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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1081.PDF
FLIGHT, 10 1961 183 Two Rolls-Royce Spey 505-14 by-pass turbojets power the One-Eleven, each developing 10,4001b static thrust twin-jet airliners. One group of potential customers accepted the107 virtually as it stood and placed maximum emphasis on simpli- city and low capital cost. The other group liked the concept of theaircraft but required improvements in performance, payload and equipment which would not have been possible within the time-scale offered with BS.75 engines. This latter group of airlines placed greater emphasis than the first group on early delivery and togetherrepresented potential orders for a larger number of aircraft. The possibility was therefore explored of using two more power-ful Rolls-Royce Spey engines, as already adopted for the de Havilland Trident, due to fly towards the end of this year. In March 1961 the twin-Spey version was designated BAC One-Eleven and a technical meeting was held at Weybridge at which agreement was reached on over 50 basic points to be embodied inthe design. In mid-March, following a British Aircraft Corporation board meeting, Sir George Edwards set up an organization tospread throughout BAC the overall task of designing, developing, building and selling the twin-jet design powered initially with Speyengines, and the version with BS.75 engines approximately one year later. The board's decision to proceed with these projects and to beginimmediate production of an initial batch of 20 aircraft was stated at a sales conference at Weybridge in mid-April attended by over 60members of the Bristol, Hunting and Vickers organizations. This decision had been made known to the Government in the previousmonth. The sales campaign was made public at a press conference inLondon on May 9, when the first order was simultaneously announced. This was placed by British United Airways and was forten One-Elevens, with an option on a further five. As Sir George Edwards said on this occasion: "This ordermeans that we can now say to customers 'There you are: it is on the go. It is not just one of those things that we will build if you will buyit: " British United, though the first to place an order (and the firstBritish independent ever to be the initial purchaser of a new British aircraft) are not the One-Eleven's sponsors in the same way thatBEA were sponsors of the Viking, Viscount and Vanguard, or BOAC of the VC10. But British United's order is as firm as itcould reasonably be at this stage. The precise situation was summed up by British United at a recent Air Transport Licensing Board hearing: "BUA has told BAC they are to regard the orderas placed. The lawyers have not yet got the contract out; the contract has not yet been signed, but commercially the order hasbeen placed, and BUA would not feel able to go back on it. ... They have, in the same way, told Vickers they are placing an orderfor four VClOs and there again the contract has not yet been executed, and when it has been it will contain an escape clause.There will be no escape clause with the BAC One-Eleven." Interest in the One-Eleven has been declared publicly by Continental,Ozark and Frontier (the latter two local service airlines have announced letters of intent for a total of 11 aircraft). Development and Production Programme First flight of the BAC One-Eleven is scheduled for the secondquarter of 1963 and target date for airworthiness certification is mid-1964, with deliveries to BUA starting in September 1964.The project is the first to be tackled by the British Aircraft Corpora- tion as a unified company. The division of responsibility is worthsetting out, because it provides remarkable evidence of the meaning that the aircraft division of the British Aircraft Corporation underthe direction of Sir George Edwards has given to the word "inte- gration." Overall responsibility is carried by Sir George Edwards. Respon-sible to him for the overall programme is Mr A. W. E. Houghton, assistant managing director of Vicker-Armstrongs (Aircraft).In charge of all aspects of development is Mr Arthur Summers, managing director of Hunting Aircraft. Mr B. Stephenson, direc-tor of engineering for Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), has techni- cal responsibility for the project and for obtaining the DesignClearance Certificate. The technical director of Hunting Aircraft, Mr F. Pollicutt, is responsible for technical control and co-ordina-tion of design. Responsible to Mr Pollicutt for the integration of airline requirements in the design is Mr A. J. K. Carline, chiefdesigner, Hunting Aircraft. Among Vickers people working with Mr Pollicutt and Mr Carline on design and development are MrE. W. J. Gray, chief designer (Hum), Mr H. Zeffert, chief electrical engineer, and Mr D. Parker, assistant chief engineer, who willconcentrate on systems. Mr K. S. Lawson, Vickers' chief aero- dynamicist, is working with Mr H. Vogel, his counterpart in Here, drawn to exactly the same scale, are the Viscount 810 and its jet successor with the same brand label
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