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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1582.PDF
670 CIVIL AVIATION . . . FLIGHT Alighting from the Comet 3 at Johannesburg on October 23 are D.H. chief test pilot John Cunningham with Comet test pilots Peter Wilson (left) and Peter Bugge (right). They had just set up a new record for the London - Johannesburg route of 12 hr 58 min 57.3 sec, at an average speed of 434 m.p.h. including a 53 min stop at Khartoum—the Comet's second record in a week. Purpose of the flight was to make field per- formance tests at Jan Smuts; these will complete 90 per cent of the certification flying tor the production Comet 4. The Comet 3's next job will be to assess the clipped-wing performance of the 4B. BREVITIES THE Portuguese airline T.A.P. announces that it has orderedViscount 810/840s. It is understood that the order amounts to three aircraft, bringing total Viscount sales up to 378. Another newViscount operator will be TACA of San Salvador, who have leased one from Philippine Air Lines for use on their routes between Central America and New Orleans and Mexico City. * * * The Export/Import Bank has agreed to lend Air France about$61 m to help finance the airline's order for 17 Boeing 707-320s. A further $17.5m will come from U.S. banks.* * * The Frye Safari, which still awaits production, may be built by "oneof the best-known European manufacturers," according to Mr. Jack Frye. He gives the Safari's selling price as "from $650,000." * * * The Viscount 806-810 which was damaged on a test landing atJohannesburg on October 20 needs a new starboard wing, under- carriage and engines. These will be flown out from England.* * * The New Zealand magazine Whites reports that N.Z.N.A.C. areconsidering Armstrong Whitworth A.W.670s for the Cook Strait service. A minimum of two aircraft would be required. The costof the A.W.670 is quoted by the airline at £375,000 and the "estimated minimum capital required to operate two aircraft" is £1,113,000. * * * Now officially opened by the High Commissioner for Australia,Sir Eric Harrison, are the new Qantas premises at 57/58 Piccadilly and 50 Old Bond Street, W.I.* * * Hopes that Napier's Eland-converted Convair 340 may beginits U.S. certification tests earlier than expected (see page 708) were raised as Flight went to press. It is now hoped that the aircraftwill begin its C.A.A. trials in California before the end of this year. * * * The first order for the Grumman Gulfstream, the new twin-Dart executive, has been placed by the Sinclair Refining Company of Tulsa. Delivery will be made in late 1958 and the cost is likelyto be $700,000. * * * Short's advocacy of the turboprop for cheap air transport is the background to their new project, which has Britannia wings and parts, with big capacity for freight (up to 60,000 lb) and 192 coach seats. Bristol Orions may be used; cruising speed is about 400 m.p.h.; max. range 5,500 m.; d.o.c. 6d/ton-m. Production deliv- eries could be made before the mid-sixties. UNDER THE CEDAR TREE (continued from page 668) then reported that, in his opinion, everything was so finelybalanced that any adjustments would be most unwise, and as we seemed to be getting along very well, we should stay the waywe are." Upon this economy, current civil aviation growth in the MiddleEast of 22 per cent per annum, and the potential of business travel and carriage of air freight, Middle East Airlines have built up theirfleet since May 1945 from three Rapides and two DC-3s to five Viscounts, three Yorks, a Bristol Freighter and four DC-3s; andthe company is now actively studying re-equipment for the 1960s, with the Vanguard a favourite for first-line services and the Dartand the Herald under consideration as a DC-3 replacement. During this period M.E.A, have relied upon the help and ex-perience of more senior airlines; in 1949 Pan Am acquired 36 per cent of the shares and three of the seven seats on the board, inexchange for three Dakotas and spare parts. Later, when this marriage was dissolved in 1955 over the question of acquiringmodern equipment, an association with B.O.A.C. was formed. Under this later liaison (which has proved a happy one), theCorporation acquired 48 per cent of M.E.A. shares and four of the eleven seats on the board. In preparation for Viscount 732sacquired from Hunting Clan the airline rather prematurely dis- posed of some of its DC-3s and operated Hermes during thesummer of 1955 until its first turboprops arrived. Thus equipped, they immediately opened services to Athens and Rome and later—when another aircraft (from Fred Olsen) joined the fleet in April 1956—to Paris, London, Vienna and Zurich. Furtherexpansion, which included the addition of Yorks and Freighters, was backed by an increase in capital to £715,000 and the fleetwas brought up to five Viscounts in August 1957. Those chartered from Hunting Clan (and now returned to them) werereplaced by the 754s which had been ordered by B.O.A.C.; and in December, when the fourth new aircraft arrives, the Olsenaircraft will be returned. The 754s (equipped for weather radar) have an interior layout of 48 seats placed four abreast, with thegalley aft and two toilets on each side forward. This gives a pleasantly wide aisle and seats at 34in pitch; rather close for tallpeople, but an arrangement that I (and I think most other passengers) find preferable to five seats abreast. The seats arealso rather 'ess high than those used in B.E.A. aircraft and give an effect of greater spaciousness in the red and grey cabin. Introduction of the Viscount, and the blessing of B.O.A.C., gaveMiddle East the impetus they needed, and their unduplicated route mileage increased from 4,500 miles a year in 1954 to 16,500in 1957. In the last quarter of 1956 the engineering department of the airline was detached to form the Mideast Aircraft ServicingCompany (MASCO), of which 65 per cent of the capital is British and 25 per cent Lebanese. The significance of this move is con-siderable, since the new company, which has a Lebanese, Arab and British shareholding, is offering servicing facilities for all theairlines in the area. They are constructing a Dart overhaul shop and will be a source of Rolls-Royce spares in the Middle East. The worth of such an organization was emphasized to visitorsto M.E.A. by Sheik Najib Alamuddin, the chairman and managing director, when he gave details of some of his airline's equipmenthopes and problems in the years ahead. Spread around his office were models of the aircraft his airline is studying. "Our firstchoice," he said, "is to continue the Rolls-Vickers combination with the Vanguard" (the model of which was in M.E.A. coloursand registered OD-SMA). Delivery would be in 1961-2, so that M.E.A. could benefit from the experience of other airlines. "Sincewith Vanguards we should run into flight time limitations, we might put crew bunks into the underfloor holds, which we shouldcertainly have a great deal of use for in developing the cargo traffic which we allowed to lapse while Viscount services developed.The Electra is another prospect; the Lockheed people have been to see us and we are also studying the Comet and Caravelle. Withbig markets still to be tapped," the chairman added, "and with the prospect of lower fares and political stability, we are planningour expansions in every direction, and we hope soon to replace our DC-3s with Heralds or Friendships." Air Leban, on the other hand (they are to operate in pool withM.E.A.) bought a DC-6 because no Viscounts were available; and although they may still buy Viscounts they are consideringCaravelles for the 1960s. In any case, there would be plenty of Rolls-Royce engine overhaul business for MASCO. There seems to be plenty of scope for this sort of enterprise inthe Lebanon: no restriction has been placed on the local capital that may be invested in M.E.A., and B.O.A.C. are willing towithdraw their interest progressively as Lebanese support increases. A similar arrangement is likely to be made betweenSabena and Lebanese International Airways, to whom the Belgian line has chartered an aircraft. Perhaps the best exampleof what can be done is that of a 27-year-old employee of M.E.A. who formed Trans-Mediterranean Airways three years ago andnow operates seven Yorks throughout the Middle East.
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