FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0815.PDF
20 June 1958 831 ments is steady. But the successful selling of airliners, even byfirms with well-established products, is not wholly a matter of dealing with inquiries: openings have to be sought, investigatedand followed up hard and quickly. The days when a route-analysis might take two men two weeksto prepare are—at Vickers at any rate—long past. While key technicians are thus tied up, other work goes by default; it isdifficult satisfactorily to handle inquiries, let alone positively to encourage them by creative selling. The answer, Vickers found,was automation: and about 18 months ago a Ferranti Pegasus electronic computer was acquired for the mathematical servicesdepartment at Weybridge. This equipment has enlarged the civil aircraft development group's capacity to an almost immeasurabledegree—immeasurable because the group's output now includes work which it could not previously have even considered attempt-ing. To be able to run off, in one afternoon, detailed capabilities of the Viscount 810 on 150 routes of a particular U.S. operator—as was recently done—provides some measure of the group's increased scope. Such a task, accomplished manually, would takeweeks. The possibility of being able to call on an airline at 24 hours' notice with a detailed study of the Viscount or Vanguardon that operator's routes is now a workable proposition. Though airlines may take months to decide to buy new equipment, they arenevertheless strongly influenced by a manufacturer who can give them fast and efficient pre-sales service. Pegasus is a digital computer, and probably one of the mostpopular British machines of its kind in service. Vickers' machine is now used till 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. five days a week, which leavesconsiderable capacity (night-shift and week-end) still in hand. Generally speaking, mornings are devoted to scheduled main- tenance and programme testing, and the afternoons and eveningsare spent on production. Input and output are in coded punched- paper tape form: the final decoded result comes from theteleprinter as a neat, foolscap-sized sheet. About 40 per cent of the computer's time is devoted to route-performance or cost analyses. The group has programmed the capabilities, weights and performance of all Vickers' civil air-craft variants, in a way which takes care of any operator's foresee- able requirements—C.A.A. or B.C.A.R. performance rules, varyingoperating techniques, and so on. This part of the input into the computer provides the instructions (up to 36 items) and is followedby the applicable route data—headwinds, runway data, tempera- tures, etc.—about 30 items in all. As teleprinted, the outputrecords for good measure the basic data assumed and presents the final route analysis in the form of take-off and landing limita-tions, sector-segment times, fuel consumed, speeds (to make sure VNO is not exceeded), and appropriate weights. Other uses to which Pegasus is put by the group are numerous.For example: (1) operating techniques can be optimized to pro- duced minimum operating cost; (2) compilation of OperationsManual data can be done more quickly; (3) investigation of the effect of particular modifications on performance can now be morereadily assessed. Much call is made on the computer's time by Vickers designdepartments. Typical of the work recently done are: pressure distribution analysis of the VC.lO's wing, and the calculation oflift, drag and moment coefficients for different incidences; estima- tion of VC.10 wing, tail and fuselage loads at varying speeds andheights, a five-hour computer job which, previously done manu- ally, required 70 pages of output from three pages of information. BREVITIES PREVIOUSLY exempt from the scrutiny of the Air TransportAdvisory Council, applications to operate circular tours by air must now receive Council approval. This is because of thesimilarity of some proposals to inclusive tour services. * * * A Tu-104 is expected to attend the British Columbia centenary celebrations. * * * Britavia announce that Mr. W. E. Hogsflesh, A.F.R.Ae.S.,general manager of the company, has been elected to the Board. * * * At Paris-Orly U.A.T. are to construct one of the biggest hangarsin Europe. Capable of housing three DC-8s, it will be 525ft long, 117ft wide and 60ft high.* * * An aircraft of American Airlines reported a near miss from a military trainer near St. Louis on June 10. Four passengers and two stewardesses were slightly injured as a result of evasive action by the pilot of the transport. * * * Because of the cost of overhaul of T.E.A.L.'s Solent and a lackof modern navigational aids, the Coral Route service between Fiji, Western Samoa and the Cook Islands is to be discontinued inAugust. A new Dutch firm, the International Charter Aviation Company,backed by British, Dutch and German capital, has been formed to operate tourist charter services in Europe and across the Atlantic.There will be a tri-national management and the fleet will consist of three Vikings. Next year it is planned to operate Ambassadors. Eagle Airways are offering a dictaphone service to businessmenon their Brussels, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Copenhagen services. * * * The Gibraltar - Tangiers service was jointly operated byGibraltar Airways and Royal Air Maroc as from June 15. * * * A DC-6 of Aerolineas Argentinas, with 16 passengers on board,was totally destroyed after a forced landing in four feet of water near Rio de Janeiro on June 10. Seven people were injured.This was the airline's first DC-6 mishap in ten years. * * * Ozark have been evaluating the Viscount 790, Caravelle, Allison-Convair and F.27 as replacements for their present DC-3 fleet. A decision is expected shortly. * * * In the first four months of this year Icelandair carried 57 per cent more passengers (total 4,372) than in the corresponding period of 1957. * * * S.A.S. have increased their Caravelle order from six to 12, making a total of 32 Caravelles now sold. They retain an option- on 13 more. * * *• A Britannia 305—G-ANCD, in Cubana colours—was recentlydemonstrated in Madrid to officials of Iberia and later to govern- ment and airline officials in Portugal. The secretary-general ofIberia, Snr. Juan Viniegra, said that "the demonstration left a memorable impression, but at the moment the acquisition ofBritannia aircraft does not enter into our plans." The aircraft flew on to Cuba via the Azores. Despite meat-strike pickets at Southern] Airport, Air Charter's Bristol 170s have brought at least 500 tons of meat horn Rotterdam in the last few weeks. As part of the C.A.A. certification programme, the original 707 has recently been carrying out flight tests to determine the de-icing capabilities of the 157 pcwerplant. The inboard pod, seen with its spray-rig, is the production version.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
