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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0124.PDF
CIVIL AVIATION ... sions with Qantas and Tasman Empire Airways. Returning tothe United Kingdom by way of Singapore and Beirut, he is due back in London on March 1. TWENTY MINUTES TO L.A.P.? ""DETTER communications with the airport" is a heart-cry of-*-* every major city in the world. As airborne block speeds increase so does the traveller's impatience with the first and lastfrustrating miles of his journey. The problem may be no worse at London Airport than at many others, but the solutions adoptedso far will certainly become inadequate long before 1970, when an estimated 12,750,000 passengers yearly will pass through theterminal. At peak periods this may rise to 6,000 an hour, sufficient to fill one 50-seater bus each way, each minute, on theCromwell Road extension and the new South Wales radial road. A promising solution, now under discussion by the M.T.C.A.,is the construction of a monorail between Central London and the airport. Mr. Nugent, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry,has recently visited Germany to study the Cologne monorail, and is reported to be favourably impressed. Monorail cars either straddle their rail or hang from it. In theAlweg system at Cologne, 100-seater cars are of the straddle type, and the track is carried on concrete posts about 18ft above ground-level and banked at the corners. Lateral wheels stabilize the cars by contacting the sides of the track and supporting wheels runupon the top surface of the rail. Although the Cologne monorail system is limited to about 50-55 m.p.h., much greater speeds arepossible, and a 20-minute journey time from London to L.A.P. should be quite practicable. A suggestion has been advanced by a British company, Air-Rail,Ltd., for monorail cars that could leave their track at the airport and run directly to the aircraft. Processing arrangements wouldthen be made at the town terminal. The firm has plans for a monorail system between L.A.P. and Waterloo, Victoria or theCromwell Road air terminal at an estimated cost of £8m; this is claimed by monorail advocates to be cheaper than a conventionalrailway line. BOEING'S MEDIUM JET "pIRST information about the Boeing 720, the medium-rangeA companion to the 707 family, was only released when United placed their order for 11 last November. Boeing have now givenfuller details, including April 1960 as the delivery date for the first aircraft, only sixteen months after certification of theBoeing 707. The "new and lighter-weight version of the Pratt and WhitneyJ57," referred to at the time of the order, is designated JT3C-7— the first reference to this suffix number that has been made. Pre-cise engine powers may not be stated. Pneumatic starters are fitted on each engine, and the inner pair are also equipped with cartridgestarters to make the aircraft independent of ground starting ser- vices. Although the airframe is very similar to that of the 707(the aircraft is identical in size with the 707-120 ordered by Qantas, for instance), fuselage and wing structural weight has been reduced,and the lower gross weight has allowed a similar but lighter under- carriage to be fitted, with 13.50 x 16 tyres on the dual-tandemmain wheels. Structural modification includes the use of reduced skin gauges Pending sale, five of B.O.A.C.'s 13 remaining L-749s have been Cocooned (the R.A. Brand process). The Constellations, now flying only to Karachi and Bahrain, are being replaced on African and Eastern routes by Britannia 700s. Pandit Nehru and two grandsons share the Friendship cockpit with Fokker's chief test pilot, H. V. B. Burgerhout, during a short flight from New Delhi. (Lett) In the foreground is the fourth production Boeing 707 in Transport Division's plant at Renton. The first three production aircraft are being specially equipped for conducting the C.A.A. test programme. on the 720, so that only limited sections are interchangeable withthe 707. The wings are made in five parts as before, but no fuel is carried inboard of the undercarriage support ribs. The centresection and inboard wing panels are permanently attached to the fuselage; production-type joints allow the outboard panels to berelatively easily replaced. All the flying controls—including the inboard ailerons andspoilers—follow the practice established on the 707 series, but the power-boosted rudder (a feature of 707s with JT4 and Conwayengines) is fitted to provide additional rudder power at low speeds with an engine-out. Other systems are very similar or identical tothose of the 707. Pressurization is maintained at a differential of 8.6 lb/sq in above 22,500ft (sea level equivalent below) from airdrawn through the ram scoop above the engine intake and further compressed by blowers driven from air turbines rotated by bleedair from the second-stage spool. An eight-inch-diameter con- nection has been provided for external air conditioning on theground. New data since the first order was placed are as follows: —Dimensions: Span, 130ft lOin; length, 134ft 6in; tail height, 38ft 7in; cabin width, 148in; wing area, 2,433 sq ft; sweepback, 35 deg at 25 percent chord; cargo volume (forward) 500 cu ft, (aft) 735 cu ft, total 1,235 cu ft. Weights: Gross, 203,000 Ib; normal take-off, 185,000 lb; maximumlanding, 165,000 lb; normal landing, 142,000 lb; operating weight empty, 103,145 lb; maximum design payload, 33,000 lb. Passenger capacity,110 first, 130 tourist; three operating crew. Performance: Cruising altitude, 15,000 to 40,000ft. Speed, over600 m.p.h.; range with full passenger payload and fuel reserves, 3,300 miles. Take-off (normal gross weight), 5,400ft; (maximum gross weight),6,700ft. Landing (normal landing weight), 4,850ft; (maximum landing weight), 5,500ft. Fuel capacity is 8,403 Imp. gal. with options up to 11,222 Imp. gal.,and the basic sales prices is £1.21m. DEUX PONTS TO AMERICA A DEMONSTRATION tour by a Breguet 763 Deux Ponts•**• began in America recently. The aircraft, F-BASQ, has been lent by Air France, who also supplied the crew of six and twoground staff. In charge of the tour is M. Pierre Breguet, com- mercial manager of Breguet, and he was accompanied on the firstpart of the trip by M. Henri Ziegler, general manager of the company. The entourage left Orly on January 16. The sales tour—something of an urgent necessity for Breguet,whose military contract for Deux Ponts has been cancelled—marks the thirtieth anniversary of a similar trip carried out in 1928 byCostes and Le Brix with the Breguet Nungesser and Coli—the names of the pioneers who lost their lives attempting a non-stoptransatlantic flight in 1927.
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