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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0205.PDF
86 FLIGHT Avro's New AirlinerF OR at least a year there have been reports, mainly from airlinesources, that A. V. Roe and Co. Ltd. have been testing market reactions to a twin-turboprop passenger/cargo aircraft. It wasannounced last week, on January 9, that the firm has been given the go-ahead by the parent Hawker Siddeley Group to developthis aircraft, which is designated Avro 748. It will be a private venture. The decision was made as soon as it became known thatthe R.A.F. was to adopt the AW.660, the military derivative of the Group's other civil project, the AW.650.No details of the 748 are available, except that it will be a 36/44-seater pressurized machine powered by two R-R. DartRDa.6s. Target for the first flight is "early next year." Sir Roy Dobson, managing director of the Hawker Siddeley Group, saidlast week: "We have been considering the potential market, home and overseas, for this type of airliner for quite some time, and wehave already done a great deal of preliminary work on the project. . . . We believe there is a market all over the world forthis small British airliner." The powerplant and capacity of the 748 suggest that the aircraftwill compete directly with the Fokker/Fairchild Friendship and the Handley Page Dart Herald. That a third contestant shouldnow enter the twin-Dart DC-3-replacement field is evidence of the large potential size of this business over the next decade or two.During this time about 1,600 DC-3s in scheduled service will be in need of replacement. Taking traffic growth into account, it ispossible to foresee a market of perhaps 2,000 aircraft between now and the sevenths. So far only about 130 Friendships (74 Fairchild,57 Fokker) have been ordered. The 748 will differ in several important technical respects fromits competitors. It is possible that rear-loading will be incorporated and, unlike the Friendship and Herald, the 748 will be a low-wingdesign. The initial Hawker Siddeley investment in the 748 is reportedly about £2 million, but the cost price is expected to bebelow the competitive figure of £200,000. English Electric Aviation A NEW wholly owned subsidiary, English Electric AviationLtd., has been formed by the English Electric Co. Ltd. It will take over the main company's research, design and develop-ment on manned aircraft and guided weapons and will handle all future contracts for those products of the English Electric Group.The new company, which will have an authorized capital of £6m, comprises the aircraft division (centred at Warton aero-drome, near Preston, Lanes) and the guided weapons division (at Stevenage, Herts, and Luton, Beds). Mr. H. G. Nelson ischairman and managing director and Lord Caldecote deputy managing director. Also on the Board are Sir George Nelson andSir John Woods, together with Sir Conrad Collier (chief executive of the guided weapons division) and Mr. F. W. Page, who becomeschief executive of the aircraft division. C.A.S. GOES EAST: Marshal of the R.A.F. Sir Dermot Boyle, Chief of the Air Staff, about to board his Canberra B.6 at Bassingbourn last Saturday before taking off on a 20,000-mile tour of R.A.F. units overseas (see Service Aviation, p. 116) Towards Manned Orbit A CONTRACT for the construction of the first U.S. manned•**- satellite has been awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to McDonnell Aircraft Corp. of St. Louis.Intended to remain in orbit for up to 24 hours at an altitude of 100-150 miles, the capsule is reportedly to be launched as the nosecone of an Atlas-D ICBM. The programme is expected to take at least two years and to cost some $15m (about £5,350,000). Tendersfrom 12 companies were received by December 4, 1958, and the announcement of the McDonnell contract was made on January 12.The capsule will incorporate retro-rockets for deceleration, and a heavy metal shield to absorb or radiate the aerodynamic heat ofre-entry, parachutes and an inflatable rubber landing bag. FROM ALL QUARTERS Space Rocket Details STATEMENTS that the Soviet rocket launched into solar orbit^ on January 2 was a guided missile, was the first such Russian attempt, and was not aimed directly at the Moon, were made in theSoviet Union during the ten days following the launching. Infor- mation released included the fact that the rocket carried a jettison-able nose-cone and an automatic guidance system. A January 5 statement that radio contact with the rocket waslost (at 7 a.m. G.M.T. on January 5) 62 hours after launching gave the exact launching time—not previously announced—as 5 p.m.G.M.T. on January 2. A revised calculation of the period of orbit around the Sun was given as 450 days. At a Press conference inMoscow on January 6, Academician Anatoly Blagonravov was asked whether the rocket was a guided missile. He said that itwas, and went on to emphasize that the object of firing the rocket had not been to hit the Moon. Asked whether the launching hadbeen preceded by unsuccessful attempts, he said it had not. The Estonian scientist Gustave Naan was reported by Tass assaying that a rocket similar to the first Soviet space rocket could be launched towards Mars "if its payload was pared off." Otherstatements reported that distinct photographs of the rocket's sodium flare had been taken in Georgia and the NorthernCaucasus at the precise time predicted for the flare. On Monday last, January 12, a detailed report on the rocketwas given in the Communist party newspaper Pravda. This stated that the instrument container had been protected againstheat by a jettisonable cone; the final stage of the rocket, in which the container was located, also contained scientific and radioapparatus; and the rocket was guided by an automatic system. The instrument container was to have been separated from thefinal stage when the rocket propulsion ceased. .: ......-..- Fifty Years in the Industry ON January 13, knights of the air Sir Thomas Sopwith, SirGeoffrey de Havilland, Sir Roy Dobson and Sir Alan Cobham, paid their tribute to a man who has built and kept aircraft flyingfor the last half century. He is Mr. Herbert Woodhams, managing director of Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, whoseArgosy made its maiden flight last week. As a boy of 17, Mr. Woodhams watched A. V. Roe's earlystruggles to get airborne at Brooklands, while he was making pans for a triplane built by Mr. E. V. Hammond (although he left the BOARD MEMBERS of English Electric Aviation, the new company whose formation is recorded above: Left to right, Mr. H. G. Nelson (chair- man and managing director), Lord Caldecote (deputy managing director), Sir George Nelson, Sir John Woods, Sir Conrad Collier and Mr. F. W. Page
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