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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0481.PDF
11 April 1958 497 FRENCH INTERNAL AIRLINE A FTER years of objection, primarily from the French Nationalt*- Railways, an internal air network has at last been established within metropolitan France. The new operator, Air Inter, is a consortium formed by AirFrance, T.A.I., U.A.T., Air Algerie and the French National Railways (S.N.C.F.), and uses aircraft chartered from the fourairlines. Three services, each at a frequency of six flights per week, werestarted last month: Paris - Strasbourg with Air Algerie DC-3s; Paris-Marseilles with U.A.T. DC-4s; Nice-Marseilles-Toulouse -Tarbes (or Nantes) - Bordeaux (or Biarritz) with T.A.I. DC-3s. A fourth service, Paris - Nice with Air France Constellations, willstart in May. The services from Paris use Le Bourget. COACH AIR BY AIR CHARTER TWO hours, fifteen minutes from Euston Square, London, to•*• Marck Airport, Calais, was the time taken by passengers on Air Charter's inaugural coach-air service on Tuesday, April 1.Coach-air services from Southend—essentially an extension of the company's Channel Air Bridge car-ferry flights—were also flownto Ostend and Rotterdam for the first time on that day. Among the passengers on the inaugural flight to Calais werethe Mayors of St. Pancras and of Southend; Mr. Bernard Collins, manager of Southend Airport; and Mr. D. A. Whybrow, managerof Air Charter's channel air bridge division. Coach passengers left Euston at 0955 hr, arrived at Southend Airport at 1125, :ook off15 minutes later in Bristol 170 Mk 32 G-ANVS Vigilant piloted by Capt. W. J. Unwin, and touched down at Calais at 1210. Alunch to celebrate the occasion was attended by civic representatives from Calais, Dunkirk and Lille. Spare passenger-capacity on Air Charter's car-ferry services isused for the flight section of the coach-air operation. The com- pany's Bristol 170s, which normally carry 15 passenger seats, canbe fitted with eight extra seats if required. The initial frequency of the coach-air services is one per day, with extra week-end ser-vices during July and August. Air Charter state that they intend to develop the operation to a summer frequency next year of onecoach departure from Euston each hour. Air Charter's channel air bridge flights from Southend beganwith the Calais service in 1954, and were expanded to include Ostend (1955) and Rotterdam (1956). During 1957 a total of 18,000vehicles and 50,000 passengers were carried; increases of 40 per cent and 85 per cent respectively on these figures are expectedthis year. During the summer peak periods of 1958, 108 services will be operated daily, of which 70 will be on the Calais route.This represents a daily capacity of 1,100 passengers and 420 cars to and from Calais. CONSTELLATION TO ELECTRA TOCKHEED will look back on 1957 as the peak year for an•*-' airliner series which began almost 20 years ago. Constellation sales last year climbed to a record $203m—71 per cent higher than1956 and 54 per cent above the previous record established when 55 Super Constellations were sold in 1955. Last year's sales included 15 L.1049Gs, 27 L.1049Hs and 35L.1649As, a total of 77 aircraft. This year will see Constellation deliveries dropping to about a score L.1049Hs as productioncapacity switches to the Electra. Lockheed plan to deliver 14 Electras by the end of this year,12 of these going to Eastern Air Lines and the remaining two to American Airlines. Eastern's first aircraft will be delivered inSeptember, shortly after the planned certification date. Eastern will receive a further two aircraft in October and four inNovember. December will see delivery of the first two Electras to American and another five to Eastern. American's order was placed in May 1955, delivery of 35aircraft to take place during the first half of 1959. Eastern's original order stipulated that 12 aircraft be delivered in 1958 and a further 28 during 1959. Each of these airlines is reported to have optionson a further 30. Another four carriers are due to receive Electras next year: Braniff (nine aircraft) and National (23) in the spring;K.L.M. (12) and Western (nine) in the autumn. DROPPING IN AT THE RACES i to make"PRIVATE pilots receive perquisites infrequently enough t•*• an additional facility very acceptable. Just before Easter, a new airfield within the motor racing circuit at Goodwood received alicence from the M.T.C.A., and about 30 light aircraft were expected for the Easter Monday meeting. The airfield, which willbe open all the year round, should prove very popular with motor racing enthusiasts; for flying to a race meeting is a very satisfac-tory way of ayoiding the inevitable road congestion. There are two grass landing strips, one 2,300ft x 150ft sited 034/214 deg T,and the other 2,280ft x 150ft at 098/278 deg T. Flighfs Gemini looked in at Goodwood recently and found thesignals area and windsock very clear, the strips well marked and —as a result of much levelling—reasonably smooth and level. MORE COMPETITION IN FLORIDA THE C.A.B. decision in the Great Lakes/South East service caseis hardly designed to please Eastern Air Lines. Northwest has been awarded the plum route, Chicago - Florida, over whichEastern and Delta already operate. Delta's service from Florida to Cincinnati has been extended to Detroit, and T.W.A. may nowlink Florida to St. Louis, these two routes both being former Eastern preserves. A new route, Buffalo to Florida via Clevelandand Pittsburgh, has been awarded to Capital. For Eastern, suffering from the effects of bad weather in Floridaand of increased competition from National and Northeast, these awards must be discomforting. But Northwest and Capital inparticular have cause for gratitude. COOL BLANKET IN the annotations to the double-page cutaway drawing of theComet 4, on page 423 of Flight for March 28, we referred to the jet-pipe blanketing as Refrasil asbestos/aluminium covering. TheBritish Refrasil Co., Ltd., of Stillington, County Durham, point out that Refrasil blanket is a pure silica high-temperature insula-tion material—which, they state, will stand temperatures far higher than asbestos—and is covered in stainless steel, not aluminium,sheet. BREVITIES 'THE Maltese Government boycotted the recent opening ofA Luqa's new terminal building as an expression of dissatisfaction at Britain's failure to allow Malta jurisdiction over civil aviation affairs. * * * An air agreement has been signed between Bulgaria, Denmark and Norway. * * * Mr. F. W. Reeves is to succeed Mr. G. N. Roberts as general manager of T.E.A.L. on May 31. * * * Bombay's new air terminal, which cost Rs.45m (£3.4m), is now in operation. * * * The Government of Nepal has appointed a five-man council toadvise on the regulation and development of domestic air transport. * * * A 24-hour strike by French air traffic control officers stopped all B.E.A. and Air France services between London and Paris on April 1. * * * •Letters carried on Irish Air Lines' inaugural Transatlantic flights will bear stamps impressed by a special cachet and may be enclosed in suitably inscribed first-flight covers. * * * B.O.A.C. aircraft have been chartered by U.N.O. to carry out replacement of about 1,000 troops stationed in the Gaza Strip. The operation, using Argonauts and Constellations between Beirut and Scandinavia, was due to start this week. * * * The Royal Aeronautical Society's Third Air Transport course,held at Oriel College, Oxford, is due to end today. It has been attended by 69 students of various nationalities, who have beenaddressed by some 27 guest lecturers and speakers. Reproduced from the Japanese magazine "Airview" is this first picture of Republic's 77J00 Ib Rainbow. Official information from Republic about their new turboprop has yet to be released.
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