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Aviation History
1965
1965 - 0079.PDF
FLIGHT International, 14 January 1965 A|R TRANSPORT . GOOD YEAR FOR BOAC A WORLD-WIDE increase of about 20 per cent in total passengers carried on scheduled services was recorded by BOAC in 1964 in comparison with 1963. The two figures were 1,139,000 and 946,231 respectively. Total for scheduled and non-scheduled operations Was 1,212,100 by comparison with 1,043,374—an increase of 16per cent. North Atlantic results showed, as for most if not all of the other 18 airlines on the route, the biggest increases (see Flight, December 31, page 1106). On this route a total of 440,600 passengers were carried (17 per cent up), including those on charter and inclusive- tour flights. More than 317,000 were flown between the UK and USA. INADEQUATE INVESTIGATION CO-OPERATION A MAJOR issue at the January 19 ICAO meeting in Montreal is expected to be the question of international co-operation (or lack of it) in accident investigations. The US airline and manufacturing industries are concerned about the variations in the amount of co-operation between US investigators and foreign governments in investigations of accidents involving American aircraft and citizens. After the recent TWA take-off accident at Fiumicino, for instance, the Italian Government invited both the CAB and the FAA to take part in the investigation. On the other hand there have been accident investigations to which no US representatives have been invited. Cases mentioned by Aviation Daily include the Air France 707 take-off crash at Orly in June 1963, when 130 persons, many of them US citizens; were killed and the CAB was not allowed to participate. No report on this accident had yet been received by the US authorities. The report on the Sabena 707 accident in February 1961—in which all the US Olympic skating team members were killed—was eventually received last year. SOFT-FIELD LANDING GEAR BOEING'S soft-field landing gear has now become the subject of a patent application by the three inventors—Wendell B. Fehring, Friedrich W. Scherer and Lloyd E. Shuman, of the company's product development organization. Tests were made last year with an experimental gear fitted to Boeing's Dash-80 707 prototype on Harper Dry Lake, California (Air Commerce, Flight, October 1, 1964, page 582). The patented gear includes extensible axles for spreading the load, and a self-jacking feature so that wheels can be changed and the aircraft "walked out" of soft earth. It is claimed that the wheel separation increases the undercarriage's "flotation capability" by from five to 50 times with the same number of wheels. The specification is for a four-wheel unit with two wheels on each side of the supporting strut. The axle on which the outer wheel is installed telescopes with that for the inner wheel. The wheels on each side of the unit can be spread apart and are returned to a closed position for retraction. Brakes are provided on both inner and outer wheels. When the undercarriage is being self-jacked, hydro-pneumatic or other power is used to extend the landing-gear strut. When two units are installed on each side in tandem, this self-jacking makes it possible to change wheels without the need for wheel jacks. The system also allows the aircraft to be moved under its own power when stuck in soft earth. In this case first one landing gear unit would be raised and a supporting surface placed under it. The gear would then be extended, lifting the aircraft. The second unit would be jacked clear and similarly supported so that the aircraft could then be moved under its own power. ACE FREIGHTERS' YEAR OF EXPANSION AVIATION CHARTER ENTERPRISES, better known as Ace Freighters, the all-cargo carrier based at London Gatwick Airport, continues to expand. First operational with one L-749A big-side- door Constellation last March 1, the company soon acquired a 47 DC-4 as the ad hoc all-cargo charter business began to develop. By March 1 this year Ace Freighters expect to be operating eight aircraft—two DC-4s and six L-749 Constellations. Four of the Connies have already been bought from South African Airways and are being made ready. Their small doors are not expected to be a handicap yet; much of the present traffic is in the form of small packages. Mr Mike Cullen, formerly aircraft sales manager of British Eagle, and recently appointed commercial manager of Ace Freighters, told Flight last week how business in the first nine months' operations had been well up to expectations. "We certainly have no qualms now about being purely and simply an all-cargo airline." The freedom from passenger-handling considera- tions has obviously let Ace make an uncompromised attack on the much talked-about "air-freight potential." ICAO'S AFRICAN PLANS THE ICAO Africa-Indian Ocean Regional Air Navigation meeting in Rome just before Christmas agreed to a five-year programme of improvements to be made to all parts of the air transport infrastructure throughout the region. The meeting, when dealing with communication facilities, concluded that the present service for carrying point-to-point messages was largely obsolete. A new network of some 90 radio or landline teletypewriter circuits was required. For more rapid co-ordination between various area and FIR controllers 85 new direct-speech circuits were proposed. Necessary improvements in the actual ground-to-air communication sys- tem were agreed, and included better quality transmissions and a draft plan for more meteorological broadcasts. A new depart- ure for the region was the proposal for extended-range VHF speech communications. On the difficult question of ground navigation aids, DME, as an approach aid, is recommended for the first time in the region. Two terminal-area radars were recommended—for Dakar and Cairo. ATC services covering the climb and descent phases should always, it was agreed, have priority over other requirements. Airport facilities are also scheduled for improvement. With the emergence of independent nations many airports dealing only with local-service airliners are now faced with the pros- pect of longer-haul international services. Fifty-eight airports, already operational in the latter category, are judged to be in need of major improvement The aerodrome plan embodies improved specifications for visual aids, including approach lights and runway markings; a requirement for Visual Approach Indicator Systems in the region has been introduced for the first time. A model of the Boeing soft-earth landing gear (see story on the left) which has extensible axles, for distributing the aircraft weight when the undercarriage is down, and self-jacking capability
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