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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1820.PDF
910 FLIGHT, 13 December 195' FROM ALLQUARTERS Making History CINCE the first meeting of the Brabazon Committee in 1943& this country has been planning for the day when a British aircraft, flown by a British airline, would operate non-stop pas-senger services between London and New York. This event is due to take place next Thursday, December 19, when B.O.A.C.Bristol Britannia 312 is to inaugurate a 52-passenger de luxe service, at a once-weekly frequency to start with. Timetable ofthe westbound service, which will be in daylight, is published on page 913; the eastbound service, which will be overnight, leavesNew York at 1800 hr, reaching London (9 hr 50 min later) at 0850 G.M.T. B.O.A.C. plan to extend Britannia 312 operations to otherpoints in America and Canada in the spring. The aircraft "will be operated in de luxe, first-class and tourist versions, accordingto route requirements." Later in 1958 the Britannia is due to take over "Monarch" services from the Stratocruiser.After the first Britannia service on Thursday the service will depart from London every Friday, returning from New York onSundays. Footnote: Last Saturday, one of El Al's three Britannia 313s made thefastest-ever commercial airliner crossing from New York to London—in 8hr 3min. The Israeli airline is due to inaugurate regular Britanniaservices between Tel Aviv and New York (with traffic rights at London) four days after B.O.A.C., on December 23. Vanguard FailureO N December 6 America's first attempt to launch an artificialsatellite ended disastrously, as a result of mechanical failure. This was the first time that a complete Vanguard three-stagevehicle had been readied for firing at Patrick A.F.B., and the occasion was preceded by widespread comment and publicity.After a twice-interrupted count-down, begun at 1 a.m., the vehicle was finally fired at 11.45 ajn. local time. When theVanguard was barely off the pad the chamber pressure in the first- stage motor (a 27,000-lb-thrust gimballed chamber by G.E.,described in our "Aero Engines" issue of July 26 last) became drastically reduced, and the resulting loss of thrust caused thevehicle to fall back on to its pad. Structural failure followed, and explosion of the remaining propellants. The fireball reached adiameter of some 100ft and destroyed the first and second stages, but the satellite was picked out of the third stage still functioning. Extraordinary and wholly unwarranted reactions followed thisfailure, including heavy selling of missile shares on the New York stock exchange. For an hour and a half trading in shares of TheMartin Company (prime contractor for Vanguard) had to be suspended. The circumstances of the failure parallel those of thefirst SM-75 Thor ballistic missile; in this case loss of chamber pressure was caused by malfunction of a valve in the liquid-oxygen supply. Decca Mk 10 Demonstrated ALTHOUGH dense fog prevented an in-flight demonstration,•**• the Decca Navigator Company was last week able to show at London Airport one of the first Decca Mk 10 receivers installedin a Viscount 800 of B.E.A. For the occasion a second receiver and Flight Log were mounted in the passenger cabin. All B.E.A.Viscount 810s will carry the Mk 10 as standard next year. As explained by Decca engineers, the great advance offeredby the Mk 10 over the traditional Mks 7 and 8 is its semi-auto- matic operation. Up to now each of the three Decometers has AIR MINISTRY PROMOTIONS: Mr. H. T. Smith (left) and Mr. R. H. Melville, whose appointments as Deputy Under-Secretaries of State at Air Ministry in succession to Sir Victor Raby and Sir Folliott Sandford have recently been announced. (See Service Aviation, p. 938.) had to be set up individually and the Flight Log synchronizedwith them. Now, all notching, referencing and lane identifica- tion processes are automatic; and synchronization of the log ispartly so. The chart remains still while the pen is placed on a referencing point and difficult manipulation of the slewingswitches is largely avoided. Charts are arranged so that the pen- can often move directly on to a new projection pattern withoutbeing lifted, and only a scale-selector switch has to be reset. After loss of signal the Flight Log will reset itself; and it will fail safein case of malfunction. The semi-automatic zone identification system has an ambiguity distance of five zones so that, on theedge of cover, the position of the aircraft need only be known to the nearest 100 miles or so. The panels and dials have beenconsiderably simplified. Scottish Aviation Tragedy \^E learn with great regret, as we go to press, that Mr. D. F.» * Mclntyre, managing director of Scottish Aviation, Ltd., lost his life when the Twin Pioneer G-AOEO in which he was flyingcrashed in Tripolitania last Sunday. Capt. Roy Smith, senior test pilot, Air. R. C. Clapham, an engineer officer and three pas-sengers, whose names are not so far known, were also killed. The aircraft was on a demonstration flight.Mr. Mclntyre, a former CO. of No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Sqn., R.Aux.A.F., later attaining the rank of group captain, wasone of the pilots on the Houston Mount Everest Flight Expedition in 1933. With the Duke of Hamilton, now chairman of ScottishAviation (and, as Lord Clydesdale, chief pilot on the Everest Flight Expedition), Mr. Mclntyre was co-founder of both the;company and of Prestwick Airport. He was also managing direc- tor of Scottish Airlines, Ltd. Mr. D. F. Mclntyre. Capt. Roy Smith. The McKenna DinnerT HE completion of No. 16 Course at the Empire Test Pilots'School was marked by the annual McKenna dinner held in the E.T.P.S. mess at Farnborough on Thursday of last weak.This year 28 pilots completed the course and four of th> ta obtained distinguished passes. The McKenna Trophy, for !*«most outstanding performance, was presented by Sir Geo ;e Edwards, managing director of Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircn *t) THE DEEP SOUTH: A Lockheed P2V Neptune of the U.S. Navy prep* « for take-off for the first flight of the year to the South Pole. \ht Neptune is based at McMurdo Sound, and is used for scientific studes in conjunction with the International Geophysical Year. t I
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