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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0493.PDF
FLIGHT, 18 April 1958 History was made on April 9 at Hatfield (right) with the appearance of the first Comet 4 for B.O.A.C., and at Santa Monica (below), where the first completed DC-8 was rolled out soon after this final assembly photograph was taken. 509 CIVIL AVIATION ROLLING OUT THE JET AGE AS recorded in the caption to the photographs above, the roll-out• of the first Comet 4 and the first DC-8 took place on the same day last week. In spite of the coincidence of simultaneous publicappearance, the Comet programme is well ahead of that of the American jet. Production of Comet 4s for B.O.A.C. is alreadygathering momentum at de Havilland's Chester factory and first deliveries will begin later this year. B.E.A.'s six Comet 4Bs, onthe other hand, are to be built at Hatfield. Persistent recent rumours that Aerolineas Argentinas may buyComet 4s were given substance last week when Vice-Commodore Ramon Morales, head of the purchasing commission now visitingBritain, announced in London that a contract for six Comets would probably be signed in Buenos Aires before the end of themonth. The agreement remains to be ratified by the Argentine Government, but the prospect of a firm order appears very bright.The value of the order is apparently about £10,125,000 with spares, and Senor Morales gave as one reason for the choice of Cometsthat he had found in London credit facilities for five-year instal- ment terms. Another reason was that de Havilland could offerdelivery of the first aircraft in December of this year, followed by two more in January and February 1959—apparently withoutdetriment to deliveries of Comet 4s to the Corporation. The order would be completed by June 1960, but Aerolineas Argen-tinas hope to start operations between Buenos Aires and New York as early as March next year; the Comet would halve the flighttime of 26 hr now taken by the airline's DC-6s. The roll-out of the DC-8, magnificently finished in red, whiteand blue, was presided over by Donald W. Douglas, Jr., president of the Douglas Aircraft Company; and stewardesses of 17 airlines B.E.A. and LOT inaugurated direct Warsaw-London ser- vices on April 8. Mr. J. Rustecki, the Polish Vice-Minister of Communication, was greeted by Mr. A. H. Wilson, Deputy Secretary (Civil Aviation) of the M.T.C.A. on arrival. that have placed DC-8 orders were invited to attend the occasion.Unusually for Douglas, the programme has slipped a month or so behind, but deliveries and first services are still expected to bestarted by the end of 1959. Nine aircraft will be used to accelerate C.A.A. certification flight-testing. Work is now pro-ceeding on 11 DC-8s at Santa Monica and a peak production rare of six per month should eventually be achieved. AUSTRIAN AIRLINE REVIVAL AS briefly noted in these pages recently, Austrian Airlines began**- scheduled nights between London and Vienna on March 31 and thus opened the second chapter in Austrian national civilair transport history. The first ended in 1938, when OELAG (Oesterreichische Luftverkehrs Gesellschaft, A.G.), first civiloperator of Junkers Ju52s, was absorbed by Lufthansa following the Anschluss. Austrian Airlines have had rather protracted birth-pangs, hav-ing grown out of two separate companies proposed early in 1956 by the two parliamentary political parties. Air Austria was a Blackor Conservative party venture which was to have had K.L.M. support and co-operation, while Austrian Airways were Red orSocialist and were to have had similar help from S.A.S. Neither venture reached the operating stage, because of many difficultiesand deficiencies; and it was decided two years ago to form a single company with both S.A.S. and K.L.M. support. Even this schememet with many obstacles and it was not until the end of September last year that the first official meeting of Austrian Airlines was held.The whole operation has been organized since then, with the Conservatives holding 42 per cent of the capital, the Socialists 28per cent, and S.A.S. and Fred Olsen 15 per cent each. The aircraft fleet consists of four Viscount 779Ds leased fromOlsen until 1960 and flown by some Olsen captains who have acquired Austrian nationality (by reason of Austrian peace-treatyrequirements). Other crew members are Austrian and they will take over full responsibility in due course. The daily Vienna -London return service is now in full swing with a very pleasant 48-seat tourist layout and a flight time of 2-f hours. The enthusiasmof all Austrian Airlines personnel is tremendous and their hope to establish a reputation as "the friendly airline" seems well founded.Very soon a daily flight to Zurich will be started; and this will be followed in turn by services to Hamburg via Frankfurt (connect-ing with numerous trans-Atlantic flights), to Paris (daily), to Warsaw (two or three per week, complementing LOT schedules byagreement), and to Rome (three per week on a short route crossing Jugoslavia if permission can be obtained). When these services areoperating, average aircraft utilization will be some 6.4 hours a day. Austrian Airlines will be ordering their own equipment and tothis end are considering the Viscount 810, Vanguard, Caravelle, Comet 4 and Convair 880. They have made no firm decision yet,but the Viscount 810 seems to be uppermost in their minds and probably best suited to their particular requirements. The companywill also take over the hangar at Schwechat Airport, their home base, as a maintenance base when the new terminal building iscomplete. BRITANNIA GRADUATES APRIL 10 should go down as an important date in the life-chart- of the Bristol Britannia. On that day Mr. R. B. Myersberg, representing the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority, handed overthe airliner's type-test certificate to Dr. A. E. Russell, Bristol Aircraft's chief engineer. Northeast Airlines are now in a positionto accept the five Britannia 305s ordered in December 1955 for delivery in October and November 1957. The chain of incidents that led to Northeast not receiving theseaircraft in time to cater for the winter traffic on their newly awarded New York to Florida route is well known. And at one time itseemed possible that Northeast's order might be lost. May 1 had been set as the deadline date for C.A.A. certification: thiswould allow the necessary operational planning and crew indoc- trination to be completed in comfortable time to begin Britanniaoperations between New England and Florida this coming autumn.
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