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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1476.PDF
566 FLIGHT, 11 October 195? CIVIL AVIATION THE BRITANNIA'S TROUBLES "THINGS have got so out of perspective it just isn't funny any•*• more. All aircraft have teething troubles." This was how Mr. Donald Stewart, Bristol's manager of Britannia production, wasquoted last week. It seems that the Britannia is so newsworthy that it can nowadays scarcely suffer a delay from bad weatherwithout adverse publicity. This is not to underrate the Britannia 102's technical troubles,which have caused and continue to cause serious delays to B.O.A.C.'s services. But things have got a little out of perspective.If, for example, revenue hours flown per day are acceptable as a fair measure of a transport's progress, then the Britannia 102has little to be ashamed of. The revenue utilization is at present 6J hr per day per aircraft, a figure which after seven months ofservice is higher than has been attained by any other basically new type in a comparable period. Of course it does not help the Britannia, the passengers who flyin the aircraft, or air transport in general to suggest that all is going well. Nor does it help B.O.A.C. to compare the Britannia'sserviceability record with the early days of the Constellation, DC-6 or Stratocruiser. If such a comparison were made bysomeone with the time to spare it would no doubt be found that the Britannia's teeth-cutting troubles are about average; but itseems that the Bristol product differs from the American aero- planes—which were rarely news—in the degree of publicityaccorded to it. A disappointing Proteus 755 incident last week was the double-feathering suffered (in the maximum limelight) by B.O.A.C.'s first 312, G-AOVB, during an ice-hunting sortie on September 30based on New York. Capt. Donald Anderson of B.O.A.C. was in command and Bristol's chief test pilot, Walter Gibb, was onboard. The aircraft was apparently cruising at 22,000ft when—it is thought—the shock-chill effect of penetrating a cu-nim causedcontraction of the compressor casings of Nos. 2 and 4 engines, with resultant damage from compressor blade-rub. The aircraftlanded at Miami, the nearest convenient airport. A similar inci- dent (to G-AOVA) occurred in August near Entebbe, and thoughproduction modifications (involving blade-cropping) were put in hand, they had not been made to existing engines, such as thoseinstalled in G-AOVB. The position now is that all existing, as well as production-line, Proteus 755 engines are to be retrospec-tively modified. G-AOVB's two damaged engines were flown back to Filton forexamination last week, and replacements were flown to Miami (one was already available in New York). In the meantime, theA.R.B. have put a precautionary limit on Proteus 755 and 705 compressor r.p.m. of 11,350—in effect a waiver of the recentpermit to increase r.p.m. from this figure to 11,500. SWEDISH DECCA ON Wednesday of last week, October 2, H.R.H. Prince Bertilof Sweden officially inaugurated the Swedish chain of Decca Navigator stations. Established at the request of the RoyalSwedish Navy for their own special purposes, it will also be available for general sea and air navigation. The ceremony was performed by Prince Bertil on board thecruiser Tre Kronor, en route from anaval base near Stockholm, to Salts-jobaden. Two des- troyers escorted thecruiser, carrying parties of guestswho heard inaugu- ral speeches overthe R/T. Each ship was equipped witha Decca receiver and a Track Plot-ter, the marine counterpart of aFlight Log. Subsequently anofficial dinner was held—in the TownHall at Stockholm —during whichHovauditor Sune Wetter proposed the toast of the guests and also thanked the Deccacompany and Viceamiral Stig H: son-Ericson for their help in connection with the opening of the chain. An operating metal mock-up of the Doug- las DC-8's clamshell thrust-reverser for the J57. It is being demonstrated by Mr, E. F. Burton, chief engineer of Douglas' Santa Monica divi- sion. The doors are retracted hydraulic- ally and lie flush with the engine pod. Dir. Olle Wageus, managing director of Decca in Sweden,proposing the toast of the Royal Swedish Navy and Swedish shipping, traced the history of the Decca company and Navigatorand mentioned that it was five years to the day since the Swedish company was formed.Mr. E. R. Lewis, chairman, Decca Navigator Co., Ltd., recalled that it was ten years since Decca's first contact with Sweden, andpaid tribute to die teamwork of Messrs. W. J. O'Brien and Harvey Schwarz. Viceamiral Stig H: son-Ericson proposed the toast ofthe hosts. After the official ceremonies, demonstration flights in a Vis-count 701 equipped with Mk VII Decca and piloted by Capt. Ben Wright were given to representatives of the Navy, AirForce, S.A.S., government departments and others interested. The Mk VII receiver, which is the present standard Deccareceiver on aircraft of the Viscount type, will soon be superseded by the Mk X. Two days later, on Friday, another Decca enterprise was takena step further when the Dectra-equipped M.o.S. Valiant flew from Boscombe Down direct to Montreal to make the first airtrial of the ranging pattern. The aircraft changed over from European Decca to Dectra at 10 deg W, and beyond Newfound-land it checked on Dectra back-cover and on the Canadian Decca chain. It is stated that the test was completely successful,with no breaks at the transition points. PROTEUS IN PERSPECTIVE: A POSTSCRIPT 'THE following letter has been addressed to the Editor by Mr.•*• C. B. Bailey-Watson, public relations manager of the Bristol Aeroplane Company:— "I should like to express our great appreciation of the notes youpublished on the Bristol Proteus in your issue of September 27. The record of serviceability and reliability of this engine in B.O.A.C.service is, however, even better than you have given your readers to believe. "Referring to unscheduled removals, 49 in 59,477 engine hoursrepresents a rate of 0.824 per 1,000 hr which is significantly better than the rate of 1.2 which you quoted and does, indeed, comparealmost directly with the record you give for the piston engines in T.C.A. Super Constellations. Since you went to press with that issue,moreover, the position has even further improved and, as of September 30, the rate was down to 0.81 per 1,000 hr. "On the score of overhaul life, you stated that the Proteus enteredservice in February last at 650 hr between overhauls. In fact it entered service at 500 hr and thus its rapid clearance to 1,050 hr by September18 is, I think you will agree, even the more meritorious." THE FIRST INDEPENDENT VISCOUNTS THE impression given in an article in last week's issue thatTransair were the first British independent to introduce Viscounts into service has brought a gentle reproof from Hunting-Clan Air Transport. Although this airline was obliged by circum- stances to lease its three Viscount 732s to Middle East Airlinesin September 1955, they did, in fact, operate these Viscounts for some four months—starting at the end of May 1955—onscheduled passenger services based on London and Newcastle. The three Viscount 732s have now been returned by MiddleEast Airlines, and Hunting-Clan hope to introduce them on to their African Colonial-coach services in the near future. The air-craft are at present undergoing a Check 4 overhaul and, fitted as 53-seaters, they will take over completely from Vikings the thrift-fare services to East and Central Africa. In due course, tourist- class Viscount services to West Africa may be foreseen.
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