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Aviation History
1967
1967 - 1602.PDF
206 [FLIGHT International, 10 August 1967 AIR TRANSPORT . . . This BAC One-Eleven, G-ATPL, has been leased to SAS by British Eagle for operations on the Copenhagen- Zurich route and on domestic ser- vices, pending the arrival of the first of the carrier's DC-9-20s. The One-Eleven, "Arnold Viking," is seen here at Heathrow Airport, London, before delivery to Copenhagen NO JOY FOR EAGLE THE ATLB has approved the application of Cambrian Air- ways to operate over the Liverpool-Dublin route; the airline's application for the revocation of British Eagle's licence for the route was also granted. The "main concern" of the board in deciding the case was "to restore a British-operated service to the route as soon as possible." Eagle announced the suspension of the Liverpool-Dublin services in February because of the economic situation and a failure to agree with Aer Lingus on timings, capacity and equipment. Cambrian's licence is subject to a "use it or lose it" proviso of operating at least 24 return flights per month in the summer and 16 in the winter. A starting date will be announced as soon as it is known whether Eagle is to appeal or not; the plans must also be cleared with the Irish authorities. British Eagle has certainly not been very successful recently in its applications and appeals. Last month the airline lost its second appeal against the refusal of a proposed Liverpool-Paris service and its approval to Cambrian (see Flight for July 27, page 126) and less than a month before the ATLB had refused an increase in Heathrow-Glasgow frequency of from 12 to 15 return flights a week. In this case the board's view was that the traffic growth on the route was very small and that there was, at present, insufficient scope on the route for three operators. This view was reinforced by the fact that BUA had not yet taken advantage of the increased frequency allowed last December on the Gatwick-Glasgow service. "This," the board commented, "was a commercial judgment and seems to us to reflect a situation in which it should be irresponsible to licence more capacity. . . ." MEASURING VISIBILITY A NEW airfield visibility measurement system was demon- strated at Luton on August 2 by its manufacturers, Kent Indus- trial Instruments, in association with the Meteorological Office to whose specification the equipment has been built. The Ministry of Defence has placed an initial order worth £30,000 for ten units, which will be used by the Meteorological Office for observations at military and civil airfields. Introducing the equipment, Dr N. E. Rider, assistant director (instruments and observations) of the Meteorological Office, said that the fundamental parameter was meteorological optical range, and that this could be scientifically measured. The system comprises a light transmitter and a photoelectric cell receiver mounted on 10ft towers sited 200yd apart, with a control unit, a stabilised lamp power unit, and an electronic strip chart recorder. The transmitter produces a steady beam which is monitored by the receiver; visibility measurements are recorded on the strip chart once every 20sec, or more frequently if required. Using the equipment on this 200yd baseline, visibili- ties between 100yd and 4,000yd can be recorded. The photo- electric cell used is of the selenium barrier type and selected for having perception characteristics similar to those of the human eye. An important possible application for the equipment is in the determination of runway visual range (RVR) at civil air- ports, and it is believed that the Board of Trade is planning trials with one unit during next winter. There are still a number of difficulties to be solved in the translation of the objective measurements of optical range into the essentially subjective concept of RVR, and in presenting the result quickly to the air traffic controller for relay to the pilot. Factors such as dazzle, glare, runway lighting intensity and ambient cockpit lighting conditions have a bearing on RVR, which is therefore incapable of exact measurement. It has not yet been convincingly demon- strated that measuring devices are better than human observers for RVR assessment, except perhaps at very low visibilities, but with the need for observations to be taken at several points along a runway, and not just at the threshold, they may prove to be more economical. The Kent equipment is expected to sell at a basic £2,000 to £2,500 per unit; this excludes the cost of a telemetry unit, normally needed for transmitting the observa- tion data over distances greater than 1,000yd. Fatal Sonic Boom A sonic boom made by a French Air Force jet caused a barn to collapse near Vannes, Western France, on August 1. Three workers in the barn were killed by the fall of debris and of eight tons of barley in the loft. TransAir Sells Bush Facilities The sale of a considerable part of its bush facilities to Hooker Air Service, of Pickle Lake, Ontario, has recently been completed by TransAir of Winnipeg. The sale is in line with the Canadian ATB's view that regional carriers should divest themselves of bush opera- tions in northern areas and concentrate on scheduled services. Autair in July Nearly 8,500 passengers were carried in July by Autair International on scheduled services—more than in any other previous month and three times as many as in July 1966. The average load factor was 52 per cent. The best- supported route was Hull - Channel Islands and one of the best was, interestingly enough, the newly opened Tees-side - Hull- Amsterdam route. Runway Extension for Leeds/Bradford? The Joint Commit tee of Leeds/Bradford Airport has agreed in principle to the extension of runway 15/33 from the present 5,400ft to about 7,300ft so that short-haul jets can be accommodated. The decision follows the publication of the Alan Stratford survey (to be summarised in a later issue of Flight) outlining at) air- port programme for Yorkshire and Humberside up to the year 1980. Canadian Transcontinental Hold-up CPAL will not be able to begin its recently authorised second transcontinental service until November because of the late delivery of equipment. Both CPAL and Air Canada are experiencing high load factors on the route. CPAL is, however, offering six extra fligh!E a week Montreal - Toronto, but these are operated as sectors of the carrier's international flights. At peak periods. Air Canada has been flying 49 daily flights between Montreal and Toronto. SST Differential Necessary Fares for SST services should be about 25 per cent higher than those for subsonic jet flight so as to meet the high introductory costs and to justify the time-saving for the passengers. This was said by Mr Stuart G. Tipton, president of the US Air Transport Association, when he was at Toulouse last month to see the Concorde 001 pr°t0' type. He had previously visited Bristol Siddeley at Filton (s« last week's issue, page 167) to see the progress made on the Olympus 593 engine.
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