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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0757.PDF
FLIGHT International, 10 May 1962 Qj Straight and 755 © A REMARKABLE new theory was advanced by Dr J. Nit, British air expert, in his British Empire Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Bro- churemongers last Monday. Entitled Load Factor as a Basic Parameter in Air Transport Economics, the lecture contains the controversial suggestion that load factor tends to decrease if too much capacity is offered for a given amount of traffic. In other words, suggests Nit, there is a direct correlation between load factor and capacity offered. Research has clearly shown, he says, that for a given traffic- offering load factor goes down as capacity is increased. Preliminary results of a research pro gramme carried out to Ministry of Planes contract have, Nit says, been circulated to the airlines—though so far 'they haven't shown much interest." • Price £6,148. Cessna 172B Skyhawk 1961, 12 hours, G-AROA, Winchester Grey/Classic Ivory, interior Nocturne Blue, Dual Controls, Fire Extinguisher, Pilot Head Heater . . . —Sales circular from aircraft dealer. • Mr Bo Lundberg seems sceptical, to put it mildly, about the technical feasibility of the supersonic airliner. The director of Sweden's Aeronautical Research Institute describes as "insurmountable" the prob lems of the sonic boom, cosmic radiation and kinetic heating—the last at any rate for ten years, the first two insurmountable, full stop. Do you remember the frightful problems that were going to beset the big subsonic jets? Ingestion of runway-debris by low- slung podded engines; the estimate that only one runway in the world was long enough and strong enough; that their operating cost was going to be 58 times that of the turboprops; etc, etc, etc? Somehow or other the big jets, like the bumble bee, never heard the problems, so they just flew on regardless. From the engineering point of view, so a senior BO AC 707 flight engineer told a Flight International colleague the other day (after a heavy, hot temperature take-off using two-thirds of Nassau's 7,600ft runway) the 707 is "mar vellous." The corporation would, he said, "be making a fortune" if it could fill them. Only one of the problems so gloomily forecast has really been a problem—the big jets are big, and the airlines have bought more than the market can stand at the moment. But that's not the fault of the big jets. • I regard the Fokker F.28 as the sixth note in the octave of European rear-engined jet transports:— BAC Super VC10 BAC Standard VC10 DH Trident Sud Caravelle BAC One-Eleven Fokker F.28 777 DH.125 Quite a keyboard, isn't it? But who will play the missing note ? Europe is now building a rear-engined jet for every market except one—the so-called DC-3 replacement. This is the most diffi cult of the lot, because it must not just save money, like the 125, but make it. The key to completion of the keyboard is a little turbofan, two off, of hitherto un- attained economy, low weight and cheap ness. This aircraft (DH. 126 or He211 perhaps ?) is the biggest challenge of all, offering per haps the biggest potential reward. Someone This contribution to my Pet's Corner series comes from an officer who served with 2nd TAF in 1944-45. This was the only way pilots of Nos 142 and 149 Wings, RAF, could be induced to keep up to date with the Pilots' Order Book. Judging from the condition of the volume it was frequently referred to is going to build it; and to complete my octave it must be European. Thinks: How about a feasibility study for a European rear-engined piano ? • Maj Titov, asked at Prestwick what he thought about the British satellite Ariel, asked: "What is that?" —Daily Telegraph. • From a brochure published by a London travel agent:— "On your return journey you will arrive at London Airport Central on Saturday morning at 8.15 a.m. or at the Air Terminal at 9.15 a.m. two weeks later." ROGER BACON 1 have been saving this one up for this special Vickers VCIO issue of "Flight International." The world's first rear-engined jet aircraft was, appropriately, a Vickers aircraft—Wellington WS389/G of 1943. It had a Whittle W2B engine in the tail, and with the two Merlins feathered it gave the pilots who flew it in 1943 a foretaste of the comforts of rear-engined travel. One of these pilots was Bob Handasyde, now BAC's civil aircraft sales manager; he won a £5 bet for making three consecutive landings without breaking the tail wheel
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