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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0410.PDF
6 February 1959 203 in the control tower at Nairobi Airport, students from Uganda watch a B.O.A.C. Britannia being cleared for take-oft at Elmdon and their transfer by road to Pailton, where the neces-sary quarantine period is being passed in pens specially approved for the purpose in the grounds of the pheasantry itself. Warwickshire Pheasantries have imported Danish birds before.On one occasion a consignment came by sea and over 500 birds were found to be dead on arrival. This time, a spokesman of thepheasantries said, "Casualties are negligible. We are delighted at the arrangements made by Derby Airways and will certainlyfly all our birds over in future." THE CANADA1RL1NER ^ : = AS briefly reported in these pages last week, Canadair rolled out• the first 540 in mid-January. The second is expected to follow within the next few weeks.These first two aircraft, bearing the colours of Air Transport Command, R.C.A.F., are Convair 440 airframes (sent up fromSan Diego to Montreal) which have been modified by Canadair to take Napier Eland 6 turboprops. The R.C.A.F. have orderedten of these aircraft, designated CC-109, and will use them primarily in a freight-carrying role. Frames for the final eight ofthis order will be entirely constructed at Montreal. Exterior dimensions of the 540 are similar to those of the 440.The cabin length has, however, been extended to 39ft 9in, and this will permit the airline version to carry 48 passengers (or 58 inhigh-density configuration) as against 44 in the standard 440. Maximum take-off weight of the new turboprop is 53,200 lb. LONDON AIRPORT HOTEL WORK is likely to start on a new 264-bedroom hotel nearLondon Airport as soon as planning approval is granted. Financed by a Canadian group headed by Mr. Louis Epstein,chairman of Seaway Hotels in Toronto, it is expected to cost about £1 million. The chosen site is on the north side of the Bath Road oppositethe existing international arrival buildings at London Airport North. The sponsors hope that the building—to be known asthe Skyway Hotel—will be completed by the end of the year. BLEAK NOVEMBER TAST week's fogs were reported to have been the worst•*-* experienced in London since 1952. B.E.A. have blamed their disappointing December traffic on the Christmas fogs. And nowthe M.T.C.A. attributes November's poor showing—aircraft movements fell by 6 per cent and passenger traffic by 1 per cent—to that month's fog. November is always one of the worst months of the year, bothfor weather and for traffic generally. In this month last year no fewer than 163 diversions took place, and total passenger trafficfell to a seasonal trough of \ million (peak monthly traffic in August reached well over lm passengers). The general pattern over the country was that passenger trafficrose in the London area by 4 per cent but fell at airports else- where by 10 per cent. One notable exception was Edinburgh,where traffic—presumably under the influence of B.E.A.'s new cheap weekend return fares—rose by 17 per cent. Blackbushe,Newcastle, Bournemouth and Stansted also showed increases. Airports at which traffic fell sharply were Bristol, Southampton,Birmingham and Cardiff. VOICE OF THE COMMON MAN f\¥ the many factors that have to be borne in mind by licensing^ authorities, that of conforming to the public need is—or should be—uppermost. But when an authority has to adjudicatebetween established higher-fare operators and energetic low-fare newcomers it is not always easy for the regulating agency toestablish the best course. The application of Eagle Airways to operate services to manycabotage points within the Commonwealth at fares very much below the present level has presented a particularly thorny prob-lem to licensing authorities, for the general public in various parts of the Commonwealth have apparently taken sides very stronglywith Eagle. In recent weeks the public at home seems to have been obsessed with the subject of air hostesses' hemlines, andsurprisingly little interest has been expressed in the subject of cheaper travel. But in the overseas territories the number of-fitters appearing in correspondence columns bears witness to a videspread and sincere desire to see a drastic cut in air fares. .The East African papers, in particular, have been inundated ith a stream of such letters, and representatives of Kenya's Legis-lative Council are being urged to support the low-fare application. he suggestion has even been put forward that the Government ? presented with a petition. TUGS FOR BIG JETSA T London Airport last week representatives of a number ofmajor airlines watched demonstrations of the Douglas Tug- master tractor's capabilities in handling civil aircraft of the largestsize, Pan American having placed a Boeing 707 at the disposal of the manufacturers, Douglas Equipment Ltd., of Cheltenham,Glos. The tractor demonstrated was the first of six recently ordered by Qantas in readiness for that operator's 707s. Flight was able to watch a test being made on the apron in frontof the PanAm hangar, and it was certainly a convincing one. The 707-121 Clipper Mayflower was brought out of the hangar fortwo Esso refuellers to top up its main tanks to a fuel weight of" 60,440 lb, giving an aircraft weight of 180,000 lb. The Tugmasterthen took charge and virtually played with the big airliner, towing it at various speeds and turning it in circles of surprisingly smallradius. In spite of the fact that early morning frost and ice- patches covered the apron there was no sign of wheelspin; andthere was certainly no reason to question the statement that the Tugmaster would have been equally at ease had the 707 had itsfull fuel load on board, implying a total weight of some 233,500 lb. The Tugmaster is in fact designed to handle aircraft of up to300,000 lb on the 230 b.h.p. of its Leyland six-cylinder diesel. The following performance figures are quoted: — First Gear: Maximum tractive effort, assuming 90 per cent overallmechanical efficiency, 31,800 lb at 1.4 m.p.h. Maximum speed, 7.5 m.p.h. (tractive effort, 9,000 lb). Second Gear (normal towing gear): Maximum towing speed withaircraft at 300,000 lb and tractor at 13 tons (assuming 90 per cent efficiency and 50 lb/ton tractive resistance), 11 m.p.h. Minimum speed2.3 m.p.h. at tractive effort of 30,000 1b. Third Gear: Maximum towing speed assuming 30 lb/ton tractiveresistance (all other assumptions as above), 16 m.p.h. Minimum speed 3.1 m.p.h. at tractive effort of 14,000 lb. Top Gear: Speed running light, 20-24 m.p.h. Wheelbase is 8ft and overall dimensions are 16ft long X 7ft lOinwide by approximately 5ft high. Equipment includes hydraulic transmission and self-changing gearbox; 9.00x20 twin rear and7.50X20 single front tyres; power-assisted steering (optional extra); pneumatic front and air/hydraulic rear brakes; 25-galfuel tank; 24 V batteries for lighting (which includes two swivelling flood-lamps to illuminate the tow); and crew-seats for four inaddition to the driver. First-class seats fitted to Aerolineas Argentinas' Comet 4s were designed by de Havilland and built by Lancefield Aircraft Com- ponents, Ltd. The double seat shown weighs only 60 Ib (623/4 Ib with foot-rest)
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