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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0842.PDF
FLIGHT International, 6 June 1963 809 AIR COMMERCE.. . airport neighbourhoods and their background noise level is generally much lower. (2) Sleep disturbance at a low background noise level should be one of the main bases for an acceptable boom intensity. Undisturbed sleep is of fundamental importance for health, and for recovery from illness. It is therefore necessary that the sonic boom limit for sleep interference should be set so low that a very small percentage of sleepers in bedrooms with open windows and at a low background noise would be awakened. Mr Lundberg suggests this limit might be as low as 0.3Ib/sq ft. (3) There should be little or no difference in acceptable boom- intensity level between day and night. There are many people both in communities and in the open country—shift-workers, elderly and sick people—that are dependent on undisturbed sleep in day-time. (4) The maximum acceptable sleep-interference limit should not be higher for sparsely populated than for densely populated areas. The rights of each individual in accordance with basic democratic and humanitarian principles must be recognized: every single person, who has chosen to live in, or wishes to move into, peaceful areas, should have the right to continued quietness or to obtain peace. (5) The acceptable sonic boom limit should not be based on "number of complaints." People might give up complaining when they find that it has no corrective effect. (6) There should be very little difference between the acceptable sonic boom limit over seas frequented by ships and over inhabited land areas. The background-noise level on a modern liner is usually very low and in any case the crew is required to do shiftwork. (7) Disturbance in hospitals should be another basic sonic boom criterion. Unexpected sharp sonic booms might be detrimental to the patients, in particular those suffering from mental diseases, and could be dangerous during surgical operations. (8) Both the sleep and the hospital boom criteria should be based on the assumption of a fairly high frequency per day of sharp sonic booms. (9) Disturbance to animals, in particular animals being bred at fur farms, should be a third sonic boom criterion. It is well known that in particular some fur animals are sensitive to noise. It should be observed that fur farms often exist in large numbers in districts which are sparsely populated. (10) None of the sleep interference, hospital and animal criteria should be established on a presumption that people and animals can become accustomed to, or "educated" to accept, sonic booms. Whereas it is possible to some extent to get used to the normal, rather gradual types of noise, for instance the increasing noise of a vehicle passing an observer, the sudden and sharp sonic boom occurs without any forewarning whatever and will, therefore, always be surprising and, for high intensities, even frightening. In particular, says Mr Lundberg, it should be observed that small children might easily be frightened by unexpected sonic booms; they can never be "educated" to disregard the booms. Furthermore, harmful nervous effects can be inflicted on many adults, even if they have to some extent become used to the nuisance and thus become consciously aware only of relatively high boom intensities. HELPING SOMETHING TO BE DONE "DO you fly airways with satisfactory navigation aids and trouble- free communications? Do you land at airfields equipped with ICAO standard landing aids, approach and taxyway lighting, and fire-fighting equipment? Do you find everywhere you go that ATC and Met services are all you could wish?" These searching questions are asked in IFALPA's Monthly News Bulletin with the plea that if any of the answers are no, then pilots should fill in an IFALPA Deficiency Report Form. The association makes no excuse for asking pilots to complete yet another form because "the authorities in some of the most poorly equipped areas blandly assume that all is well and support this assumption by the statement 'we have received no official complaints from the pilots'. " Says the Bulletin: "ICAO makes excellent plans; the member states agree them; regional ICAO meetings stress the need to implement them; IATA shows some interest, and IFALPA backs these plans to the hilt, but only the pilots can tell accurately where and how failure to install aids and trained personnel hurts most." Mr Allen E. Paulson, right, president of California Airmotive, hands over the first of four DC-7s sold by his company to Lebanese Inter national Airways of Beirut to the airline's president, Mr Carlos Arida. Two of the DC-7s are 67-passenger aircraft intended for first-class operations; the other two ore 99-passenger versions for tourist -class work These forms are posted first of all to the IFALPA secretariat in the region where the deficiency has been noted. Ultimately the reports will become part of a documented case which will beused at ICAO and elsewhere in an effort to secure the facilities which ICAO has probably already decided to implement. The kind of deficiencies IFALPA is most interested in are near misses, inadequate approach lighting, inadequate navigation fac ilities, aids badly affected by static, poor communications, inefficient ATC, unnecessary delays, misuse of emergency frequencies, point-to- point RT over air-ground circuits—in fact, all the things which make pilots mutter "it's about time someone did something about this." CARGO JET COMPETITION LAST year BO AC carried just over 10,000 tons of freight across the North Atlantic. In the same period Pan American carried about 7,000 tons in and out of London, and more on all North Atlantic routes. PAA's order for the five more Boeing 707-320Cs, will bring the airline's £21 m jet freighter fleet to eight, and as from June 17 the daily morning PAA DC-7F cargo clipper service from London to New York will be replaced with Boeing 707-320Cs which have a payload of 80,0001b for the non-stop flight. BO AC will, of course, be offering freight capacity on their regular passenger-carrying transatlantic Boeing 707 flights to both US and Canadian points, though the stalwart DC-7Fs will be increasingly hard-pressed to compete with PAA's 707-320Cs and TCA's DC-8Fs. As y-t, there are no signs of a BOAC order for big-door heavy- floor Super VClOs, though Sir Basil Smallpeice, BOAC's managing director, mentioned a requirement for three jet freighter aircraft in his recent announcement of a cut of up to ten aircraft in the cor poration's future jet fleet. No hint is given of what type of jet freighters he had in mind, or when they would be in service. It seems likely that BOAC would not be able to get Super VC10 freighters into service for two or three years, and in the meantime some of their cargo business could well be diverted to the all-jet services of PAA and TCA, and later this year TWA, who have also ordered 320Cs. Ideally, BOAC need a small number of 707-320Cs right away, but such an order would obviously be politically diffi cult as well as technically problematical, since the Conway 43- powered 707 has not been certificated. The order book for all-cargo or convertible cargo DC-8s, 707s and VClOs is now as follows:— Boeing 707-320C: American, four; Pan American, eight; World, Airways, three; Aer Lingus, one; TWA, three. Douglas DC-8F: TCA, five; Trans-International, one; Capitol, one; Trans-Caribbean, two; Flying Tiger, two; KLM, two; United, three; Riddle, two. VC10: British United, two.
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