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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 1598.PDF
202 FLIGHT International, 10 August 1967 Fellowship No 2 The second F.28, PH-WEV, photographed during its first flight on August 3. See also page 205 WORLD E W S Expenditure: New Criticisms Only ten days after the Committee of Public Accounts questioned profits made by Bristol Siddeley on Government con- tracts it has produced another report in which aviation expenditure in six other directions is criticised. Among them is the price paid to Hawker Siddeley for Buccaneers; and last weekend the com- pany took the unusual step of issuing a public statement in refutation. The report is referred to in more detail on page 240 of this issue. HP Merger Story Denied A newspaper report of a possible merger of Handley Page with a view to increasing production capacity to meet present commitments has been denied. The company says that impending com- pletion of new building work at Radlett will increase production capacity there by a third, and that it is confident of meeting the demands of its Jetstream, Herald and military programmes. Mystery of Mr Tshombe's HS.125 Was the Air Hanson HS.125 carrying Mr Moise Tshombe, the former Congo- lese Prime Minister, hi-jacked or confis- cated when it deviated from the June 30 flight planned from Ibiza to Palma and landed at an Algerian military airfield? The question sharpened last week when Air Hanson submitted a claim to their insurance underwriters at Lloyd's for the value of the aircraft—put at £200,000. The underwriters have expressed the view that the HS.125 was confiscated; cover against such an eventuality is specifically excluded in the policy. The aircraft, G-ASNU, is still at the military airfield in Algeria (its name has not been given by the authorities) as these words go to press, and the pilots, Capt David Taylor and Capt Trevor Coppleston, are still being held in that country. The exact circumstances of the deviation from the flight plan are still a mystery. The pilots have been ques- tioned by the Algerians but no statement has been issued. Last week an Algerian News Agency report received by the Foreign Office in London stated that at 1810 GMT on Friday, June 30, G-ASNU entered Algerian airspace 50 miles north- west of Algiers where a military for- bidden zone had been established on June 10. The Algerian regional control- ler was said to have ordered the aircraft to report over Dellys, there to hold, and to await instructions. The pilot then told the controller that he was being "con- strained" to land at Algiers with a per- sonality on board, and that the aircraft had fuel for only ten minutes' flight. Control was then said to have instructed the pilot to proceed to the military air- field, where a landing was made at 1825 GMT. Guided-weapon Exports Record For the first time, a half-yearly figure for exports of British guided weapons has been published, the Society of British Aerospace Companies reporting a record total for the first six months of 1967—£5,888,000. GW exports for the whole of 1966, the first year for which any figures were published, amounted to £10,660,000. No breakdown of these totals, either by countries or types, is available. The SBAC has also announced that British exports of aircraft engines and equipment for the first half of 1967 reached the second highest total ever recorded for a similar six months' period—£95,234,000. This success follows last year's all-time-record aviation export total of £206,521,000. The SBAC comments that "an interest- ing trend in aerospace sales abroad is in the increasing orders for aviation elec- tronic equipment placed by the Soviet Union in Britain, currently worth near to £1$ million and promising a major expansion in the months ahead." Sheila Scott's Cape-London Record On August 1 Miss Sheila Scott in her Piper Comanche 260B G-ATOY arrived back at London Heathrow Airport from Cape Town after making the journey in an elapsed time of two days 19hr 56min. The time establishes a new point-to- point record, subject to FAI confirma- tion, and it was accomplished in seven hours less than her outward trip early in July, which beat Mrs Amy Mollison's 1936 record. Miss Scott described her flight as "the most terrifying and thrill- ing of my life." The automatic pilot failed over the Sahara, then both the HF communications and radio compass failed and, with less than an hour's fuel remaining, Miss Scott was guided to a landing at RAF El Adem, Libya. Near Paris she encountered a thunderstorm. The Royal Aero Club last week con- firmed (subject to FAI homologation) her London-Cape Town flight times (Flight, August 3, page 193). A presentation in recognition of the record flights is to be made to Miss Scott by the Air League. It will take the form of a travelling clock and be handed over to her at the King's Cup Air Race meeting at Tollerton Airport, Notting- ham, on August 19. A picture of Miss Scott on her return to Heathrow appears on page 212. Mi-6 Lost on Water-drop Flight An Mi-6 operated by Aeroflot crashed near Marseilles on August 6 during a demonstration of water bombing on a forest fire. All the occupants—the crew of four, three Russian technicians, a French official and an interpreter—were killed. One report said that the accident occurred in hilly country after the tail rotor struck a rock. It happened on the first flight of the demonstration, for which the helicopter had lifted 12 tons of water. Tees-side Races Round two in this year's British National Air Racing season was won at Tees-side Airport last Saturday, August 5, by the Hon James Baring, who flew the new Luton Beta to its first competition success. The Royal Aero Club handicap- pers staged a close finish; but the first man across the line, Noel Husbands, turned out to have been one of several pilots affected by subsequent timing ad- justments by the stewards to compen- sate for delays on the starting-line to seven of the field of 32. During the second lap of the race the Proctor 3 of Fit Lt Alan Turley caught fire. Quick forced-landing action by Mrs Dawn Turley, who was piloting, and by Fit Lt Turley, who was on board, g°( the aircraft into a field just in time to escape before the fire destroyed it. Both pilots received severe burns, and as this report went to press Mrs Turley was still on the danger list but her husband's con- dition was improving. Before the race Fit Lt Turley had flown an RAF Light- ning in the display. The meeting began with the British
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