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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1553.PDF
657 IGHT, October1961 Double-ended loading and unloading at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City Riddle's Argosies ANOTHER USAF DEMONSTRATION LAST week a "Flight" staff member recorded his impressions of Riddle'sArgosy operations following a visit to the airline's base in Miami. Here an American writer describes a subsequent USAF presentation of theArgosy at Tinker AFB. Oklahoma City. An earlier USAF Argosy demonstration, at Stewart AFB, was described in' 'Flight'' for September 21. Oklahoma City " rjiHE first commercial cargo aircraft capable of cutting ton-mileI costs from present levels of around 14 cents to 5 or 6 cents" ... "A milestone in the modernization of the Logair fleet."These and similar comments on the Argosy were freely expressed by Congressional, military and industrial aviation experts at a two-day demonstration here earlier this month of the aeroplane's capabi- lities. Thorough inspection of the Argosy loading techniques anddetailing of its already established performance on the USAF Logair routes flown by Riddle Airlines left the visiting group con-vinced that this all-cargo aircraft is playing a major role in the defence efforts of the United States. US Senator Mr Mike Monroney of Oklahoma, an aviation auth-ority and spokesman in the Senate, Col C. H. Davis, chief of the Logair division of the Air Force Logistics Command, and Mr RobertM. Hewitt, president of Riddle, were among those paying tribute to the efficiency and economy of Argosy operations. The demonstration included inspection of the Oklahoma CityAir Materiel Area at Tinker Air Force Base, the heart of the Logair network, and the complementary base of Riddle Airlines at WillRogers Field where it is expected that the company's entire Argosy operations will be based. Both installations afforded the visitinggroup an opportunity to see the complete warehousing, loading and unloading facilities of this logistics operation. Tinker Air ForceBase was selected as the largest installation of its kind in the US Air Force. A highlight of the two-day show was the actual loading of 18,0001bof palletized cargo into an Argosy in approximately ten minutes. Ten pallets each bearing up to 2,0001b of miscellaneous materialfor various destinations were pushed into the aircraft from rollers on a truck floor matching in height the rollers in the fuselage. Theload was made secure, the doors closed, the Argosy taxied out and, after a takeoff roll of 4,000ft. soared to the north-east on a well-established route-pattern of Logair stations. This brief demonstration, and the earlier showing of the routing By Fred B. Stauffer (" New York Herald Tribune ") and sorting of the cargo in the warehouse, provided tangible evi-dence of the combined efficiency of the loading and flying capability of the Argosy. Not least important, perhaps, is the enthusiasm of thecrews. The men, according to a Riddle check pilot, find the Argosy has thoroughly desirable handling characteristics. The entire Logair system has grown from 14 in 1954 to 89stations now. These include nine major material areas, five embark- ation points, and seventy-five customer bases. On a seven-days-a-week basis Logair operators must provide a guaranteed airlift to keep tactical units combat-ready. They must expedite delivery ofcritical and high-value items to reduce inventories and pipeline time. Logair routes embrace in general trunk routes, now operatedmainly with Douglas DC-6 aircraft; feeder routes, on which the familiar C-46s tote their loads; and modernization routes. Theselatter are essentially feeder routes of relatively short length bul high priority. The Air Force has been seeking the most modern aircraftavailable to augment the Logair fleet as the need increases. In line with this policy the first selection was the Argosy. And to theArgosy, operated by Riddle, has been assigned the task of covering the high-priority routes. The Strategic Air Command (SAC)has aircraft on short-time alert at bases all over the USA. It has replacement parts in being, but must get them to the proper pointsregularly. The Argosy fleet of Logair has been assigned a big share in that task. In three months to September 30 the Argosy fleet lifted more than30,000,0001b of regular and outsize freight and has flown more than 1.1m miles. With stages running from 100 to 1,000 statutemiles the Argosies have made in this period some 2,990 landings and have uplifted a total of more than llm ton-miles of cargo. Inachieving this performance the Argosies have recorded an average daily utilization of 9hr and I3min, increased now up to a rate of12hrper day. While the Argosy has built-in characteristics for economical andspeedy handling of air cargo, military or civilian, at even relatively small airfields, the facilities of the air freight terminal at TinkerAir Force Base outside Oklahoma City give such aircraft an even better opportunity to demonstrate their worth. The Tinker base isthe largest Air Force installation in the country and serves all types of air freight operations in addition to the Argosy fleet. Its cargo-handling facilities are the most modern in the United States. They are almost completely mechanized but not yet fully automated. This Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area terminal was built ata cost of SI,700,000. 'included are a 44,000 sq ft building with a warehouse section of 30,000sq ft and a finger of 9,000 sq ft, plusa vast loading apron. Five aircraft can be accommodated at once at the finger. Flights at the terminal average 925 a month, and are destined forthe 89 Logair destinations. Monthly average cargo processed through the terminal is 5,000 tons. Maximum capacity is 7,500 tons.The terminal is the heart of the Logair network, being geographically close to the centre of the United States. Routes radiate from coastto coast and border to border. All but the largest and odd-size cargo can be handled within theterminal and on its convevor system. This fact accounts for 93 per cent of the volume handled. "Pre-palletization" is a major factorin reducing the ground time for the aircraft involved. Time is monny, but in this instance time could mean increased credibilityof the US deterrent. Present at the recent USAF demonstration of the Argosy at Tinker Air Force 8ose were, from left to right, Mr Robert M. Hewitt, president of Riddle Airlines; Senator A. S. Mike Monroney of Oklahoma; Maj Gen Lewis L Mundell, commander of Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area; and Mr R. E. LeLong, general sales manager, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft
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