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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0293.PDF
142 FLIGHT AIR COMMERCE . . t B.E.A. VERSUS FROSTA NEW method of treating aircraft during severe winterweather with de-frosting fluid before take-off has been developed by B.E.A. (see picture above). By using two Bedford seven-ton truck chassis carrying 40ftSimons hydraulically actuated access towers and spraying equip- ment, claim the Corporation, it is possible to cover all the externalsurfaces of a Viscount with de-frosting liquid in less than 30 minutes. This more than halves the time previously required. The de-frosting compound, a mixture of Kilfrost DC.2 andwater, is preheated up to 70 deg C in a 1,000-gal container—sup- plied by Alltools Ltd.—and transferred to a 250-gal tank installedin the vehicle. This tank is lagged to avoid heat-loss and the fluid is delivered through flexible pipes to 6ft lances manipulated byoperators standing in cages at the top of the towers. Delivered in sweeping movements with the lances through spray-nozzles, thefluid reaches the entire surfaces of the wings, fuselage and tail unit with great rapidity. This new de-frosting equipment was evolved by the main-tenance branch planning office of B.E.A., and is now in use at London Airport. . . :. . COLLISION-WARNING DEVELOPMENT TYURING the next eighteen months Bendix are to develop a-L' prototype of a simple airborne collision-avoidance system under a $261,000 contract from the American Federal AviationAgency. A "breadboard" mockup is to be prepared and tested both onthe ground and in the air, and a final report will be presented during May I960. The Bendix equipment will be electronic andwill provide indication of altitude and range of a collision threat, using ground reflection for range measurement. PUTTING WARSAW ON THE MAP TOOTHING illustrates better the recent increase in contact-L^ between Western Europe and the Soviet bloc than the remark- able expansion of Poland's external air services. In addition toAeroflot, C.S.A. and Malev, no fewer than six other carriers —Austrian Airlines, B.E.A., D.L.H., K.L.M., Sabena and S.A.S.—operate to Warsaw. The city's airport, Okecie, now handles over fifty foreign arrivals every week Although most of Poland's ex-ternal routes are operated by both national airlines concerned, Air France and Swissair have not yet opened services to Warsaw,while only K.L.M. plies the route to Amsterdam. Traffic figures for the whole of 1958 are not yet available, butover the first nine months of the year L.O.T. carried over 30,000 passengers on external routes to 15 foreign cities while foreignairlines carried 26,000 passengers to and from Warsaw. An order is likely to be placed in the near future for a small turbopropfleet—possibly of Viscount 810s—to cover L.O.T.'s short- and medium-range foreign routes. Poland's internal services follow a star-shaped pattern radiatingoutwards from Warsaw and over the first nine months of last year accounted for 85,000 passengers. Unlike the foreign opera-tions, these services are operated at a deficit. NEW B.O.A.C. APPOINTMENTS 'THREE important new appointments have been announced by•*• B.O.A.C. Mr. Gilbert H. C. Lee, at present general manager, western routes, becomes chief commercial manager; Mr. J. RossStainton, at present general manager, eastern routes, is appointed The recent severe weather has provided B.E.A. with a good opportunity to test their new de-icing equipment (see "B.E.A. versus Frost" below) general manager, western routes; and Mr. Basil W. Bampfylde, atpresent with B.O.A.C. Associated Companies, becomes general manager, eastern routes.Mr. Lee will be responsible to Mr. Basil Smallpeice, managing director, "for advice and assistance in regard to the formulating ofthe Corporation's overall commercial policy," and he will also be responsible for directing and supervising the central sales, adver-tising and traffic activities of the Corporation. THE FOURTH MAN PEACE appears to have returned to the U.S. domestic airlinescene, where Eastern and American have been strikebound by flight-crew disputes. The essential controversy has been betweenthe pilots and the flight engineers (with managements sandwiched in between) for the third place in the turbine-airliner cockpit. The pilots have insisted that the flight engineer's duties shouldbe performed by a third pilot, while the flight engineers have vehemently refused to be dislodged from a job which, they feel.should remain the task of the specialist. The engineers do not accept the pilots' argument that turbine-airliners are simplerto operate, and that a flight-engineer would (according to the pilots) be a mere passenger in the new jets and turboprops. The consequences of the dispute have seriously disrupted U.S.domestic air services. Eastern Air Lines, who tried to compro- mise by offering to train their flight engineers as pilots, weregrounded for 38 days by striking flight engineers. They resumed services on January 2, inaugurating Electra services—originallyplanned for December 1—on January 12. And American Air- lines were grounded for 22 days by striking pilots who, as well aswanting the third place in the cockpit, also wanted higher pay and shorter hours. The precise terms on which services have been resumed arenot yet clear, but it appears that the managements concerned have yielded to both sides. Eastern, at any rate, have agreed to employboth a third pilot and a flight engineer, and American may well agree to a similar "fourth man" solution. The cost of yielding to these demands—quite unforseeable whenthe new aircraft were bought—will doubtless result in a marked difference between the "formula" costs and actual costs of the newturbine airliners. It might even be said that the huge increases in pay demanded by the pilots—quite apart from the third-man orfourth-man issue—could seriously offset the claimed improve- ments in economy of the new aircraft. The attitude of the C.A.B. throughout these labour disputes hasbeen interesting. The Board has still not approved the "strike- breaking employers' union" proposed by American, Capital,Eastern, PanAm, T.W.A. and United, whereby revenues lost bj any of the participants through strike action are restored by theothers. And the Board has firmly opposed the demands of the U.S. non-scheduled carriers who have been wanting to cash in on thewoes of the strike-bound scheduled airlines by operating their services. Meanwhile, Pan American continue to operate transatlantic andNew York - Miami 707 services with non-union supervisory staff pilots pending agreement between the airline and its union-pilotsabout their jet pay claim. Pan American are doing this without exceeding flight time limitations, and they are recruiting super-visory pilots from other PanAm divisions. How long they will be able to maintain services in this way remains to be seen. Typical of the stewardesses trained at B.O.A.C.'s special school at London Airport are these three. From left to right: Miss Christina Tugele of Nigeria Airways, Miss Mar- garet Bryan of B.O.A.C., and Miss Yoshiko Ishikawa, who is one of nine Japanese girls under training for the Corporation's Far Eastern Comet and Britannia services
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