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Aviation History
1966
1966 - 1207.PDF
692 RIGHT /nternat,ona/ 28 Apr,/ /966 KLM introduced the DC-9 into service—the frst non-US airline to do so—last Monday, April 25, on the Amsterdam- Geneva-Nice route. The airline will have all six in service by September and is considering the purchase of an additional ten series 30, five of which may be passenger-cargo variants AIR TRANSPORT. . . but it would be interesting to have his opinion if Lockheed, not Boeing, get the contract to build that aircraft. Engineering The last unresolved feature of the overall design of the 747 was the fuselage cross-section. Mr Sutter explained that a near-circular section was chosen in preference to a double-bubble because, although the latter could be made better to encompass the payload, the result left very little space for systems and the huge air conditioning ducts. The single-deck was also preferred by the airlines, was better adaptable to freight loading systems, led to simpler air con- ditioning and other aircraft systems and also proved a more efficient structural shape. Ground angle clearances have been set to permit considerable fore and aft fuselage stretching. Low-speed high-lift wing-device design has yet to be fixed, but a double-slotted trailing edge flap arrangement is certain to be used with the front flap section being nearly as big in chord as the aft section—rather like the trailing edge droop on the 737 main flap. Slats and Kruger leading-edge devices will be used. The flying controls will be power boosted, and dutch roll and engine-out dynamic characteristics are not expected to be more difficult than on the 707: the engines are further inboard, and there is already a generous tail arm. WARSAW STILL IN THE BALANCE THERE are still hopes that the USA may be persuaded to withdraw its notice of denunciation of the Warsaw Conven- tion (scheduled to take effect on May 15) if present endeavours by IATA and European governments are successful. Negotia- tions between the State Department and US airlines (see Flight for March 31, page 502) broke down on the issue of "absolute liability" as a condition of the interim minimum limits of liability of $75,000 (including costs) for actions fought in the USA and $58,000 (plus costs) for actions brought elsewhere. If the US carriers had agreed to these figures and conditions for passengers travelling to and from the USA on contracts of carriage governed by either the original Warsaw Convention, or as amended at the Hague in 1955, then the State Depart- ment would have proceeded to seek the agreement of foreign carriers preliminary to withdrawing the notice of denunciation. The figures were the same as those evolved at the Montreal conference in February (Flight for March 3, page 335), but the demand for "absolute liability" was quite new and unacceptable to the major US domestic airlines, who feared that the prin- ciple, once accepted, might soon spread to the purely domestic scene. Soon after it was known that negotiations with the US airlines had broken down, Sir William Hildred in one of his last acts before leaving Montreal (he retired officially as director general of IATA on April 15), asked the State Department if he could make one final effort to secure the agreement of IATA members and the US airlines by May 1 to accept the figures and conditions which the US airlines had just rejected. The State Department replied that if this were achieved it would "give serious consideration" to withdrawing the notice of denunciation. European governments meeting in London on April 18 con- sidered the new situation and decided upon a common form of representation to be sent to the State Department with a view to securing withdrawal of the US notice of denunciation. It remains to be seen whether either or both the IATA and the government efforts are successful. It seems likely that the US domestic carriers will continue to oppose the principle of "absolute liability"; therefore, unless the State Department is prepared to relent on this point, the chances of IATA success may be no better than in the previous negotiations between US airlines and the State Department. Perhaps this is where foreign governments can be helpful in bringing pressure to bear at the 11 £th hour. There are just 16 days left. SEPARATION SURPRISE ACCUSATIONS that Britain is making the North Atlantic separation dispute into a platform for pushing the adoption of Decca/Dectra interests in North Atlantic navigation were being made privately during the FAA hearing on North Atlantic separation which opened in Washington on April 18. Reports said that the US delegate to ICAO, Mr Nelson David, had cabled the FAA to say that ". . . there is also the possibility that Decca/Dectra interests in the UK influence the sincerity of the UK's views on this matter of N. Atlantic separation." On April 19 a retired Pan American pilot, Capt W. Masland, denied that he had been hired by Decca to lead the fight against reduced separation. He told the FAA inquiry that he thought better navigation systems were needed before pilots would agree to reduce the lateral separation from 120 n.m. to 90 n.m. above FL290. When asked whether the navigation systems ne endorsed included Decca, Capt Masland said, "I've been waiting for that question. It's a most disgusting insinuation.' Af), The US Air Line Pilots' Association alleged that ICAU decision to reduce the separation was based on unrehable formation and was unsafe. In support of its case the Assot tion produced three statistical experts who attacked the sury on which ICAO based its decision as bad arithmetic. FAA admitted that BOAC, Pan American and TWA p were asking for flight levels below FL290 so that they fly at the old separation standard of 120 n.tn. nirector IATA, represented at the inquiry by the technical w designate, Dr R. R. Shaw, began by stressing *e Pre3ended of safety in the objectives of both IATA and ICAU, a u ^ by saying that it thought the reduction in separa ^ prudent." It has been proved that the facilities ««'»" ft the ground and in the air are fully adequate to enaoic to be flown with the required precision. . . •' Air Tran,port continu
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