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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0091.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 January 1960 91 AIR COMMERCE ....,.• COMET GO HOME THE first training flight into Warsaw by a BEA Comet 4B wasmade on January 6, previous training and proving flights "having been refused by the Polish Civil Air Authorities. Accom-panying the flight—which included a Comet demonstration at Okecie Airport—was Anthony Milward, chief executive of BEA,who travelled to Warsaw for discussions with Jan Krzywicki of LOT and Jan Rustecki, a vice-minister of transport, about open-ing the prospective Comet service to Warsaw in April. Later Mr Milward said that this was "now very unlikely" but that BEA"would have another shot." He went on to explain that it was for "commercial reasons" that the Comet had been refused. "I thinkthe Poles would agree to our using Warsaw as a transit stage for Comets on the London - Warsaw service, but this is unacceptableto us. It now becomes a matter for our two governments, probably to be raised when a new joint agreement is negotiated." On behalf of LOT it was said that while operating Convairs onits western routes and U-14s in eastern Europe the airline could not afford jet competition until it had more modern aircraft; therehad been Polish hopes of buying Viscounts, but these had received a severe setback last month when the British quota for exportedPolish bacon was unexpectedly reduced. This had robbed Poland of the possibility of increasing sterling earnings and given rise tosecond thoughts about purchases from Great Britain requiring capital investment. A LOT spokesman said that he thought there would be noobjection to the operation of BEA Comets into Okecie if the airline were in a position to buy British airliners; in fact their onlyalternative was the Tu-104 which, he said, was less well adapted to Polish needs and expensive to operate. ELECTRA ACCIDENT REPORT 'T'HE CAB report on the accident to the Electra of American•* Airlines which crashed in the East River on February 3 last year while approaching to land at La Guardia Airport attributesthe probable cause to crew error. A contributory factor was the crew's limited experience with the type, which had been in servicewith the airline only 12 days. Preoccupation of the crew with "particular aspects of the air-craft and its environment to the neglect of essential flight instru- ment references for attitude and height above the approachsurface" resulted in a premature descent below landing minima. The report adds that the accident could have been averted "hadthe first officer followed prescribed operating procedures and been fully alert ... to all his cockpit duties." WHERE STEAM AEROPLANES GO TN the throes of re-equipment planning are the two Middle East* air freighting independents, Trans Mediterranean Airways and Trans Arabia Airways. The former, founded in 1953 by AbuHidar, is virtually an all-freight line and until the autumn of 1959 hadpractically no competition in the area. However, in September theKuwaiti Trans Arabia Airways began operating scheduled servicesout of Beirut to Kuwait with a single pC-4. Their mixed passenger/freight service immediately caught on and within a few weeks a secondIJC-4, on charter from Starways, was pressed into use. Operatinglicences into various points in the rersian Gulf and neighbouring Arab Operating from Beirut with British crews is this British-registered DC-4 of Trans Arabian Airways, here being re- fuelled at Kuwait. News of the airline's actmties is contained in the news-item immediately above Depicted here is the first of Middle East Airlines' Viscount fleet to be equipped with Ekco E760 weather radar. The work was carried out at the airline's base at Beirut states have been granted and will come into force when thecompany's re-equipment plans are settled. Trans Mediterranean began the replacement of its Yorks bythe purchase of two DC-4s. Since then they have been operating throughout the company's network in the Middle East and Europethough their Yorks are still to be seen at London on all-freight service. They shortly expect to add a DC-6 to their fleet. BEYOND LIMITS PEDERAL AVIATION AGENCY concern about pilots exceed-•*• ing jet design-speed limits is expressed in a recent statement to its regional administrators. Checks on data gathered from theflight recorders mandatory in US jets has given rise to concern that safe speeds are being exceeded "in a large percentage of flightswith a frequency which is alarming because of the hazardous implications involved in exceeding design loads." Two particular limits are involved: the VNO (maximum normaloperating speed) and VNE (the ultimate never-exceed speed). In jets operating at high Mach numbers, VNO and VNE speeds areoften close enough together for some concentration to be required from the pilot to see that they are not exceeded, particularly inthe danger cases mentioned by the FAA of descending with power on and in gusty conditions. Ward Asden, chief of the FAAoperations division, who issued the statement, suggested that one reason for the high incidence of flights beyond placard speeds wasbecause pilots flying turboprops and pure jets may have been lulled to a sense of false security by the ruggedness and dependability ofolder aircraft. FAA inspectors will be undertaking checks on speed control practices on the routes but, the Agency says, theanswer to this problem really lies in improving pilot training. USED AIRCRAFT ON THE BALTIC YX^IDELY used for arranging aircraft charters, the facilities of* * the Baltic Exchange in the city of London have been extended since January 1 to include the sale and purchase of commercialaircraft. As business through the Exchange is built up, complete information will become available to buyers and sellers of aircrafton the sale and purchase market, both on the increasing number of ex-first-line types now being offered for sale and on executiveaircraft. W. S. Shackleton have recently declared their intention of appointing a representative to the Exchange. At present something like SO per cent of the transport aircraftsold are sold by one airline direct to another. More recently aircraft brokers in America have been taking over from the airlinesthe complex business of re-sale and lease of used aircraft; negotia- tions through the Baltic Exchange for the sale as well as thechartering of aircraft should bring business to Great Britain. NEW YORK'S NEW AIRPORT """THERE has been much controversy about the site for a new*• airport for New York since the first proposals were made known. No official information has yet been issued but twolikely sites are under consideration: one in Morris County, New Jersey, and another in Burlington County, about 65 miles southof Manhattan. The latter community is said to be very much in favour of becoming the home for the new airport but the Port ofNew York Authority is said to favour strongly the Morris County site, whose community is equally strongly opposed to an airport'sconstruction. No official Port of New York Authority statement has yet beenissued and the position is to be reviewed at a meeting between Elwood R. Queseda, NYA director, and the New Jersey Con-gressional Delegation.
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