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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1373.PDF
662 The 54-seat tourist cabin and (see account below) the six-man flight deck AIR COMMERCE . . . TU-104A PASSENGER'S NOTEBOOK "Flight" photograph ON Thursday of last week Flight was among the party ofjournalists invited by Aeroflot to sample Tu-104A travel. A 45 min flight from London Airport at ll,OOOft and a leisurely300 kt over eastern England is not sufficient to qualify our staff- member as an expert in Tu-104 travel; but some selections fromhis notebook are worth recording: — Well sprung, smooth taxying, sparing use of wheel brakes,excellent nosewheel steering manceuvrability. Take-off in 35 sec from 10R/28L, releasing brakes against full power, unstickingafter about 6200ft at intersection with 05R/23L. Fair climb gradient: about 400ft over B.E.A.'s base. Wheels up in 20 sec.Much publicized drabness of cabin furnishing fully endorsed— ludicrously out of keeping with the lines and finish of the aircraft—imitation wood fittings, gold-anodized aluminium "brass" racking with nets, etc. A Russian Charles Butler could save a ton weight.Spacious hotel-room-like washrooms and lavatories (self-flushing). Three pleasant English-speaking stewardesses serving sweetwhite Georgian wine, plus caviare and Tu-104 lapel badges. Their galley amidships also spacious—the envy of Western stewardesses?All that wasted space and yet seating for 70 passengers—16 four- abreast in wide de luxe seats forward, 50 five-abreast aft, plusfour. Emergency passenger oxygen very obtrusively and untidily installed—rubber pipes all over one's lap. Climbed to 1,500 m (by the cabin altimeter) in 4 min. Flightcrew of three pilots (under Chief Pilot Peter Soldatov, 12,000 hr, in right-hand seat), navigator, engineer and radio officer. Capt. Stanley Jones of B.E.A. also on the flight deck doing the R/T.Fascinating flap-action: four screwjacks, turning at about 100 r.p.m., plainly visible from our seat in the cabin untilfull flap extension. Capt. Soldatov later gave touch-down speed as 240 km (130 kt). Certainly seemed fast, though not hot, withquite hard braking causing expensive-sounding noises in the mid- ships galley. Taxied in past Decca's Valetta 1 demonstrator, G-APKR,in which Col. Baskirov, leading the Aeroflot party, flew earlier. Significant? The cockpit (see above) showed relatively little change fromthat illustrated in Flight for November 16, 1956. But of particular note were the rearrangement of the fuel- or engine-control panelsin the roof and addition of a sliding switch-panel in the ceiling. Flight-director and coloured-globe artificial horizons are carriedand the old gyro D.I. is replaced by apparently triplicated gyro- magnetic compasses. Extensive double-layered windscreen panels,electric heating in some panes and generous demisting-air ducts, plus several rubber-bladed fans, are noteworthy. The stick-topautopilot controller is absent. Extensive blinds and visors are fitted, together with many fixed and adjustable lamps. Variousfactors indicate use of a military radar for speed and drift- reckoning, and for mapping. The scope is at 3 o'clock in thenose blister. Old-model selector boxes suggest that only eight or twelve V.H.F. channels are immediately available. There areno signs of an area-coverage, pictorial presentation type navaid. THE HERALD'S MOUNTAIN ECHOES ""VTAGALAND is a largely mountainous country straddled with*-~ ranges whose peaks climb to 10,000ft; lush jungle stifles the lower valleys. Where most dropping zones are located, the slopesafford barely wing-tip clearance. Once over the ring of hills girthing the area the search for the D.Z. begins; an operation necessitatingcontinuous low flying. Lesser offshoots of the main range jut out awkwardly in the limited path of flight, forcing the pilot to takerapid evasive action. With the controls sluggish at reduced speed, the drop is executed with no small difficulty. In quest of thedropping zone, the aircraft descends to 150ft. There is little room for pilot error. Acute claustrophobia, aggravated bv a cloud-basefrequently no more than 200ft, harries the crew. When the D.Z. is picked out, free-dropped and parachute-lashed packages arepushed out, the aircraft banked steeply for the turn-about and return-run over the target area. Rid of its burden, the Dakotais put into a steep climb to clear the mountain barrier at the end of the valley." This quotation, from a forthcoming article on the Indian AirForce by a member of Flight's staff,* gives an indication of the type of operation that may sometimes be required of a DC-3replacement. The Handley Page Dart Herald G-AODF was recently initiated into D.Z. operations on India's NorthwestFrontier during its 18,000-mile tour of India and the Middle East. Here is a report on the operation from Handley Page.In command was S/L. H. G. Hazelden accompanied by Capt. Dennis Warren of B.E.A. and I.A.F. and Indian Airlines personnel."Frontier flying began on April 18 with the Dart Herald's flight from Delhi to Srinagar. It was Capt. Balbir Singh who sat in the right-handseat all the way through on the trip over a 9,000ft saddle of mountains into Srinagar. He knew the country like the back of his hand and wasable to dodge round the mountains with confidence. *The first instalment will appear on May 29. "On the morning of April 19 the Dart Herald was flown fromSrinagar about 200 miles across the Himalayas to Leh, in a valley in the upper reaches of the Indus. The altitude chosen was 20,000ft—barelybringing the aircraft on a level with many of the peaks. "Leh's airstrip, 10,500ft above sea level, runs steeply downwards(at the rate of lft in every 9ft) and terminates in a 500ft hill surmounted by a monastery. At the approach end is the mountainside."You fly downwind and can see the runway, but you then have to fly round a hill which is a good 1,500ft above the touchdown point. Hereyou fly between two hills with no more than a couple of hundred yards to clear through, turn round the larger hill on to the final turn for therun-in and once round you see the aerodrome again and make your approach. Practically throttled back, you find you are losing height atthe same rate as the ground slopes. The surface is simply loose sand. It certainly wouldn't do for London Airport. "With a weight of around 31,000 1b, an engine-cut take-off wasperformed from this strip. It was thought to be the only one ever recorded there. On the return the Dart Herald was flown betweenpeaks on one engine to determine single-engine ceiling. "On the following day the aircraft flew from Srinagar to Kargill, anairfield at 9,600ft in a 'cup' between the mountains. After some tost flying it set another tight course between the peaks, overflying Srinagarand landing at Poonch close to the Pakistan border. Poonch has only 600 yards of runway, surfaced with large stones. Here again it wasnecessary to approach round hills (including the 4,000ft one which is 1,000 yards from the end of the runway) and out of sight of the shortairstrip. Rajouri, an 800-yard runway at about 3,500ft, was also visited that day and presented yet another out-of-sight approach. "On April 25, after revisiting Delhi and Calcutta, the Dart Heraldcontinued its demonstration, which is likened to a shortened version of Boscombe Down trials, by showing its capabilities as a supply-droppingaircraft at Jorhat in north-eastern India. Free and parachute drops on the airfield there having proved successful, G-AODF was flown to anumber of dropping zones in the mountains; there an aircraft's handling qualities are of the utmost importance. "One of the D.Z.s proved to be a backyard attached to a little ring ofhuts perched right on top of a hill ... a little pimple stuck up in the S
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