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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1463.PDF
810 FLIGHT International, 14 May 1964 Straight and Level ON purely aesthetic grounds I havealways considered the Concord to bea beautiful aeroplane, with the clean, right look of all really good designs. This is especially so now that its designers have given up trying to get away with a folding visor. But with the nose drooped the beautiful shape vanishes, and the graceful SST looks as if it has taxyed into a brick wall. The Concord is likely to have the nose drooped at all times except when it is cruising at Mach 2.2. Since I doubt if many of us will be able to formate on a Concord in cruising flight, it looks as if the public are never going to see a Concord except with its nose out of joint. Never mind. You realize of course that as the SBAC's rules stand the Concord will be ineligible for display at the 1968 show at Farnborough. • Disaster was narrowly averted at London Airport last night when Captain Speaking, famous wartime bomber hero, brought his Boeing jet down safely after nearly landing at Blackpool Squire's Gate Airport by mistake. Captain Speaking, chief pilot of Potters Bar Airways, said he had confused Blackpool Tower for Heathrow's control tower. Earlier on the same flight Captain Speaking saved his 128 passengers when, with great skill, he narrowly averted land- ing at Hatfield, Herts, having mistaken the de Havilland factory there for Windsor Castle. This incident occurred only half an hour after Captain Speaking had nearly put his giant jet down on the beach at Cromer, Norfolk, having mistaken the Grand Hotel there for the Twickenham Steam Laundry, which is his "signpost" to Heathrow. A spokesman for BALPA, the pilots' union, said: "We intend to lodge a strong protest with the Ministry of Aviation. We shall demand that de Havillands, the Grand Hotel at Cromer and Blackpool Tower be immediately demolished," he declared. A Ministry of Aviation spokes- man thought it "extremely unlikely" that the pilots' demands would be implemented until the Minister was back from lunch. • As you know, in six years seven British public transport aircraft have hit mountains with a loss of 245 lives. The Minister of Aviation was recently asked a question in the House of Commons about the international regulations that exist "to control aircraft landings at airports located near mountains." Replied Mr Neil Marten: "Bad weather approach procedures are agreed by ICAO and these provide adequate clearance from obstructions and surrounding terrain. Criteria are also agreed for weather minima for all airports used by public transport." You see, all is well! Thank heavens for that. • ' ''BOA C is a good airline and its operating disciplines, operating efficiency and so on are first-class. In fact, by any criterion if it's not the world's best airline it's damn near it, and all the hands that have shaped it deserve credit."—Mr D. G. Anderson, Australia's director-general of civil aviation. • "Visitors to the London Zoo will soon be able to see the Arctic Stone Crab, al- though a batch of these was eaten in error by airline passengers . . . 'We will fly in another consignment as soon as we can' said a spokesman for Air France, who /t's Absolutely You— No 6 Women's Aerial League Meeting, Hendon, 1911. Miss Stanley and Sir Edward Sey- mour on the right Are you all right? added: 'The cabs were extremely huge and ubly'."—From a news agency report. I don't know why airlines are so fussy about food. If passengers will eat "extremely huge and ubly Arctic Stone cabs," they will eat anything. Cargo Breakthrough? • "DC-8F All-Cargo Jet, Milan-New York—30,000kg per flight at the speed of sound."—From an Alitalia advertisement. She must be Jelly— 'Cos Jam Don't Shake Like That • The VC10 that was due to operate the May 1 service to Lagos, bringing back Sir Giles Guthrie of BOAC and a party of air correspondents, had to be replaced by a Boeing 707 because, according to one news- paper, "the VC10 had the trembles." Nerves, perhaps? Understandable so early in one's public life. But alas, it was the naughty stick-shaker shaking when it shouldn't. Seriously, I hope it's not the old faulty fire-warning light problem all over again. How many million delays, cancellations and losses have been caused by safety devices giving false warnings? I tremble to think. • "200 members of the Malaysian security forces today searched dense jungle . . • after reports that 500 parachutists had been dropped from an unidentified aircraft — report in The Times. I often wondered where the Convau XC-99 went. ROGER BACON
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