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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0021.PDF
Part of the Trident final-assembly area of de Havilland Aircraft at Hatfield, with the ninth aircraft nearest the camera SUPPORT FOR THE TRIDENT THE BACKGROUND PREPARATION FOR A NEW JETLINER FLIGHT Internatiai', 3 January 1963 1 FORWARD thinking by British European Airways, and the fruits of Comet experience, have made the de Havilland Trident available early in relation to the fleet replacement programmes of regional airlines as a whole. The possibility of a great advance in the economics, speed and comfort, safety and prac tical aspects of this kind of operation were seen in Britain in 1956, and the decision to build a jet airliner to meet the need for many years ahead was in keeping with BEA's progressive outlook—and indeed with the rapid modernization of techniques which charac terizes every aspect of industry in Europe today. This early start on the Trident project left time in hand to develop the longer-range and larger-capacity variants which were obviously going to be demanded by operators in regions where, generally speaking, replacement was not envisaged until one, two or three years later. At the time of conception of the original Trident design the developed versions were more than borne in mind—they were in the forefront of all design consideration. There was structural and aerodynamic provision for increased wing area, tankage, fuselage length, engine thrust and wing lift-coefficient. Discussions with overseas airlines about the stage length, pay- load and field length required of their regional aircraft in the period of 10-15 years from the middle 1960s started fully five years before deliveries would be needed, and the requirements naturally did not firm up until last year. Data for the Trident IE and IF were finally announced in August. Because these developments had been foreseen in original de sign work, and because of the early start of flight trials with the first Trident, deliveries of these longer-range and longer-body The de Havilland Trident is powered by three Rolls-Royce Spey turbofans, with ?uaranteed minimum thrust of 9,8501b Trident I and IC) or 10,6801b IE and IF). The centre engine is rendered accessible by opening the very large cowling doors, and may be changed with the aid of a manual winch seen in operation above. The interchangeable side engines are equipped with reversers, and are raised and lowered by a simple derrick gear attached to the aircraft (right)
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