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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0670.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 March 1959 AIR COMMERCE ."j-'t--"/^ i\. -^/r ^.'.^p CORPORATIONS AND THE DIFFERENTIAL LAST week B.O.A.C. said that they "welcomed" the I.A.T.A.-> jet surcharge agreement (page 332). As B.O.A.C. have been unwaveringly anti-surcharge, the welcome was presumablyextended to the agreement as such rather than to the object of the agreement. In fact, however, the Corporation may profitfrom the surcharge: transatlantic Comet 4 services—which are all first-class and de luxe—should easily be able to bear the extra£7-odd without adverse affect on load factor, though this situa- tion will only hold good while B.O.A.C.'s transatlantic jet seatsare in short supply. On B.CA.C.'s major Comet 4 routes (eastern and southern) no surcharge will of course be applied. B.E.A., being pro-differential, must also have welcomed theacceptance—albeit not yet on European routes—of the principle which was advocated in their last annual report. It remains tobe seen how B.E.A.'s share of the traffic will be affected by S.A.S. and Air France Caravelles as from May 15. B.E.A.'s greatestconcern at the I.A.T.A. conference was to get agreement on cut- rate inclusive tours (Flight, Nov. 7 and 21). In this they succeeded,and their summer business—which they have been booking regardless—will benefit considerably as a result. ALTIMETER ACCIDENT— « MISREADING of an altimeter was the cause of the B.O.A.C.Britannia accident in fog at Winkton, near Bournemouth, on Christmas Eve. This was the view of the coroner, Mr. D. H. B.Harfield, in summing-up at the resumed inquest last week on the nine occupants who lost their lives. The aircraft was on a test flight from London Airport with 12people—crew-members and technicians—on board. The nine killed included the captain (Capt. John Jackson) but the firstofficer, Mr. Keith Myers, survived. During the cross-examination the latter said that he did notthink that either he or the captain had misread their altimeters. After the first part of the test was completed they received per-mission to descend from their height of 13,OOOft over Hurn to 3,000ft to start another test; below was what they thought wascloud and haze, but was in fact the ground and fog. The two altimeters were not compared when the descent was started; andthe cross-check which was to be made at 10,000ft never took place because "by that time we were in a field at Winkton." Asked by the coroner "Would I be right in assuming diat whenyou found you were to all intents and purposes on the ground, and you thought you were at 3,000ft, you must have misread thealtimeter?" F/O. Myers said that neither he nor the captain had thought they were at 3,000ft at all; they thought they were at10,000ft; neither, he insisted, had misread his altimeter. An M.T.C.A. investigating officer, Mr. David Cuthbertson,gave evidence that the captain's altimeter was found on investiga- tion to be in working order. —AND ALTIMETER POLICY AS we noted last week, September 30 is the M.T.C.A.'s deadline** for replacement of existing three-pointer altimeters in all British civil aircraft which operate above 20,000ft. (A picture onp. 301 last week illustrated the new presentation.) In the Commons on February 26 the Minister announced theappointment of an M.T.C.A. committee—on which all interests will be represented—to investigate the whole altimeter-interpretation problem. Meanwhile, a Flight Safety Warning is being issued about therisk of mis-reading three-pointer instruments—which (says the Ministry) is "most likely when the routine monitoring of theinstrument panel has been interrupted. If this happens during climb or descent the height when the instruments are rescannedmay be very different from that anticipated." 333 This dish and tankard with attractively (and accurately) drawn illus- trations of B.O.A.C. airliners are from a new series available in the shops or from the makers, Wade Heath & Co. Ltd., Burslem, Stoke-on- Trent. The range includes the Britannia, Comet 4, 707, and DC-7C. Leading particulars of each type are also given 707 TRAINING INCIDENT A PAN AMERICAN Boeing 707, on a training flight from**• Paris Orly on February 25, shed its starboard outer engine pod and pylon during a demonstration of simulated engine failure.The incident occurred at a height of about 8,000ft and the pod fell into a field south-east of Cherbourg. On board were four PanAmpilots and a F.A.A. safety adviser. An instructor, Capt. John Ryan, was demonstrating the effecton the aircraft of an engine cut at full (wet) take-off power— simulated by closing down both engines on one side from cruisepower—and minimum control speed in this condition. This speed is governed by aircraft weight, and was about 115-120 ktin the case of the aircraft in question; the 707 took oif at about 200,000 1b and probably weighed 180,000 lb at the time of theincident. The speed was apparently allowed to drop below the minimum at which lateral control (within a limit of 5 deg bank ineither direction) could be maintained. The aircraft sharply dropped its starboard wing, starting a spin to the right underasymmetric power, and the starboard outer engine flew off out- wards, carrying with it the pod and the mounting pylon. The engine instruments, apparently, gave the first indicationto the crew that an untoward incident had occurred; it was not immediately obvious that an entire pod was missing. The spinwas corrected without difficulty after a loss of height of 3,000ft, and the aircraft was flown to London Airport (where PanAmhave better maintenance facilities than at Paris) on the port engines. Subsequently the aircraft was inspected by a team of engineersfrom Renton, and by F.A.A. and C.A.B. representatives. The aircraft is repairable, and the work will be undertaken atLondon Airport. The damage is said by Boeing engineers to con- form closely to the results of the static test to destruction of apod under side-load; although the pylon incorporates "struc- tural fuses" designed to fracture in a belly landing, these aredesigned to shear under drag loads and did not fail. Apart from local breakages at the pylon attachment (the pods are slung fromheavy ribs located diagonally to the inter-spar ribs and from a forging on the front spar) and to the lower skin, the wing isundamaged. Fuel was lost from the starboard wing because the cables to the fuel cut-off valve were strained. It is not yet known whether any major modification will resultfrom this incident; PanAm's Boeing 707s are continuing normal operations. A full stall under asymmetric power has previouslybeen considered by Boeing to be such an unlikely flight condition that it has apparently not been investigated during test flying. The Boeing 707 was again in the news last week when byaccident one aircraft was found at New York to be mildly radio- active. The level was "less than one" on the Roentgen scale. The aircraft involved was the one which near Gander haddived from 35,000ft to 6,000ft following autopilot malfunctioning. The exact sequence of events during the latter incident is still notdefinitely known, but it seems to have been established that the autopilot tripped-out when it was holding (possibly on the heightlock) an out-of-trim condition. A new DC-3 competitor between Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands is this Rodriguez hydrofoil. Built in Italy (where similar craft have operated to Sicily since 1956), it is owned by Calderone Enterprises. Studies by Viemeister Associates, of Lindenhurst, New York, suggest that a developed 40-seat boat operated on such a route at 2,000 hr per annum, compared with a DC-3 at 7,500 hr, could break even at a fare 26 per cent below the air fare
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