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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2029.PDF
52 FLIGHT International, 9 July 1964 QANTAS.. The Qantas jet base at Sydney Kingsford Smith airport: I, engine and component overhaul; 2, engine test cell; 3, hoeing light maintenance; 4, air cargo terminal; S, Electra maintenance; 6, teeing major overhaul. Terminal buildings are: 7, Ansett-ANA;8, overseas airlines, includ- ing Qantas; 9, TAA 1,000 engine hours, or one engine per 37,327 engine hours. Total number of fan engines prematurely removed in the last 12 months at •en route stations: four. Premature fan-removal rate for a recent three-month period: one per 1,653 engine hours compared with a Super Connie premature engine-removal rate of one per 965 engine hours for a three-month period. Qmtas have no regrets about the Electra; on the contrary, Mr 'C. O. Turner says of it: "It has been very successful, something we feel a little satisfaction about. We shall keep them for a very long time, though in a way I am sorry we can't sell them—they're fetching a lot of money at the moment on the second-hand market." The Electras were bought primarily for the New Guinea and New Zealand services, although soon after their purchase Qantas, in a Government decision which was deeply regretted by the airline, were required to hand over the New Guinea services—after 13 years of Qantas development—to TAA. The Allison 5O1-D13 turboprop engines are running to l,500hr between overhauls, and give good reliability except for some gearbox troubles; 2,600hr is thought to be about as high as the engine may go. The airline's engineering base occupies 110 acres at Kingsfont Smith Airport, Sydney, a vast reclaimed area developed over the last few years by the airline at a cost—including diversion of *; railway line—of £A7£m. Depicted in the annotated photograph, it is something of a garden city, set out with flowers, shrubs and lawns, partly for asthetic reasons, and partly to keep down dust and dirt. Horticulture is not directly a requisite of quality airline engineering, but a pleasant environment fosters that pride and self- respect which are essential to quality engineering. About 3,000 people are employed at the base out of a total airline workforce of 7,500. About 1,500 are actively engaged on the engineering and production side. We were struck by the cost-consciousness of Qantas's engineers. Everything is discussed in terms of money. Mr Dick Ashover, assistant chief engineer: "It costs about £A450,000 a year to maintain a Boeing 707, including overheads and obsolescence. A major overhaul every 4,500hr or 14 months takes three weeks and costs £A32,OOO. There are 3,000 components on a 707 that have to be taken off at some time or another—some run to 500hr, others to Like Australian industry as a whole these days, Qantas do business with the Japanese. Left, a Mitsui Seiki jigborer, the first machine of its kind in the country, cost £AI9,500, operates to tolerances of one-tenth of a thou, and it is said that Qantas wrote their own guarantee for it. Below, one of Qantas's numerous three-wheeler Japanese Mazda runabouts "Flight international" photographs I iiiiia ^ii j iBH^BMjMyjj^^^^^^H
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