FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1790.PDF
902 FLIGHT, 14 December i <6j AIR COMMERCE. . . LUFTHANSA BOEING TRAINING CRASHA LUFTHANSA Boeing 720B, D-ABOK, crashed seven milessouth of Mainz, West Germany, on December 4 while on a training flight, killing the crew of three. According to Lufthansathe aircraft was making an emergency landing. Eyewitnesses are reported to have said that the aircraft suddenly changed course,"flipped over on its starboard wing," and dived to the ground. The 720B had taken off from Frankfurt International Airport.It was the fifth big jet to be lost in a crew training accident or on pre-delivery flight test; American Airlines has lost two Boeing707-123s. Braniff a 707-227, and Delta a Convair 880. Crew-training accidents are not included in Flight's twice-yearly tables of accidents,which cover only revenue flights. QANTAS IN 1960 IN September 1956 Qantas stole a march on its international rivalsby ordering seven 138-series Boeing 707s, and securing delivery as early as the summer of 1959. As a result, QEA enjoyed a year ofrecord business and precedented profitability. But by 1960, there was hardly anything but jets to be seen flying—mostly half-full—between Europe and Australia, and Qantas' profits came tumbling down. Needless to say, as the airline's report infers, it is all theother chap's fault. Precise financial comparisons between the two years are difficultto compile, for Qantas moved the balance-date for their financial year from December 31 to March 31 to conform with the accountsof the two pool-partners, BOAC and Air-India. The accounts are, however, drawn up in such a way as to minimise the inconveniencecaused by this change, and from this it can be seen that whereas Qantas capacity rose by 43 per cent, traffic rose by only 34 per cent,thus depressing load factors down to little over half-full. This poor result, combined with a reduction in revenue rates which resultedfrom the fast expansion which characterised the growth of low- rated categories of passenger, mail and freight traffic, could noteven be countered by the dramatic fall in unit costs in which the Boeings were instrumental. For these reasons, the return on capitaldeclined from about seven per cent in 1959 to about four per cent in 1960-61. Except for the insidious spread of excessive capacity on to theQantas network, no great changes affected the airline during the year. As a result of revised government policy, Qantas lost itsNew Guinea services, but was awarded new rights to fly to New Zealand in parallel with TEAL. The jet fleet remained unchangedat seven Boeings and four Electras, but the piston fleet was reduced to ten aircraft (eight Super-Constellations and two DC-4s) by thesale of three Super Constellations, one DC-4 and the New Guinea fleet of eight DC-3s and four Otters. The number of staff increasedonly slightly to 6,887, the recruitment of an additional 552 personnel to handle the increased level of business being largely offset by thetransfer of 402 New Guinea staff to TAA. Much as Qantas may have rued the events of 1960, the patternlooks like being repeated in the immediate few years, and no improvement in load factor can be seen for the current year 1961-62. As the newly appointed president of IATA, the airline's chair- man, Sir Hudson Fysh, will no doubt use all his influence topersuade other members to do something about all those empty seats that are being flown around. A new variation on a now quite familiar theme is this motorized passenger stairway brought into use at Brussels by Sabena. Weighing about 2± tons, the unit is powered by a 21 h.p. petrol engine and the steps can be adapted to any aircraft floor height of between 6ft Tin and I Oft bin A Piaggio P.I66, VH-CAC, is now fa ng operated by the Australian Director of I vi| Aviation. This view from the back of ,fte roomy cabin shows well the good visit :Hy enjoyed by the pilots VISCOUNTS FOR CHINA?F OR some weeks it has been repc led(see Flight, October 26) tha aChinese order for Viscounts is likely i tis now said that a firm order—said t< be for six aircraft with an option on perhap sixmore—was signed in Pekin on December ]. No comment is forthcoming from the BritishAircraft Corporation. Although the Polish airline LOT acquiredthree Convair 240s from Sabena in 1957, this would be the first time that a Westernmanufacturer has received an order from a Communist airline. As a matter of history. the Chinese ordered a number of Vimy Commercials soon afterWorld War I, although it is not certain whether these aircraft were actually built and delivered. The Board of Trade's ruling thatViscounts and the materials in them are not on the list of strategic exports which must not be sold to Communist countries is said tohave finally clinched the deal in Vickers' favour. The US Govern- ment has "tried very hard" to stop the sale, according to Mr JackBehrman, Assistant Secretary of Commerce, speaking in Washington on December 7. The Civil Aviation Administration of China alias Minhaiduy, hashitherto relied exclusively on Russian equipment, and its present fleet—said to number about 120 aircraft—consists of Il-18s, Il-14sIl-12s and Li-2s (Russian-built DC-3s). The reported purchase of Viscounts by the Chinese has beendescribed as '"a resounding diplomatic slap at Soviet aircraft design- ers"; it would certainly represent an important breakthrough inEast-West trading relations. To what extent a Viscount purchase may represent dissatisfaction with the 11-18 and to what extent itrepresents a need for replacing the Il-14s and Il-12s can only be conjectured at this stage. BY 300 m.p.h. HOVERCAR TO PARIS?H OVERCRAFT Development Ltd under Mr ChristopherCockerell has started design work on an all-British project, the Hovercar, which could carry 150 passengers from the MarbleArch to the Arc de Triomphe in 60 minutes. It would be capable of 300 m.p.h. Such a vehicle could obviously provide real competi-tion for the airlines in time, even though it loses something in operational flexibility by having to make use of a special track. Weighing 43 tons, the Hovercar would cost £150,000, or less thanone-tenth of the first cost of a similar-capacity (150-seat) jet. The Hovercar is foreseen as a form of transport which could be widelyused for high-speed travel between city centres, carrying large numbers of people over long distances quickly, comfortably andeconomically. Operating on the same principle as the Hovercraft, the Hovercarhas a suspension system and lift pads on its underside. The pads employ jets to generate and sustain the air cushions which supportthe vehicle. The Hovercar could also provide underground com- muter transport at slower speeds, and with a greater passenger loadthan would be suitable for transport between city centres; this would also allow the cars to be linked together to form "hovertrains."Hovercars could be designed to cover a wide range of sizes and carrying capacity, up to large double-deck vehicles for severalhundred passengers or an equivalent load of cars or freight.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
