there is no longer any reason to suppose that the aircraft lacks the range necessary for regular non-stop serviceson the North Atlantic." —AND THE PROTEUS IN PERSPECTIVET HE Britannia 102's Proreus 705 turboprops have been in suchbad odour of late that it might be as well to record a cheerful ?act or two about this engine's general behaviour in B.O.A.C.service. If it is accepted that the ultimate judgment of a transport engine must rest upon (1) the number of times it has beenfeathered in the air and (2) its overhaul life, the Proteus does not show up at all badly. Here are the feathering facts as sought byFlight (they were not handed out generally as a palliative for recent adverse publicity). The number of times B.O.A.C. Britannia 102 Proteus 705engines have been feathered in the air since the start of public service on February 1 last from all causes (including icing) is 17.Related to the 59,477 engine hours flown from February 1 to September 15, this represents a feathering rate of about one per3,500 hr, say about .286 per 1,000 hr. Comparing this with figures recently issued by T.C.A. for their 1955-56 operations,the Proteus feathering rate was less than a third of that for the Wright R3350 engine of the Super Constellation—an Americanpiston powerplant of comparable shaft power which had been in service for more than a year. How about the 49 unscheduled Proteus removals quoted byB.O.A.C.? This represents a rate of 1.2 per 1,000 engine-hours, which—though far from good—compares with .82 psr 1,000 hrfor T.C.A.'s Super Connies in 1955-56, and about 2.4 experienced by one big U.S. domestic operator with one type of aircraft so farthis year. (The same operator has, incidentally, had three cases of all four engines out through icing.) So far as overhaul life is concerned, the Proteus seems to havelittle to be ashamed of. It entered service on February 1 last at 650 hr, went to 850 hr on May 16, and was last week (Septem-ber 18) A.R.B.-approved for 1,050 hr. Thus the Proteus went from 650 hr to 1,050 hr in 7i months—a rate which has probablynever been equalled by any transport aircraft engine, and certainly not by one in the same power category. The Rolls-Royce Dart—epitome of reliability—actually took 11 months to rise from 600 hr (November 1953) to 1,050 hr (October 1954). The next stage in the Proteus life may be 1,250 hr, and ifthe record to date is a guide, this may be achieved within six months. The Proteus will then compare in overhaul life withany of the big American piston engines. At 1,050 hr it is already in the same class as the DC-7C's and L.1649A's Wright TurboCompound engines. COME TO BRITAIN IN many respects, the interests of Britain's airlines and those ofthe British Travel and Holidays Association coincide: con- sequently, airline operators will find much food for thought inthe B.T.H.A. 1956-57 report. In the 29 years since its formation, the Association has campaigned vigorously to attract visitors toBritain, and a measure of its success is that in 1956 "tourism was again the country's greatest single net U.S. dollar-earningexport." But much remains to be done if the annual increase in touristtraffic of between 5 and 10 per cent is to continue. "It is not possible," the report states, "to meet the demands of twentieth-century travel with nineteenth-century equipment and outlook." It goes on to call for improvement in accommodation and cater-ing, and the removal of "antiquated barriers and formalities which restrict travel across frontiers." These barriers—visa, passport,customs and other controls—are costing the country "at least 100,000 potential visitors a year." The same problems are spotlighted in B.O.A.C.'s 1956-57annual report and accounts (see last week): B.O.A.C. fear that their foreign currency earnings from tourism will suffer as a resultof the poor accommodation offered, and also recommend that passenger manifests for international air traffic should beabolished and customs procedures simplified. Another of the many concerns of the B.T.H.A.—and one shared by the airlines—is to encourage travel during the off- season months.
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