FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0454.PDF
*-*i^ 432 FLIGHT International, 28 March 196: mJ^^, Jm -^m SPORT AND B U S N E S S Six of the nine Brantly B.2 and B.2A helicopters imported by British Executive Air Services take the air together at Kidlington. Passengers carried by a B.2A of Heliconair recently include police dogs of Oxford City Police; total Brantly flying hours in Britain now exceed 1,000 CPL Training Course Approval The report on the Bedfordshire Air Centre (these columns for March 14) recorded that MoA approval was being sought for the Centre's commercial licence training course. While this is perfectly true, not only of the centre, but also for the London School of Flying at Elstree and British Executive Air Services at Oxford, there is in fact no machinery for gaining approval, even though it was laid down in the White Paper on safety that all professional licences should be obtained through approved courses from January 1, 1964, onwards. Neither will there be any machinery until the findings of the Hamilton Com mittee, now investigating the whole question, are both published and implemented. Both the London School of Flying and BEAS have been consulted and visited by the committee. At least the dead-line date has now been put off to January 1, 1965. Once approvals have been issued, it is likely that students study ing for professional licences will become eligible for education grants. In the meantime, from the strictly legal point of view, pro fessional licence training except at Hamble and Perth should have ceased if those who are to qualify after next January 1 are to have done so from approved courses. Hamble is virtually devoted to training pilots for the corporations and the course costs in the region of £7,000, a great deal more than the equivalent licence courses at the other training schools. French Help for Light Aircraft Despite the reactions aroused after the collapse of the Brussels negotiations there must be many private pilots in this country who wish that they could exchange their own Minister of Aviation for his French opposite number (the Minister of Public Works and Transport), whose policy seems to be one of encouraging light aviation. Not only does he give material help to flying clubs—there are grants towards the cost of obtaining a private pilot's licence—but he also gives a three-part grant towards the cost of buying or building a light aircraft. Naturally there are a few rules involved, but these appear fairly- simple. The aircraft must conform to a prototype which has received a certificate of airworthiness and the engine(s) must be homologated. To qualify for a grant, aircraft must be able to equal or better certain performance requirements according to three power ratings:— Up to 88.7 h.p.—cruising speed at 70 per cent maximum continuous power, 68.6 m.p.h.: safe cruising range, 3hr baggage load, 221b. 88.7-148 h.p. —cruising speed at 70 per cent m.c.p., 93 m.p.h. safe range, 3.5hr; baggage load. 441b. 149-296 h.p. —cruising speed at 70 per cent m.c.p., 136.5 m.p.h. safe range, 4hr, baggage load 891b. Provided that an aircraft can fulfil these performance requirements it becomes eligible for the first of the three grants called the "Category Grant," up to the following maxima:— Single-seater 4,000F (£291) Two-seater 7.500F (£510) Three-seater 10.000F (£730) Four-seater 17.000F (£1,240) The next grant is the "Equipment Grant" which is available to aircraft which, over and above the minimum equipment required by the airworthiness regulations, are fitted with a transverse ball level indicator, a starting motor and a parking brake. Once again the grant is up to a maximum figure and is, as its name implies, for extra equipment. A single-seater with a compass, turn indicator and gyro horizon could attract up to 1,400F (£101); the same equipment on a two-seater which added a two-pitch airscrew (800F) and retractable undercarriage (1,900F) with a steerable nosewheel (400F) could qualify for up to £328. The larger aircraft, with more scope for carrying radio, can do much better. A category 2 radio- compass is worth up to 2,500F as is a VHF receiver, whilst a VOR adaptor is up to 1,250F. Thus a three-seater should be able to qualify for up to £635 and a four-seater, with blind-flying panel, radio-compass and VOR/ILS should have no difficulty in becoming eligible for £1,090. On top of these two comes the "Power Grant" which is at a fiat rate per CV (1 cheval-vapeur = 0.9861 h.p.) of 50F per CV for an approved French-built engine and 30F per CV for a similar foreign engine. There is an additional lump sum of 500F for a cabin- operated electric starter. Totalling all these grants can produce the following:— Single-seater, £720; two-seater, £1,484; three-seater, £2,455; four-seater, £3,420. Aircraft must be new and must be ordered from registered aircraft constructors. Amateur aircraft constructors will be allocated a lump sum "Category" grant according to the type of aircraft, while the other two categories will be paid as above. The only other conditions attached to the scheme are that any beneficiary must undertake to do a minimum of 50 hours' flying per year for the first three years. G. L. M. Sailplane Designers' Handbook The gliding research organization OSTIV is producing a handbook for sailplane designers. Intended particularly for young engineers and amateur designers, the hand book is intended to stimulate the reader towards good design, and to encourage advances and improvements in sailplane design by providing up-to-date information, particularly in applied aerodynamics. The development of sailplane design over the past ten years has been based mainly on wing-section research and boundary-layer control. Remarkable advances have resulted, and to cover these matters an impressive list of specialist contributors has been assembled for the OSTIV handbook. With Mr B. S. Shenstone as chairman of the editorial committee, the contributors comprise Boris Cijan, Frank Irving, Prof P. Morelli, A. Skarbinski, 'V\ Stafiej, W. Stender, C. O. Vernon and Dr F. X. Wortmann. D.H. 125 Performance De Havilland Aircraft Co states that the economical cruising speed of the D.H. 125, corresponding to a still-air range of 1,900 miles, is 420 m.p.h. and not as quoted in the data table on pages 404-5 of our March 21 issue (The figures quoted in the table were provided by de Havillant! Aircraft Co.) The company adds that the still-air range at a cruising speed of 500 m.p.h. is 1.300 miles.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
