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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0065.PDF
48 FLIGHT International, 9 January 1964 The 229th Friendship to be delivered by Fokker and Fair- child, this is the first of three Fokker F.27% now in service with Union of Burma Airways AIR COMMERCE... WHERE THE VCIO SCORES THE ninth VCIO, G-ARVI, made its first flight from Weybridge to Wisley on December 20. This aircraft, the eighth of 12 Standard VClOs' ordered by BOAC, is the first completed to full delivery standard and is expected to be the first formally delivered to the corporation in the near future. Meanwhile, crew training has started at Shannon, using G-ARVG, which the corporation have had on loan since December 18. By the time this issue appears 'VG is likely to have been joined at Shannon by G-ARVH. Several of the aircraft which have been used for the flight test and certification programme are now nearing the end of their tasks, and arrangements have been made for them to be modified to full delivery standard by Marshalls at Cambridge. The first, G-ARVE, went to Cambridge on December 18 and is to be followed by 'VC, 'VB and 'VA in that order. On December 30, 'VC was used for a 5hr test of the air-conditioning system, carrying 120 passengers. The route-proving VCIO, G-ARVF, has been under- going maintenance and modification at London Airport and is expected to resume its overseas flying early in January. Up to the end of 1963, total flying time of the nine VClOs exceeded 2,130hr in more than 900 flights. Recent overseas flights with the VC10, state the manufacturers, have demonstrated its superior performance when operating from hot and high airfields. The type was, of course, specially designed to meet BOAC's requirement for an aircraft capable of operating economically on the routes to Africa, Australia and the Far East. Since mid-October the route-proving VC10, G-ARVF, has been doing development flying over just the routes for which the type was intended. In a typical operation, on November 25, it flew the 4,260 miles from Nairobi to London non-stop, in 8hr 24min, in the face of strong headwinds. It is significant that no airlines currently schedule a direct Nairobi - London service. Although Nairobi has a 13,500ft runway the airport is 5,300ft above sea level, and at the time of the VClO's take-off the temper- ature was 27°C, or ISA + 12. In these conditions the VC10 was able to take-off at a weight of 292,0001b, only 20,0001b less than gross. On this occasion the gross weight comprised an A.P.S. weight of 144,2001b, a payload of 11,9001b, and a fuel load of 135,9001b. A climbing cruise procedure was adopted for the flight, and the aircraft landed at London Airport with 21,7501b of fuel remaining—sufficient for a diversion to Prestwick. A BOAC analysis of the performance of the Boeing 707-436 in identical conditions from Nairobi shows that, even with no com- mercial payload, it would have been unable to fly to London non-stop, whereas the VC10 carried a payload equivalent to 59 passengers. Although the Boeing has the same gross weight as the VC10, its take-off weight from Nairobi under the conditions at the time would have been 258,0001b. With an A.P.S. weight of 137,0001b this leaves only 121,0001b for fuel. The take-off weight restriction on the 707 would have been imposed by a limit on the tyre speed during the take-off run. The VC10 overcame this difficulty by reason of its lower take-off speed and was only limited by the altitude-temperature effect on climb performance. Even if the 707-436 had not been limited by tyre speed, the altitude-temperature limited take-off weight would have only been 271,0001b. WORLD SCHEDULED AIR TRAFFIC IN 1.963 AS 1963 closed, ICAO issued their provisional estimates of the year's figures for scheduled air traffic performed by airlines of the member states. The Soviet Union and the Republic of China are not members of ICAO. It has come to be expected of air transport that annual traffic figures will be higher than ever, and in all respects 1963 was no exception. During the year 90,000m scheduled passenger-miles were performed—an increase of 12 per cent on 1962 and the highest growth for three years. Undoubtedly this improvement was in- fluenced to a significant extent by the boom in United States domestic air travel which is provisionally estimated to have grown 13i per cent, the highest for several years. On the other hand, the growth-rate of air-freight ton-miles was down on the 1962 figure of 18 per cent, but at a 14 per cent growth over 1962 the business was still the fastest-growing section of the air transport industry. The fluctuating growih-rate in mail ton- miles continued, and the 1963 figure of 6 per cent was the lowest for ten years. Capt K. W. Steele, Cathay Pacific's oper- ations manager, has resigned owing to ill health. He joined Cathay Pacific from Australian National Airways, with whom he was flight superintendent, in 1953. He is succeeded by Capt D. Smith
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