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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1646.PDF
456 FLIGHT International, 12 September 1963 THE CARAVELLE Past, Present and Future BY M. G. DOUGAL THE author, who has just finished two years' post-graduate training in the aircraft industry, spent March and April of this year working in Sud-Aviation's factories at Toulouse. Here he gives his impres sions of this vigorous nationalized firm and the world-famed airliner it produces. IN 1961 and 1962 the French aircraft industry exported nearly as much as the British, with less than one-third of the workers. Sud-Aviation and its Caravelle symbolize not only this re surgent French industry but also France's "economic miracle": a total of 172 Caravelles sold so far, after only four years of airline service, proves the point. The headquarters of Sud's production is at Toulouse, the capital city of south-western France and one which rightly claims to be the centre of French aviation. It has also the main Breguet and Potez factories (941, Atlantic, Magister, 840) as well as the impressively equipped Etablissement Aeronautique de Toulouse, a Government- run research centre. Toulouse is a pleasant city in which to spend two months working and escaping the English winter, with both the Mediterranean and ski-ing within three hours, the cuisine superb, and good rugger, soccer, racing and bull-fighting to watch in the city itself. Sud-Aviation was formed in 1951 from two already nationalized firms, Ouest-Aviation and Sud-Est Aviation. But the Caravelle project came much earlier from Sud-Est Aviation only, the old Dewoitine firm. Sud had plenty of experience with series produc tion of jet aircraft, having built the Vautour and Ouragan as well as, under licence, the Venom and Vampire. They had recent experi ence of commercial aircraft with the 80-seat Armagnac and the Languedoc, and of clean-wing aircraft with the curious Grognard research aircraft, a single-seater with a large dorsal intake for its rear-mounted engine. They were therefore well qualified to build a clean-wing commercial jet aircraft. The amalgamated firms had eight factories, at Toulouse, Marseilles, Paris, Nantes, St Nazaire, Rochefort and Cannes, and therefore the ability to undertake series production. Projects The Caravelle project can be said to date from 1951. But civil projects were studied as early as 1946—first an inter continental flying wing with a maximum weight of 200 tons and powered by 18 Rolls-Royce Nenes. These were mounted in a circle at the end of the fuselage in X-15 style. This was followed in 1947 by the 40-passenger X-205 design, a more conventional project reminiscent of the Ashton, with one Nene under each wing and one under the fuselage. The X-206 was another 1947 design but with two decks and four under-wing Nenes. By 1951 this had become a high-wing aircraft that now resembled the Caravelle, but with four podded Snecma Atars; at the end of that year it was three-engined and for the first time all powerplants were rear-mounted in a style reminiscent of more recent aircraft. In 1952 a Government committee composed of aircraft con structors and operators, including Air France, invited tenders for an aircraft with a block speed better than 400 m.p.h. and designed to take a payload of 6-7 tons over 1,400 miles. Sud put before them a project that could now be two-engined, because Avons were avail able to replace the less powerful Atars. In January 1953 the design was approved and permission given for the construction of two prototypes. The first flew on May 27, 1955, and only a few days later was demonstrated at the Le Bourget Show. The second prototype flew in 1956 and by October of that year the two had already flown over 1,000 hours. The demonstrations they gave in their first two years are a lesson in public relations that other manufacturers might well copy. In 1956 the aircraft visited all Europe and North Africa and in 1957 the second prototype flew 25,000 miles in North and South America. It may not be only coincidence that all the Caravelle orders are from Europe, North Africa and North and South America. By 1956 Air France's tests were well under way. Yet, despite the fact that it was the only moyen courrier (short- haul) jet airliner in existence, in the age of the Viscount and the Convair 440, the Caravelle was not ordered in large numbers until it had been extensively route-proved and had entered commercial service in May 1959 with Air France and SAS. Today, the order book (to July 1963) looks like this:— Geographical Production The spread of production of the Cara velle is typical of the international and sub-contracting outlook of the French aircraft industry, which spreads success and gains foreign orders. The engines, except for the Series Super, are built by Rolls-Royce Scotland. At Genoa, in Italy, Fiat make the tailplane, fin, ailerons and engine nacelles. The nose section is built and equipped by Sud-Aviation at Marseilles, while the rear fuselage is bu'lt 2t Toulouse, but sent to Breguet at Biarritz to be equipped. Sud- Aviation at Rochefort make the tailcone, the rudder, the Fowler flaps and (at St Nazaire) the leading and trailing edges. The wings are built at Nantes. Finally, at Toulouse the centre fuselage from frames 16-48 and most of the detail parts are made. The ancillary equipment is mostly English and American, a point which appeals to operators of Viscounts and Convairs. It is worthwhile mentioning briefly some of the machines used m the detail factory at Toulouse. Of greatest interest are the electrical spot-welding machines, used mainly for the attachment of stringers to the skin and for pipes. The system is as efficient as special bond ing processes, and needs less capital outlay. It has the advantage that, unlike some bonding methods, it does not fail under grea heat and will therefore be suitable for supersonic aircraft such the Concorde. Three machines are used: a horizontal, a vertical and a roller0 continuous machine. The welding operation involves suspend^ the panel, to which stringers are to be attached, from a crane, operator positions the spot to be welded in between the two tact points through which the current is passed, and welds ah Air France .. Air Algerie .. • • Aerolineas Argentinas Air Liban Alitalia AUA .. Cruzeiro Finnair Garrett Corp. GLAM Iberia Indian Airlines JAT MEA .. RA Maroc Panair do Brasil Sabena SAS Swissair TAP .. Tunis Air UAL .. Varig VASP Total to 200: • • • • • • • • • • • • Totals 172 ordered, Delivered and in service 39 4 2 1 16 2 4 4 — 6 .— 3 2 3 4 8 14 7 3 J 20 2 2 146 5 destroyed, 3 Delivery from Sept 1963 1 2 1 6 1 1 2 3 1 1 2 21 prototypes, 28 available. Test aircraft: 01, Lear/Sud automatic landing; 02, equipment tests; 63, Super A, prototype for GE CJ-805; 143, Smiths auto matic landing; 169, prototype Super B3—to fly late autumn 1963; 176, prototype X BIR, to fly spring 1964. Aircraft destroyed: SAS, Ankara, 19.1.60; Air France, Rabat, 12.9.61; Varig, Brasilia, 27.9.61; Aerolineas Argentinas, Cordoba, 3.7.63; Swissair, Duerrenaesch, 4.9.63.
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