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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0047.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 January 1961 A GREAT DAY FOR THE IRISH Boeing 720s on the North Atlantic 45 Essential preliminary to Ireland's great day on December 14—the jet inaugural from Dublin to Mew York. Among the passengers were Irish Government officials and eleven lord mayors, mayors and lady mayoresses. Most of the British cities served by Aer Lingus were represented NOT without controversy, the transatlantic "Shamrock Jet"services of Aer Lingus-Irish International Airlines beganon December 14. No one in contact with Aer Lingus this Christmastide could doubt that for the airline and for Ireland thisfirst jet service is a considerable adventure, and that the first day of scheduled jet services was a great day for Ireland. But likemost adventures, it has its risks and its challenges. In the first place, Aer Lingus chose for their service the smallestof all the Boeing family—the basically medium-haul 720. And although additional wing bays were adapted to increase the totalfuel capacity from 9,855 to 11,300 Imp gal (707-420 capacity by contrast is nearly 20,000 Imp gal) this Boeing, so the argumentruns, is not an aeroplane with which the Atlantic can be flown non-stop all the year round, even from Shannon. On the other hand, the 720 is the smallest-capacity Boeing bya margin probably sufficient to enable the frequency of services out of Dublin to be increased beyond those possible with a 707,a characteristic which should show to advantage in July and September when these aircraft are used three times daily on theroute to London. The 720 is also appreciably faster than others of the family. Nowhere was this better demonstrated than in theearly days of last month, when the Irish International 720-048 Padraig on delivery from New York to Shannon completed aGander - Shannon route familiarization flight in 3hr 9min—a transatlantic record. But winds of an average 85kt—a lesser order than those thatmade this eastbound time possible—caused the inaugural west- bound flight on December 6 to put into Gander, a disappointingdeviation for passengers who had hoped to make the journey * ** ISH "Flight" photograph from Dublin with only the routine stop at Shannon. Since averageheadwinds of this order are by no means uncommon on the North Atlantic during the winter months, when loads are high occasionalrefuelling stops in Newfoundland are presumably to be expected. On the inaugural flight in which we recently participated, take-off weight for the Shannon - New York (eventually Shannon - Gander) sector was on the maximum 220,0001b, of which 90,0001bwas fuel. At high-speed cruise this disappears at a steady rate of about 12,0001b/hr. Take-off performance is not particularlyimpressive at this weight—the JT3s have no water injection—and the run from standstill to lift-off took 48sec and covered 7,000ft.On the Great Circle route to Gander we cruised at 35,000ft at maximum cruise thrust until the Machmeter crept slowly up past0.8 to 0.87—faster than most of those on board had ever travelled before. The air was smooth, but the 720 never completely shedits tendency to roll—left and right it dipped its wing-tips through two or three degrees, twelve times or so a minute. A Boeingengineer explained later that the problem is not aerodynamic, but apparently hydromechanical, a function of power-boosting therudder when the tall-fin modifications were introduced. For full-power boost, servo valves of much higher quality are neededthan were required when only a yaw damper was fitted, and it must be that manufacture of the valve—or perhaps filtering of thefluid—on this particular aircraft was insufficiently accurate to prevent the rudder hunting. Other Boeings are rock-steady, butDutch roll still makes an arbitrary reappearance on some of these aircraft. To passengers, lulled perhaps by one of the most pleasantinteriors yet to be seen in a Boeing, the roll is scarcely (and only visually) apparent. While the AerLingus 720 decor is not dissimilar to that of other 707 interiors, WalterDorman Teague, the US colour con- sultants, have varied the seat colourevery three rows from green to gold, and the walls are decorated with amottled pattern "representative of an Irish stone wall." Another nationaltouch appears in the partition between the first- and economy-class compart-ments, where "six square yards of Carrickmacross lace have been lamin-ated in the plastic panels." Forward of this,and dividing the first-class "GoldenShamrock" compartment from the lounge, is a mural map of Ireland.First-class passengers are also dis- creetly reminded that an accompani-ment to their meals is Irish glass and linen and that Irish food and drinkfigure on the menu. A characteristic of the Aer Lingus Taken the moment before the door closed on the full load of passengers and crew on the inaugural flight, this photograph shows part of the large crowd of Dubliners who came to cheer the first Aer Lingus 720 "Padraig" (St Patrick) on its way "Flight" photograph
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