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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2294.PDF
99 UGHT international, 0 August 1964 Preparing for the take-off from Keflavik ?ood weather and an easy approach, but a temperature on the ground of only 30°F. This was soon confirmed by the snow-covered shore, frozen lakes and iceberg-sprinkled sea which came into view luring the let-down. We landed after 3hr 25min airborne, only 5hr 30min elapsed time out of Shannon—certainly not unreason- ably less quick than a big jet, and infinitely more companionable ind bearable. Gander's splendid new terminal looks a little forlorn since the nainline traffic took to non-stop crossings. A trio of Royal Australian Air Force Caribous on delivery flight were waiting for lew propeller parts, a Seaboard World CL-44 was loading freight, matches of crisp snow fringed the otherwise empty aprons. It was 1545hr "tummy time," 1215 hr local time and 1445hr GMT. We vere having lunch for dinner and Sunday for supper. Gander ported three clocks to keep track of time in "civilization" to the ;ast and west. We could have made Gander non-stop from Shannon, but the :rew were tired and had taken the easy leg to Keflavik. But now hey planned direct to Marietta, Georgia, and home, filling the anks once more to bring the weight to maximum gross. Fuel load vas 17,8001b, temperature 35°F, predicted take-off EPR 2.7, limbing EPR 1.94, Vj 126kt, VR 131kt, V2 146kt and required ield length 6,470ft. Take-off involved the customary steep climb o FL 310, where we settled at 92 per cent r.p.m. and Mach 0.74 unning against a 75kt headwind at a Doppler ground-speed of 81kt. In due course we recrossed the coast inbound over Boston nd joined the US upper airway system, mostly under radar sur- eillance. This last leg, bringing our total travelling time from Shannon to yg the Shannon approach chart (clipped on a special board ttached to the aileron wheel) during the airways leg to Paris about 12 hours, was slightly tiring, though those with inner resources could find plenty to do, plenty of different seats to try and a cabin atmosphere which did much to relieve the length of the journey. After this length of time the otherwise unimportant cabin noise level became slightly intrusive, and one noticed that one had to raise one's voice slightly to talk between separated seats. With a protractor we measured against the external horizon that the JetStar seemed to cruise at something like a 6° fuselage angle of attack, so that rearward facing seats might well be slightly raked back. But both noise and seating comfort depend entirely upon the customer's particular choice of interior. There is an infinite selection in this respect. Having finally turned the corner in reliability—and this particular arduous sales tour amply proved this—Lockheed are now pro- ceeding to certain improvements. With some structural beefing, they are going to increase maximum landing weight to 33,0001b, if not 35,OO01b, so that they will be able to land with maximum passenger load and three hours' fuel. The point of this is that they will be able to make intermediate passenger stops without refuelling, thus giving the executive far greater flexibility of opera- tion. The landing weight is, incidentally, based on cutting the throttles at 50ft and 1.3 VSL and touching down at 1.22 VSL, giving a touchdown rate of descent of about 9ft/sec—a brutal test. The zero fuel weight, calculated in relation to centre of gravity as well as structural factors, is designed to allow carriage of full ten pass- engers and full fuel. Late in the last leg we climbed to FL 390, where cabin altitude was a mere 6,600ft, Mach number 0.77, i.a.s. 235kt, VNO 250kt and Doppler groundspeed in this instance 38Okt against the head- wind. We had 10° left drift. Intermittently we could see the country- side below, gradually turning from the verdant New England scenery into the red clay and rolling woodland of Georgia. We let down slowly, penetrating a layer of scattered cumulus cloud, and made a leisurely straight-in approach to the vast Dobbins AFB runway beside which Lockheed's huge Georgia factory lies. After touchdown [the pilot applied reverse thrust with the nosewheel held high off the runway. While this was an interesting demonstra- tion, it was intended here to minimize slight nosewheel shimmying which had developed at Keflavik. v We arrived at Dobbins at 2015hr tummy time, 1415hr local time and 1915 GMT, 12hr 15min out of Shannon, right where we wanted to be, fresh and comfortable. This is the way to travel, and represents a perfectly genuine transatlantic capability against head- winds, which none of the existing crop of executive jets can yet match, either in basic range capability or in promise of reliable and proven operation. There must be many companies who would consider their $1.3m or so well spent for a travelling vehicle of this capability—and Lockheed are diligently searching them out. It is simply a question of realizing the benefit of fast travel over what might be called European distances, plus the capability of extending the immediate radius of operation well into the Middle East and across the Atlantic, or anywhere else where business opportunities may present themselves. Certainly the value of a proven vehicle for the purpose is incalculable—even more important to the company with one aeroplane than to an airline with a fleet.
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