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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1843.PDF
13 December 1957 933 Progress with the new 9J40ft runway at Hong Kong —which has involved the filling-in of Kowloon Bay —indicates that the August 1958 target-date for completion will be achieved. The present runways of Kai Tak are seen in the background. CERTIFICATING THE 707 /"\N a wall of this office last April was pasted ^-^ a typewritten list of dates—roll out, firstflight, certification and delivery of America's turbine aircraft. The most significant alteration that has yet been made is a matter of notmore than a month, and the earlier dates are beginning to accumulate a series of ticks. It hasoften been queried whether Boeing, Lockheed and Douglas can hope to meet the tight schedules that they have set themselves,and the answer—as borne out by the writing on the wall—seems to be that they can. In order to get the C.A.A. certification tests complete by nextsummer Boeing applied for certification of the 707 in July 1955 and started negotiations the following month. A preliminaryType Certification Board held its first meeting before the end of that year, and the 707 prototype was used to give the C.A.A.representatives their first taste of turbine transport travel. Since that time numerous C.A.A. pilots have flown the prototype. For jet transports the Civil Aeronautics Board have formulateda Special Civil Air Regulation SR-422, and to meet this regula- tion (which can be expected to become increasingly familiar)Boeing are preparing to carry out their certification programme with three aircraft from the flight centre at Seattle. The first air-craft, which will be used for demonstrating compliance with the Civil Air Regulations Part 4b, will be equipped with specialinstrumentation; the second and third aircraft will be fully furnished and used for performance, stability and control analysisand functional and reliability tests respectively. About two thirds of the flight test time with the third aircraft will be spent inaccelerated airline proving—a succession of take-offs, climbs, descents and landings. The remaining time will be spent onfunctioning and reliability checks at cruising altitudes. The aircraft rolled-out on time, and the first flight, scheduledfor this month, is imminent. Certification should have been received and the first delivery made by this time next year. THE NOISE OF A CARAVELLE A LETTER to Sud Aviation from "an American airline" con-**• tains flattering remarks about the Caravelle's noise level, internal and external. While the CaraveUe was in America, thisparticular operator (whose name Sud Aviation do not wish us to disclose) conducted detailed tests. Here is a summary of theirconclusions. In the cabin, an "acoustical comfort index" of 117 was achievedat the noisiest location, and an A.C.I, of 149 at the quietest loca- tion. [A.C.I., it should be explained, is an index believed to havebeen originated by Douglas, who regard an A.C.I, of 100 as "comfortable."] The anonymous airline goes on to say: "Acousti-cal comfort indexes of 117 at the noisiest location of the cabin, and of 149 at the quietest location, are marvellous as compared withthe respective indexes of 57 and 75 for a certain aircraft renowned for its comfort." The results of the measurement of the Caravelle's external noiseare of special interest in view of the fact that the aeroplane is the only jet airliner which has so far been permitted to land by thePort of New York Authority. This is what the report says: "A A new airport aid is this 300 million candlepower Westinghouse "traffic light" at Washington In- ternational Airport. It directs departing aircraft away from built-up areas —practical evidence of America's effort to reduce the noise-nuisance. number of nojse readings were taken on the transatlantic ramp[terminology that indicates that the tests were made at New York] when the aircraft was taxying away for take-off. The measuringequipment was set up approximately 30ft from the left wing-tip of the aircraft, and directly in line with it. The highest noise levelrecorded as the airplane taxied away from the ramp was 106 db, with about 100 db in the 75 to 150 cps octave band." EAST AND WEST BY QANTAS AUSTRALIA'S new link with Europe via the Pacific, North**• America and the Atlantic will be formally established on January 14. On that date two Qantas Super-Gs will leave Sydney,one flying westward by the old Kangaroo route to London, and the other flying east to London via San Francisco and New York.The new service may well become quickly established as Qantas' most lucrative link with London and Europe. Qantas, thanks tothe granting of trans-U.S.A. traffic rights by the American Govern- ment last summer, will now be able to carry what they have longregarded as their own dollar-route traffic to Europe, instead of transferring it to T.W.A. or B.O.A.C. at San Francisco. This fact,and also the political instability of the Middle Eastern section of the Kangaroo route, constitute the real significance of the newQantas service, rather than the academic prestige-value of a "round the world" route—a prestige which Qantas will now share withPanAm. FROM CHICAGO TO DJAKARTA TT is thirteen years since the nations met at Chicago and fashioned•*- a framework for the operation of international air services. The basis of this new framework was the formulation of five "free-doms," the first two of which covered flying across and landing in countries abroad, the latter three covering the carriage of traffic. Prewar air transport was frequently the victim of political policy.The Dutch airline was for many years denied the right to overfly or land in Spain, as a result of their government having refusedto supply arms to the Republican forces in the Civil war. But since the Chicago conference there has been a growing tendencyto take first and second freedoms for granted, except at times of severe national disturbance. The recent announcement that the Indonesian Governmentwere to deny landing rights to the Dutch after December 3 is a sad but timely reminder of the extent to which air transport istied to politics. This move by the Indonesian Government coin- cided with various other expressions of bitterness towards theDutch, evoked by the United Nations' refusal to support Indo- nesia's claim to Dutch New Guinea. The first statements coming from K.L.M. implied confidencein the future. It was declared that an application for future land- ing rights—the present permit was expiring in any case onDecember 31 of this year—would be filed as usual. It was also pointed out that technical assistance given by K.L.M. to theIndonesian national carrier Garuda Indonesian Airways was based on a separate agreement, extending until 1960. The relationship between Dutch and Indonesians appears tobe deteriorating. The atmosphere hardly suggests that a new landing permit is likely to be negotiated in the near future. Theexodus of about 300 K.L.M. staff seconded to Garuda might well cripple both the internal services operated in Indonesia and theregional services to Singapore, Bangkok and Manila. If K.L.M. is to continue to serve this traffic area without landingin Indonesia, it becomes imperative to seek traffic rights at Singa- pore. It is to be hoped that the relationship between Indonesiaand the Netherlands will improve in time to prevent other countries —and their airlines—becoming involved in the dispute. MARSHAL ZHIGAREV AND THE TU-104 THE speed with which Russian leaders wish to negotiate airtransport agreements appears to be directly related to that of their leading airliners. For over a year the Tu-104 has beenproving itself—apparently to Aeroflot's satisfaction—on the inter- nal routes within the Soviet bloc. Recently a reciprocal arrange-ment was concluded between Russia and governments of Norway,
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