FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2234.PDF
RIGHT International, 13 August 1964 245 Straight and Level ACCORDING to a British UnitedPress story from Washington,i "Sonic booms range in volume from rhat of a coin dropped on a mattress to the i'ur-splitting bang of a cannon fired inside a china shop." Or, possibly, like a cannon fired inside a mattress? • Nobody disagrees with the British Medical Association that rearward-facing seats can save lives in airliner crashes. The Ministry of Aviation said five years ago that such seats give a higher margin of safety. But no action has ever been taken. The reasons given are weight penalty and the possibility that passengers might not like to face backwards. If British airlines had to fit rearward facing seats they would be at a disadvantage compared with their com- petitors, etc. The same Government, but another department, insists and has always insisted on rearward-facing seats in RAF transport aircraft and in independent-airline aircraft used for trooping. One of these airlines, British United, whose aircraft operate both trooping and public transport services, recently did a survey, asking their passengers whether they had any preference. Result of the survey: 5 per cent preferred to face forward, 5 per cent preferred to face aft, and 90 per cent didn't care. "We'd like to see all aircraft fitted with rearward-facing seats," say British United, who claim that there is no weight penalty with their new VC10 seats. It's Absolutely You—No 12 Mrs C. de Beauvoir Stocks, the second English lady to secure a Royal Aero Club Pilot's certificate, graduated at '•he Grohome-White School at Hendon on a Henry Farman Ep/ane. Published in "Flight" for November 18, 1911 Guess what breed of dog this is, I shall give you two clues only: (I) his name is Masefield; (2) his master is Ranald Porteous. (Why the press badge? It was the only way he could get into the Coventry Air Pageant) It is not an easy problem, and BUA can't be sure how passengers will react to hanging in their seat belts during steep VC10 take- offs. But I hope the Ministry's safety people have taken note of the survey, and that they will give a stronger lead to the world than they have given over JP.4, which Mr Neil Marten shrugged off recently with: "It is largely a matter for the airlines concerned . . . we have endeavoured to use our influence but have not been successful." • New angle on the independent airlines by Mr John Diamond, Labour MP for Gloucester: "The Board of BO AC have to spend all their time swatting the little flies which trouble them, and are prevented from concentrating on their real job." • "Postal contracts are a form of subsidy for the American airline industry"—Sir W. Robson Brown, Conservative MP for Esher. It would be nice to believe this, just as it would be nice to believe the old chestnut that Pan American make a profit because of their Cape Kennedy missile contracts, etc, etc. For the record once again: Pan Ameri- can's mail rate is one third that of BOAC, and their total earnings from non-transport sources—e.g. Cape Kennedy, hotels, etc— are less than 1 per cent of their total revenues. • Mr Freddie Laker, managing director of British United Airways: "We believe that the average navigator always sharpens his pencil just that little bit sharper than the average pilot." "Flight International" photograph • The Sopwith Bat Boat, I read in R. Dallas Brett's History of British Aviation 1908-1914, "was flown backwards and forwards between a field close to the present site of Hamble aerodrome and a buoy in the Solent . . ." If I had read that the remarkable Sopwith Bat Boat was flown sideways I think I might have believed it. Cyclic Pitch • News item from Australia:— "AVM William Hely rode a bicycle 5,000ft above Canberra. He was inside a new version of the Hercules transport plane . . . After flying around for about half an hour, AVM Hely, who is Personnel Member of the Air Board, noticed a push bike in the plane. The bicycle is for the plane's crew when the plane has to park at a distance from airport services. AVM Hely pedalled the length of the plane, but came to grief when he tried to ride up the slanting rear doors." • I see that the Germans may be coming in on the Konkord(e). • "The London-to-Australia route is just crying out for SSTs, old boy. If you're going to get stonkered anyway you might just as well have the extra hours to recover in." • "This system is so complex we can't get enough trucks round the aeroplane to check it out." ROGER BACON
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
