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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1416.PDF
520 FLIGHT, 28 September 1961 AIR COMMERCE... THE UN TRAGEDY SO commonplace nowadays is the use of air transport by states-men and leading world figures that the tragic death of Mr DagHammarskjold, United Nations Secretary-General, came as a partic- ular shock. He was flying to Ndola to meet the president of Katangaon September 18, in a DC-6B chartered by the UN from Transair Sweden AB. Of the 16 people on board, including a Transaircrew of five, only one (an American security guard) survived. The aircraft left Leopoldville on the afternoon of September 17 forNdola, and last contact was made with the Ndola control tower at midnight. Although the aircraft should have arrived two-and-ahalf hours earlier, the delay was probably due to a detour as a precaution against air attack. According to the sole survivor, MrHammarskjold changed his mind and decided not to land at Ndola, but gave instructions to the pilot to alter course for anotherdestination. Suggestions that the aircraft was shot down were discounted byofficials in Ndola. A Swedish Aviation Board team is conducting an investigation into the crash, and investigations have opened atLeopoldville into repairs carried out on September 17, after the aircraft returned from Elisabethville damaged by anti-aircraft fire. HOVERCRAFT ITS THE AIR A SECOND company has applied to the Air Transport LicensingBoard for a licence to operate hovercraft services. Thecompany is P. & A. Campbell Ltd, the Cardiff shipping concern, who are seeking an E licence to operate hovercraft "to and from allports in the Bristol Channel, between and including Cardiff and Swansea on the north side and Clevedon and Ilfracombe on thesouth side." The hovercraft to be operated are, it is stated, to be "acquired from one of several British manufacturers who are atpresent producing prototypes." The craft needed for this service may not be available for some years, say Campbells, but the esti-mated capacity is 200 passengers or 20 tons of freight or a combina- tion of both. The licence is to be valid for an unlimited period fromJanuary 2, 1962, "or such later date as craft are available." The service would be operated daily at a frequency in accordance withtraffic demand and would be complementary to Campbell's steam- ship services at present operating in the Bristol Channel. Our leading article discusses the implication of this and theprevious (historically the first) application to operate hovercraft services made by the Liverpool independent airline Starways. Starways told Flight last week that it has been "in touch with allsix main companies developing ground-effect vehicles and have had discussions with some." Several craft have been projected which,they say, meet their requirements; the type for which the company is looking in particular is the larger-size vehicle. For the record,Starways specify in their application to the Board "hovercraft of the most suitable types of several models, seating from 20 to 100 pas-sengers, expected to be available within a few years." Ten A licences are sought for scheduled services as follows:— (1) Liverpool - Belfast; (2) Liverpool - Isle of Man; (3) Glasgowand/or Stranraer-Belfast; (4) Plymouth and/or Southampton and/ or London - Jersey and/or Guernsey; (5) Scilly Isles - Newquay and/or Penzance; (6) Portsmouth and/or Bournemouth and/or South- ampton - Isle of Wight. The international services requested are:(1) Harwich - Rotterdam and/or Antwerp; (2) Liverpool and/or Holyhead - Dublin; (3) Dover - Calais; (4) London - Calais.In addition three E licences are requested for a series of unscheduled flights (1) between any two places on the north or south side of theThames, including Canvey Island; (2) between any two places on the north or south side of the Mersey and/or any two places on thenorth or south side of the Dee; (3) between any two places on the north or south side of the Bristol Channel and the Severn. Here is the first of three Viscount 838s for Ghana Airways, which was accepted by the airline on September 20 at a ceremony at Vickers' flight test centre at Wisley. Ghana's new Viscounts are 52-seaters, having tourist-class accommodation in the forward and centre cabins for 38, and a first-class cabin for 14 aft. Ghana Airways also has three VCIO, on order; the airline recently cancelled its order for two Boeing 707-420% (not 7206s as reported last week) BEA's OCTOBER FARE CUTS DURING the month of October, BEA is offering substantial farereductions to late holidaymakers, who will still be able tctake advantage of the frequencies in summer timetables, since tho winter schedules do not begin until November 1. Typical fare savings, which are available only from October1-31, are £21 7s on the London - Rome return fare, £16 4s between London and Athens and £15 9s between Manchester and Nice. INCIDENT AT DUBLIN WHILE attempting to land at Dublin on September 19 in rainand low cloud, a Starways DC-4 overshot the runway. The aircraft was on a charter flight carrying pilgrims from Lourdes toDublin. According to an airport spokesman, the DC-4 was making a normal approach when it swung to the left and skidded along theground, narrowly missing the airport terminal buildings. The aircraft, which was extensively damaged but fortunately didnot catch fire, finally came to rest blocking a busy main road just beyond the perimeter. To quote a police spokesman, "it was amiracle that it did not hit a car or bus." The 69 passengers and four crew evacuated the aircraft without serious injury. Officials ofStarways flew to Dublin to investigate the crash. BUSINESS AT THERESE HOUSE M UCH of the Air Transport Licensing Board's time in recentweeks has been occupied with clearing the great volume ofapplications for 1962 inclusive tours. The Board is now devoting more of its time to dealing with the weightier applications forscheduled services, one of the most interesting of which began on September 15. This was BEA's application to offer three-guineaoff-peak fares on its domestic services to Edinburgh, Belfast and Glasgow, an application objected to by British Railways, repre-sented by Mr E. S. Fay. QC The meeting went on rather longer than had been anticipated, and October 6 has been set as the day onwhich it will be resumed. We hope to summarize the proceedings in a later issue. Meanwhile, last Tuesday, September 26, the Board was due tohear applications from Cunard Eagle, for a service from Heathrow or Gatwick to Perpignan, and from Air Safaris for a service fromSouthampton and/or Bournemouth to Dublin and/or Belfast. The latter independent was also presenting its case for a domestic-service between Shoreham and Southampton and/or Bourne- mouth. BEA were objecting to the Perpignan and Dublin/Belfastapplications, and British Railways and two road operators to the proposed Shoreham - Southampton/Bournemouth services. Coming up next Tuesday, October 3, and continuing on October4 and 5 if necessary, is a series of 19 applications for services to and from the Channel Islands. These applications are from BritishUnited, Dan-Air, Cunard Eagle, Autair, Derby Aviation, Starways, Cambrian, East Anglian, Silver City, Air Safaris and Jersey Airlines.The applications embrace proposals for services to these holiday islands not only from London (mainly British United and CunardEagle) but also from provincial centres including Nottingham, Derby, Coventry, Northampton, Wolverhampton, Birmingham.Oxford, Chester, Liverpool, Cardiff. Swansea, Exeter, Bristol, Leeds/Bradford, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ply-mouth. All but six of the applications are being objected to by BEA. The meetings start at Therese House at 10.45 a.m. each day. YS-11 TO FLY IN FEBRUARY T7IRST flight of the Namco (Nihon Aeroplane Manufacturing Co) r YS-l 1 twin-Dart 10 feederliner is scheduled for mid-February, and the first prototype is due to be rolled out of Mitsubishi's factory in December. The programme thus is running only about six weeks behind the schedule announced a year ago. Increased domestic orders for the type are in prospect; the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry originally envisaged a demand for 90 YS-l Is for domestic trunk lines and a further 30 for local-service lines. These numbers have now been increased, respectively, to 110 and 45. It is anticipated that a total of 155 YS-l Is will be necessary to meet the needs of Japan's fast- growing domestic air transport business by 1965. The project is being handled by a consortium of companies, the prime one of which is Mitsubishi, as described in Flight for November 18, page 818.
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