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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0275.PDF
[LIGHT, 3 March 1961 279 Introducing the Vanguard By Captain A. S. JOHNSON DSO, MVO, DFM Flight Manager, Vanguard Flight, BEA "Flight" photograph THIS story really began on April 9, 1953, when Mr PeterMasefield, then chief executive of BEA, met Mr G. R. (nowSir George) Edwards, at that time aircraft chief designer ofVickers-Armstrongs, to discuss the outlines of the shape and size of the successor to the Viscount. It is significant that even at thattime—just nine days before the Viscount was due to enter scheduled service—there was an appreciation that a much largerand faster aircraft would be required to meet the rapidly increasing traffic. As a result of this meeting a working party was set up in eachorganization to study the overall requirements and produce an agreed specification. Within BEA the group came under theauspices of the chief engineer and was led by the chief project and development engineer, Mr Bob Morgan. It consisted ofmembers from each of the departments, which in turn had their own sub-committees working on their own individual require-ments for the new aeroplane. A similar group was also at work within Vickers, examining andaccepting or rejecting proposals as they were made. The amount of energy and purpose given to the project might best be indicatedby the fact that over sixty separate designs were studied before the final shape was arrived at.Because of the popular passenger appeal of the Elizabethan, BEA had always favoured a high-wing project, and for a long periodthe design of the Vanguard (or as it was known then, the 951) was centred around this configuration; but about this time Trans-Canada Air Lines became interested and, because of certain problems in connection with their own operations, were verymuch against a high wing. This consideration, coupled with con- structional problems, eliminated the design in favour of thedouble-bubble, mid-wing aircraft as exemplified by the Vanguard of today. All this preliminary work in selecting the configuration of theaircraft took two whole years, and it has been estimated that on Vickers' side alone over 600,000 man-hours were spent in design investigation, while in BEA countless hours were occupied atmeetings in discussing the requirements of the project. By now it was April of 1955 and the real task of building theaircraft began. A full-size wooden mock-up had to be made, jigs designed, materials ordered and sub-contracts established; and itmust be remembered that all this activity had to be taken in stride with the tremendous production programme that was in fullswing on the Viscount series. Whilst all this work was going on at Vickers, Rolls-Royce hadtheir own problems in producing the engine—known initially as the RB.109, and later named the Tyne—that was to power the newaircraft. Apart from actually producing the engine, one of their biggest headaches was to find a suitable vehicle in which theengine could be mounted to carry out the vital development flying before installing it in the Vanguard. Eventually it was decidedto purchase the prototype Ambassador and a surplus BEA Elizabethan and to use these aircraft for engine development. Inaddition, for its first few hours' flying the engine was mounted as a fifth powerplant in a Lincoln operated by Rolls-Royce fromHucknall. It had been agreed that BEA's contribution towards the develop-ment of the Vanguard would be to supply the crews required to operate the intensive engine programme which the Elizabethanwas to undergo; so I was highly delighted when my boss, Captain Baillie, general manager (flight) of BEA, asked me to undertakethe operational responsibilities for this programme. During the next few months many hours were spent with Cliff Rogers atHucknall discussing the alterations necessary to convert the Elizabethan to a two-crew turboprop aeroplane.We started flying at Hucknall at the beginning of March 1959, and after a short period of familiarization training moved the centreof operations to Malta in the fond belief that we would have much better weather there than at Hucknall. We stayed at Malta forapproximately six weeks and for most of this time it was either blowing a full gale or enormous thunderstorms were passing overthe island. On returning to Hucknall we scheduled an eighteen-hour-dayprogramme, until by the beginning of October we had completed 1,600 hours' development flying on the engines. When one thinksof the normal utilization of a fleet, it is remarkable what can be done when special attention is paid to one particular aircraft. Ourmean achievement over the whole of the last 1,500 hours eventually worked out at just over fourteen hours a day, and this was accom-plished by five crews working in three shifts of six hours, each six hours being divided into two flights of three hours. The threehours were broken down into a flight entailing a climb to 25,000ft, cruise for 50min, descent into a holding pattern at 6,000ft forten minutes and then climbing up to 25,000ft, repeating the per- formance and then landing at the end of the three-hour detailto refuel, this cycle representing an average BEA flight. G-APEA, the second Vanguard off the lins and the first for BEA, taking off from Weybridge on its first flight, April 22, 1959
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