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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0425.PDF
FLIGHT International, 425 22 March 1962 j£fj*''W' AlVTtr Just ten years ago Boeing decided to invest $/6m in a jet transport programme. This led to the building of the prototype •Dash Eighty," first flown in July 1954 from Renton—a place which it had never revisited until earlier this month. The yellow and brown aircraft flew in during a wing high-lift device test programme before returning to its base at nearby Boeing Field. A note about Boeing's place in the jet transport business appears on page 426 AIR COMMERCE . A BLACK MARCH NO fortnight in civil air transport history has been more disastrous than the period March 1-15. In these 15 days 292 passengers and 39 crew were killed in the course of 7 accidents, one of them the worst in US domestic history involving a single aircraft, and the other the worst in British—and indeed world—history involving a single aircraft: Date Mir 1 Mar 4 Mar 6 Mar 8 Mar 8 Mar 15 Mar 15 Carrier American Caledonian SAA THY SAM Flying Tiger Flying Tiger Aircraft Boeing 707 DC-7C DC-3 Friendship DC-6B S'Connie S' Connie Location New York Douala Grahamstown- Queensland Ankara-Adana Avezzano Guam-Manila Aleutians Fatalities Pass. 87 101 — 8 — 96 Crew 8 9 2 3 5 II 1 Circumstances After take-off After take-off Hit mountain Hit mountain Hit mountain En route Landing The accident on March 15 involved a Flying Tiger Super Con stellation on a military charter between Guam and Manila. Most of the passengers are believed to have been US servicemen. By a strange twist of fate, the same airline suffered another accident on the same day. The first fortnight of March, with 331 passengers and crew killed, was worse than the worst monthly period on record; 316 passengers and crew were killed in seven accidents between Sep tember 1-23, 1961. SHEIKH SHOPS FOR MORE COMETS A POSSIBLE MEA repeat-order for three DH Comet 4Cs3was the reason for Sheikh Najib Alamuddin's visit last week to London. The Sheikh confirmed that he had come to negotiate with de Havil- land for more Comets "if the right financial terms can be found." He said that up to four more might be ordered eventually, noting his "extreme satisfaction" with the Comet, of which four are in MEA service. In Flight International last week, page 387 it was reported that Kuwait Airways are hoping to introduce a Comet 4C service to London. This could well be connected with the Sheikh's shopping trip, for it is his policy, declared with particular emphasis when the association withjBOAC was severed last year, to sponsor pan-Arab air transport. Both Kuwait Airways and Iraqi Airways have jet aspirations, and both are Comet-minded—Iraqi Airways having so far resisted the blandishments of Tupolev salesmen. But neither airline, as the Sheikh has said, could possibly afford to invest in its own fleet of jets, and each could well be disposed favourably towards an operational alliance with MEA, who would lease Comets to them in their colours. The Sheikh has always said that de Havilland could sell more Comets in the Middle East, and the latest moves suggest that he On May 22 Executive Air Transport are due to inaugurate scheduled services from Birmingham, their base, to Newcastle Leeds I Bradford, and Bournemouth and Sandown. The aircraft to be used will be the company's Heron and, seen here, DC-3 G-ANEG
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