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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2084.PDF
FLIGHT International, 13 September 1962 467 NOTHING STRIDENT QUIETNESS was evidently the feature of the de Havilland Trident that made the biggest impression on the correspondents who, just before Farnborough, went up on the first passenger flights of this aircraft from Hatfield. A summary of their reports is given below. All the correspondents concerned (writes the Flight International staff member who flew in the aircraft) must by now be fairly blase about jet flying, having travelled in all the other types of jet now going—some of which, like the Caravelle, are pretty quiet, especially up front. Unanimous enthusiasm for the Trident by healthily sceptical correspondents who have heard everything provides a pretty good qualitative assessment of an all-important airliner feature that is so difficult to measure quantitatively. It looks very much as though BEA will not be challenged if they sell the Trident as the quietest, as well as the fastest, European jet airliner. Only one thing has to be fixed by de Havilland; this is the "square wheel" hardness of the taxi ride. This is due, it is believed, to drag loads on the oleos of the main undercarriage gear caused by the trailing axles. A redesigned gear with levered suspension is in hand. Only the forward section of the cabin of the aircraft demon strated (Trident 02) was fully furnished; but although the remainder of the cabin, which is filled with test instrumentation and recorders, was not fully soundproofed, noise level was remarkably low. The only aerodynamic noise that obtruded, and then only slightly, came from the nose undercarriage when it was extended for landing. Extracts from the newspaper reports, most of which headlined the quietness angle, follow:— The Times: "... the de Havilland Trident rear-engined three-jet airliner is likely to prove the quietest and smoothest civil transport yet produced . . . "Although as yet only the front cabin has been sound-proofed—• the remainder is filled with flight test instrumentation—the interior noise level did not rise above a murmur even when the three 10,0001b- thrust Rolls-Royce Spey bypass engines were giving their full power. ". . . it was difficult to know when the engines had been started up, and even during the fast take-off run the three Speys caused no more than an apparently remote humming sound." The Financial Times: "The Trident will provide powerful competition on the world's air routes. "... the interior of the aircraft was quieter even than the Caravelle especially in the forward cabin and at full take-off power. "On the landing run when the engines were throttled back the aircraft was so quiet as to be virtually silent. "Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, chairman of BEA, is convinced that the airline will have a world beater in the Trident, and he anticipates that eventually BEA may have a fleet composed entirely of this type of aircraft in its various versions . . ." The Daily Telegraph: "I found it generally quieter even than the French Caravelle, which may lose its reputation as the most silent airliner when the Trident comes into service." The Daily Express: "And super is the only word to describe this magnificent machine with its three purring jets mounted in the tail. "It is like riding on a soft summer breeze. Little noise, and no vibration. This world-beater is certainly the quietest aircraft to go on the market since the Caravelle." The Guardian: "For the first time in my life, I sat today in an aeroplane unaware of the moment when the engines were started. The aircraft was the de Havilland Trident, the quietness of which on take-off was almost disconcerting. "... only the sight of the runway rapidly passing by the window gave an assurance that the engines were developing full take-off thrust. ". . . the remarkable lack of aerodynamic and air-conditioning noises, and also the absence of clickings and whirrings from under- floor hydraulic and electrical gear, all of which is stowed aft of the pressurized hull. "The aircraft is also rock steady, with none of the wing flexing and slight rolling motion that are characteristic of the big Boeing 707 and DC-8 jets." The Daily Mail: "It is the fastest and quietest airliner I have ever flown in. Even in the rear cabins, near the cluster of jets in the tail, it was quieter than the Caravelle, French pioneer of the tail engine." . and at take-off I
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