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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1831.PDF
638 FLIGHT International, 17 October 1963 AIR COMMERCE... JAL REORGANIZATION FROM the beginning of October, Japan Air Lines have become effectively merged with Japan Aircraft Maintenance Company (JAMCO). The merger has been made in the interests of more efficient and economic maintenance of JAL's fleet in Tokyo. At the same time there has been a general reorganization cf the airline's administration, operations, and maintenance departments in Tokyo. As a result of the merger, JAL's capital has increased from £12.5m to £13.5m, and the number of employees from 5,300 to 8,000, LONDON LIGHTS THREE new systems designed mainly to improve taxiway con ditions are to be experimented with shortly at London Heathrow. The first of these is the fitting of the existing green taxiway lighting with a flashing system which should greatly enhance its value in poor visibility conditions. Up to now this invaluable centre-line lighting has only been clearly visible at night, but the new installation, with a xenon tube flashing at about one-second intervals, will assist the safe taxying cf aircraft both in the brightest sunlight and the murkiest gloom. A new type of light for taxiway indication is the subject of a second experiment. Originally known as "button lighting," it consists of a shallow aluminium fitting |in high, strong enough to allow aircraft to pass over it, and bonded to the surface of the taxi way instead of being connected to the usual deep lighting pit. Apart from the obvious saving in time and manpower, it is estimated that the cost is only about one-fifth that of the conventional system. This makes it especially suitable in areas where no lighting has previously been fitted and where the cost of excavation for normal installation would be prohibitive. Thirdly, new directional signs in the form of illuminated arrows at taxiway intersections, operated from the control tower, will simplify direction-finding for pilots of taxying aircraft by day, particularly where foreign-speaking aircrew are concerned. This is a modern development of daylight route-indication, a system which has been in use at Heathrow since 1954. EMERGENCY EVACUATION UNITED AIR LINES have challenged the validity of recent FAA tests aimed at determining whether 189 passengers can be evacuated from a PAA thrift-class Boeing 707 in an emergency. A test was conducted by Pan American in New York recently for the FAA and the CAB, as anticipated in a note in these pages on October 3. United, in objecting (mainly on economic grounds) to PAA's proposed California - Hawaii thrift-class fare, asked the CAB to consider the emergency evacuation problem, which has always been uppermost in the mind of their president, Mr W. A. Patterson. In a letter to Mr Najeeb Halaby of the FAA, Mr Patterson said that the experi ment had ignored five major criteria, according to UAL observers present at the experiment. They said that no effort had been made to comply with UAL's request that the test include; (1) performance A six per cent scale model of the DC-9 being tested in the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory's transonic wind tunnel at Buffalo, NY, at speeds up to Mach 0.9 of evacuation duties by crew members; (2) selection of a respresent- ative, normal passenger "mix" which would have old people and children as well as able-bodied adults performing the evacuation; (3) clearing of the aircraft without assistance from anyone other than crew members, and only using equipment normally employed in actual evacuations; (4) utilization of life vests and launching of life rafts to simulate a water ditching; (5) establishment of a mini mum 90sec for complete evacuation. Mr Patterson also told Mr Halaby that Pan American staff participating in the evacuation were all vigorous, able-bodied individuals. Bilateral News Ghana and Algeria have signed a civil aviation agreement. At the other end of the Mediterranian, the Lebanese Government has said that it is in an advanced stage of negotiations for bilateral agreements with Cyprus, India, Iran and Kuwait, and that discussions have started with Afganistan, France, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, and Tunisia. NEA Viscounts Auctioned At the auction of ex-Northeast Air lines Viscount 798s at Logan Airport, Boston, on October 5, Aloha Airlines, Hawaiian Airways and Mr John Mecum, a Texan. each bought one aircraft. The remaining six were retained by the Irving Trust Co of New York, who have acted as trustees under an equipment trust agreement between NEA and Vickers. The nine realized a total of £1.15m, and it is reported that Mr Mecum paid £103,000. Nine spare Rolls-Royce Darts brought in £25,000, and £1,000 was paid for a quantity of spares. The fifth Hawker Siddeley Trident, seen at Cairo during recent hot-weather trials. The aircraft is in the Far East until the end of the month and, although the trip is primarily part of the route-proving programme,] the [opportunity vv/// be taken to give a number of demonstrations to interested airlines
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