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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0330.PDF
346 FLIGHT The great Stratocruiser-Hke size of the Vickers- Armstrongs Vanguard is emphasized by this new progress picture from the Weybridge works. Both wings are now attached; first flight will take place in October of this year. British European Airways are due to take delivery in March of 1960, followed by Trans-Canada Air Lines in August of that year. CIVIL AVIATION . . . SLICK IN TROUBLED URING 1957, Slick Airways are reported tohave shown an operating loss of $2im. When last month it was learnt that the situation haddeteriorated even further, with a loss of as much as $+m in January alone, it was anticipated thateconomy measures were in the offing. At the end of the month Slick announced that scheduled freight services were to beabandoned, 500 employees laid off and 14 aircraft grounded. Slick will continue their military charters, and their service and supplyactivities at San Antonio, Texas. It is just a year since Slick floated a $5m debenture issue($3.3m of which was acquired by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway) and negotiated bank loans up to $7m to finance anexpansion programme which foresaw the purchase of six addi- tional DC-6As. A factor behind Slick's difficulties is the U.S. business recession.This has been accompanied by sharper competition both from improving truck transport and from larger air rivals. A notablefeature of last year's freight experience in the U.S. was that the larger airlines enjoyed the fastest traffic growth. American andFlying Tiger—the two leading domestic freight carriers—ex- panded rapidly; freight carried by United, Slick and T.W.A. onlyincreased marginally; while the airline lying sixth on the list, Riddle, suffered a fall in traffic. Another development in this field: last year PanAm oustedAmerican from its position as the leading world carrier of air freight. DECTRA TRIALS CONTINUE A T a meeting of the British Institution of Radio Engineers in**• London last week a paper on the development of Dectra over the North Atlantic was delivered by Messrs. C. Powell and D. A.Hendley of the Decca Navigator Co., Ltd. After summarizing the technical details and early tests of the system, the speakers statedthat results to date "begin to suggest that the final version of the North Atlantic Dectra chain might retain the form of the single-ended layout now under test . . . rather than the double-ended one originally proposed." In this case a Decca chain might beset up in Ireland to reinforce the eastern end of Dectra coverage. A. and A.E.E., Boscombe Down, using a Valiant and otheraircraft, had completed Phase 1 tests of the system for the M.T.C.A. during eight sorties totalling 39.5 hours' flying. Astro,Doppkr, Loran and Consol were used to check Dectra results; and a recorder panel was photographed automatically at 15 secintervals. Two aerials were used for Dectra, one being an ellip- tical disc of 280 sq in area in the belly of the Valiant and the othera metallic-foil sheet of 80 sq ft inside the nose radome. The first was used up till 1,500 miles out from the tracking stations in Newfoundland, after which the second was connected. Both aFlight Log and a Decometer were fitted; and one chart showed that the pilot was able to follow a datum track precisely, changeto Decca near England and reach a point two miles short of Boscombe runway without other navigational assistance and with-out sight of the ground. Present work included shipboard trials, the setting up of per-manent receivers for 24-hour evaluation, the testing of the per- formance over land as opposed to sea (by using "back cover" overCanada) and the evaluation of the ranging pattern with the present 120W transmitter in Britain. This last had been receivedat usable strength at the far-western end of the route. Evaluation of the tracking accuracy so far achieved was not yet complete, butinitial investigations showed that results were good. AIRLINES' DOPPLER SPECIFICATIONS A GENERAL specification for Doppler navigation equipment-**- for airline use has been agreed between the makers of such equipment and the airlines. Already engaged in manufacture areDecca Radar; British Marconi; Canadian Marconi; Ryan Aero- nautical; General Precision Laboratory and Laboratory for Elec-tronics; Collins; Bendix; and Radio Corporation of America. The last-named, using Marconi experience under agreement, areentering the Doppler field; and English Electric are also known to be working on equipment of this kind. Under the new specification, aerial and transmitter units are tobe separately mounted, the latter in a short 3/8 A.T.R. box. The transmitter should be able to operate with a 10ft wave-guide andminimum performance requirements up to 50,000ft and 1,000 kt have been stated. Other components should be housed in a long3/4 A.T.R. box. So far only Pan American are using Doppler on scheduledservices, employing a G.P.L. Radan groundspeed and drift unit in a DC-7C. They report good results. G.P.L. also recentlyreceived an order for Radan from North American worth no less than $lm, but this is probably intended for the Hound Dog air-breathing air-to-surface missile and not for civil use. Deliveries are to start in June this year. TWIN PIONEER CLEAREDT HE Air Registration Board has repealed the restrictions itimposed on Twin Pioneers after the accident in Libya last December. Scottish Aviation expect that a safe life for the air-craft will be established when current wing-fatigue tests are completed—probably in June. Twin Pioneers already on the British Register include two forBritish International Airlines (a B.O.A.C. subsidiary based at Kuwait); two for Fison-Airwork, to be used in the Niger Deltaarea under contract to Shell/B.P.; one for Malayan Airways to operate in Borneo; and three for Scottish Airlines. Not yet on theRegister is the second aircraft for Malayan Airways. The first two of the R.A.F. order for 32 Twin Pioneers have already beendelivered to Boscombe Down for evaluation trials. Overseas customers and sales include the Austrian Government,1; de Kroonduif, 3 (of which one was lost); Philippine Air Lines, 5; Iran Government, 3; Rio Tinto Mining Company, 1; ZincCorporation of Australia, 1; Red Lion and Sun organization, 1. Film Aviation Services have chartered one Twin Pioneer for Historians will, we hope, look back on this picture as perhaps the most encouraging illustration to-date of the trend towards closer commercial ties between the U.S.S.R. and the West. ' Taken in Moscow on February 26, it shows Chief Marshal of Aviation P. F. Zhigarev, chief of Aeroflot, signing an agreement with Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, chair- man of B.E.A., for the joint inauguration—later this year—of a London - Moscow service by the two airlines.
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