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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1272.PDF
1 May 1959 421 NEW AIRWORK-SUDANESE ENTERPRISE PLANS were announced last week by Saved Abdel BagiMohammed, general manager of Sudan Airways, for a scheduled service between London (Gatwick) and Khartoum to beoperated with Viscount 831s maintained and crewed by Airwork. To be called the Blue Nile Viscount, the new service is scheduledto start on June 8 and will operate via Rome, Athens and Cairo to Khartoum at an initial once-weekly frequency departing Gat-wick on Mondays. It will arrive in Khartoum on Tuesdays after a total elapsed time of 16 hr 50 min, and the aircraft will thenoperate two scheduled flights between Khartoum and Cairo before departing again for London on Thursdays. Accommodation isfor 53 tourist and eight first-class passengers, and traffic rights have been secured between all intermediate points on the route. Sudan Airways was formed in 1946 with the assistance of Air-work, who have been connected with it ever since. With its fleet of Dakotas and Doves it operates a network of internal services withinthe Sudan as well as to Aden, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Ethiopia. During 1958 it carried 33,834 passengers and 631,376 kg of freight.Application has been made for membership of I.A.T.A., and con- firmation is expected. The Sudan is already a member of I.C.A.O. Sudan Airways own one Viscount 831, which,was built to thesame specification as the two bought by Airwork. AUSTRALIAN WORKING HOURS JUST how difficult it is to achieve the standard brochure utiliza-tion figure of 3,000 hr per year can be judged from the Australian Department of Civil Aviation's airline utilization figuresfor the twelve months ended September 30 last year. Equally, the statistics show just what can be achieved by operators who, justi-fiably, have a reputation for working their equipment very hard. Only two Australian carriers managed to work any of their fleetsfor more than 3,000 hr in the year 1957-1958 and of these Qantas only just qualifies within this arbitrary limit. The average utiliza-tion for the airline's Constellation 1049s was 3,008 hr for its 16 aircraft and the mean average block speed was 249 m.p.h. In comparison, Ansett-A.N.A.'s two DC-6s achieved 3,266 hreach and the airline's four DC-6Bs flew an average of 4,095 hr over the same period—by far the highest utilization achieved by anyAustralian operator. These aircraft, which operated at an average block speed of 233 m.p.h., were also the most productive inAustralian airline business. T.A.A.'s Viscounts achieved a slightly higher average block speed (236 m.p.h.) but utilization over theperiod under review (2,471 hr) was lower. No DC-3 operator achieved more than Mac.Robertson-Miller's2,883 hr average with five aircraft, but Butler's 2,656 hr average from three aircraft and East-West's 2,514 hr came fairly close. COMETS ON TIME CTATISTICS compiled by B.O.A.C. over the first six months of^ Comet 4 operations show an unusual freedom from engine, air- itame and system snags. In particular, the previous most commoncauses of delay—electrical, hydraulic, fuel system and pressuriza- tion failures—have been few, while unscheduled engine changeshave been limited to three—two through ingestion of foreign bodies and one related to starter troubles. Arrivals on schedule at terminal stations have been achieved ononly 92 out of 309 occasions, but 71 per cent of all services arrived within an hour of the scheduled time, 95 per cent within six hoursand 97 per cent within 12 hours. B.O.A.C. comment that these figures are appreciably better than those experienced with someother aircraft types. Weather (particularly fog) accounted for three times as many delays as engineering troubles and most "conse-quential" delays were the result of earlier weather problems. Engineering hold-ups occurred at the rate of 3.74 hr per 100 hours'scheduled elapsed time against total delays by the same punctuality Haying completed its tour of Western Canada and the U.S.A. (including demonstrations to Mohawk and Allegheny Airlines), this Canadair Convair 540 (Napier Elands) is now touring South America. Ports of call: Barranquilla, Cali, Guayaquil, Lima, Antofagasta, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Asuncion, Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador, Recife, Bel em, Georgetown, Caracas and Montego Bay, returning to Montreal via Miami and Washington. Another 540 will tour Europe (including demonstrations at Paris) next month yardstick of 19.07 per 100. Engineering delays numbered 50, twoof which kept the aircraft on the ground for more than an addi- tional 12 hours, but 19 were for under an hour. The mostnumerous of the remaining delays were due to radio (11) and the greatest loss of time (26? hr) was due to "ground and miscellaneousequipment" troubles. As many hours were lost from operational and consequential reasons as from all the engineering delays puttogether. HEIGHT PRESENTATION—A DOCTOR'S VIEW TPHE Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators has issued a collec-•*- tion of extracts from lectures read by Dr. K. G. Bergin (now Director of Personnel and Medical Services of B.O.A.C.) to theRoyal Aeronautical Society between 1951 and 1957. Much of what was said shows remarkable foresight, and in view of its bear-ing on current design problems of altimeters some of the extracts are further synthesized below: — (1) Preconceived ideas should be thrown away; they are out-moded to the point of being dangerous in modern flying. (2) Present instruments have been designed primarily by engineers andinstrument makers without sufficient attention being given to the pilots, physiologists and doctors. (3) The necessity for a first,second and third glance at an altimeter to make sure is basically wrong from a safety angle. (4) Instruments are wrongly presentedbecause: (a) the distance from the eyes requires the figures to be focused before they can be read; (b) they are not in a positionwhere they can easily be seen; (c) there is invariably some parallax; (d) the figures are not large enough. (5) No emergency is as greatas that as being too near the ground, so the altimeter should at some point visually or audibly demand the pilot's attention. (6) Itdoes not need a lot of medical or psychological training to know that if a false impression of height is gained by a member of thecrew, it can too easily be accepted by the others, particularly when a degree of fatigue is present, or in bad weather. (7) This accept-ance does not imply blaming the pilot for being careless, it is merely recognition of a well-known physiological and psycho-logical fact. Among Dr. Bergin's remedial proposals were: (1) Firstly, ageneral presentation of height should be given, with no attempt at detail. (2) This should be in broad columns of colour varying (Left) Installed experimentally on two of B.E.A.'s Hi-D Viscount 700s is the "Airscalator," manufactured by Strabor Ltd., of Gravesend. It weighs 189 Ib with power gear and jacks and is stressed to support one passenger on each tread. The Corporation are also experimenting with the Vickers' airstep installation. (Right) Airborne—from Brooklands—for the first time on April 22 was the second Vickers Vanguard G-APEA—the first tor B.E.A.
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