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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0213.PDF
14 February 1958 223 "There are British methods of salesmanship and Americanmethods. I think we will persevere with what we have." Asked about the decision to ground early Viscounts for sparmodifications, he said, "We are not looking for medals for some- thing we got ourselves into, but we did foresee this trouble andwe were doing something about it." The outlook for the Vanguard was a long-range one, and "wouldtake me three weeks to answer." Questioned about the progress made in America to eliminate jetnoise, and the fact that the Americans seemed to be following the lead of the British in this respect, Sir George Edwards said: "Onthat basis, I think they are doing all right." B.O.A.C. TO LATIN AMERICA BECAUSE the route between London and Rio de Janeiro, andon to Santiago and Buenos Aires, is reserved to B.O.A.C., some observers have assumed that recent reports about the Cor-poration resuming South American services signify that the South Atlantic route will be used. But it now seems that B.O.A.C. areplanning to make a less dramatic re-entry into the South American market. By merely extending their Caribbean network to Caracas,they can serve this new market without drastic revision of present schedules. It is the higher cruising speed of the Britannia 312that makes this possible. By the autumn this aircraft will prob- ably be cutting about four hours off the Stratocruiser schedule forthe 5,000-mile journey from London to Port-of-Spain, allowing ample time to continue the further 380 miles to Caracas beforeturn-round. Once the Britannia is established on this extended route, it is hoped to penetrate even further into the continent. Pleasing as it would be to the British public to see their nationalcarrier bridging the South Atlantic, this high-cost route remains relatively unattractive to B.O.A.C. Competition is very strong fora surprisingly limited volume of traffic. The apparent contradiction between the large amount of British trade with South America andthe small amount of air traffic can probably be explained by the high proportion of traffic that chooses—and with higher dollarallowances will increasingly choose—to travel via New York. IRISH TRANSATLANTIC PLANS VifORE details are now available concerning Aer Linte Teoranta's•••'•*- plans to inaugurate transatlantic services this spring. Initially three round flights will be operated to New York eachweek. This frequency will be stepped up to one flight daily in the peak season. Services to Boston will probably start in the autumn.Irish Airlines will use three L.1049Hs on charter from Seaboard and Western Airlines, painted in Irish colours. Sea-board will do the overhauls at Idlewild, and will provide cockpit crew. The Super Constellations are to be fitted with95 seats and will cater for economy-class traffic. Services will not terminate at Shannon but will continue through to Dublin underan interchange agreement with Aer Lingus. BREWERS' REWARDING EXPERIMENT IT is refreshing to hear facts and figures about the utilization ofBritish aircraft in true executive service from a base in this country. Ind Coope and Allsopp, the brewers, report that sincethey bought their de Havilland Dove (with Sperry autopilot and Decca) last September it has flown 30,600 miles in four months. Capt. David Lancaster, the chief pilot, said recently: "Ouraircraft has proved quite invaluable and has been flying for 73 days out of 79 on which it was available. Three hundred passengershave been carried and 127 flights made to visit the company's interests all over the British Isles and on the Continent." The owners give an example of one day's flying in which aDove, taking off from Burnaston, Derby, at 0745 hr, landed for the night at Cardiff at 1810 after covering 900 miles in ten stages:Burnaston - Tangmere - Croydon - Burnaston - Chester - Liver- pool - Dublin - Cardiff. This is the Air-Rail Company's radio-controlled demonstration model for monorail senices to London Airport, a subject discussed below. OVERHEAD TO L.A.P. 'T'HREE weeks ago we mentioned a suggestion by Air-Rail, Ltd.,•*• for a monorail car that would leave its track at the airport and become an airport bus. In London recently, the firm gave ademonstration of their radio-controlled model (seen in the photo- graph above) and the type of track on which the monorail car isintended to be .run. The idea of a really fast rail link between London's airport andcity-centre, and the unconventional monorail in particular, has so fired public imagination, that Air-Rail's demonstration wasmade to a receptive audience. The company have made an initial survey of the route; Victoriahas been selected as the best terminal station and the most satis- factory routeing as Clapham Junction, Putney, Barnes, Richmond,Twickenham Junction, Feltham and around the south of the air- port, down to nearly road level and through the tunnel to theCentral Terminal Area. The distance is about 17 miles and for most of the way the monorail track would run above the existingrailway line; it is claimed that the practicability of this route, from an engineering point of view, has been recognized by thechief civil engineer of British Railways Southern Region. The journey will, of course, be made non-stop and the trains of one,two or three monorail cars will travel at up to 100 m.p.h. Very careful choice of car size would obviously be needed toensure that the optimum dimensions were chosen. Too big a car would sometimes operate at too low a load-factor (it is intendedthat the present 5s fare should be retained) and would also be an embarrassment if it failed—the only way to clear the line would beto send a pusher or a tractor car to move the casualty to the end of the line. Too small a car, on the other hand, would mean amultiplicity of vehicles on the airport apron (if the idea of direct terminal-to-service transport was adopted) and difficulties ofmaking up train loads of passengers. Even more important is the consideration that the monorail should be sufficiently flexible andof adequate capacity to meet every need of London Airport—not only for the 12m annual passengers in 1970, but for perhaps 25mor 30m in 1980. Chairman of Air-Rail is Sir Alfred Bossom, M.P., and theBoard includes directors of Tube Investments, Ltd., Concrete, Ltd., Portland Cement Manufacturers, Ltd., and the GloucesterRailway Carriage and Wagon Co., Ltd. SENATOR PALTRIDGE IN THE U.K. LAST week, as recorded overleaf, members of the British' aircraft industry had the pleasure of meeting Australia's Minister for Civil Aviation, Senator Shane Paltridge. He came tothe United Kingdom ostensibly to sign the new bilateral air trans- port agreement; the main purpose of his visit, in his own words,"was to inform myself on all aspects of civil aviation in your country, so that I will be able to tackle technical matters at homein the light of a fuller knowledge." This is good Ministerial practice; and despite the fact that the Senator was feeling far fromwell (particularly during his visit to Hatfield) he got through a gruelling itinerary. At a Press conference which he gave at Australia House onFebruary 5 most of the questions centered on the possibility of Australian orders for British aircraft. Mr. Paltridge could notspeak for the customers; but he made the following points: — (1) Ansett-A.N.A.'s order for four Lockheed Electras was notyet firm. (2) The Dan Herald could "by every standard" meet the requirements for a DC-3 replacement, but no Australianorders had yet been confirmed. (3) There had been enquiries about the Twin Pioneer, but these had not as yet been followedup. (4) He had discussed short-range jet projects with Bristol and D.H., and Australia "has an open mind" about short-range jets, This experimental blast-screen is now being tried out at B.O.A.C.'s London Airport base. The idea is to economize in apron-space by deflecting engine efflux upwards. This prototype, which is fixed and made of concrete, was the work of the Modular Concrete Company.
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