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Aviation History
1968
1968 - 2298.PDF
596 WORLD NEWS . . . During the first eight months of 1968, UK air exports, including guided weapons, totalled £174,385,000, compared with £130,681,000 for the same period of 1967. Sales of engines and parts, amounting to £90,026,000, formed the major part of the January-August exports; sales of aircraft and parts amounted to £75,837,000; guided weapons to £4,823,000; instruments to £2,861,000 and tyres to £788,000. The USA was Britain's largest customer, buying £44,332,000 worth of engines and parts and £16,997,000 worth of aircraft and parts. Olympic Airlift Three Breguet 941s—941S Nos 1 and 3 and the prototype, 941-01—were re- cently used to transport French athletes from their Olympic training centre at Font-Romeu to Toulouse-Blagnac, whence they were flown to Mexico by Air France. The 941s, captained by three test pilots—Bernard Witt of Breguet. Claude Chautemps of CEV and Jean Pinet of Sud—took off from Font Romeu-St Leocadie, an unprepared strip 1,200m (3,937ft) up, landing less than 45min later near Toulouse-Blagnac. so that the athletes did not lose the benefit of their high-altitude training. Three-Eleven Market Survey Last weekend three top-level technical/ sales teams from the British Aircraft Corporation left for the USA, Europe and the east (initially Japan) to discuss the market for the proposed 200/220- seater Three-Eleven with some 40 major airlines. BAC needs to see a minimum initial sale of 50 Three-Elevens from at least three airlines, followed by 150-200 during the 1970s. Eight Semi finalists for FX The United States Department of Defence has selected eight companies to submit contract definition proposals for FX, the new tactical fighter which will be a major part of the USAF air-combat element from 1975 onwards. They are Boeing, Fairchild-Hiller, General Dyna- mics. Grumman, Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas, North American Rockwell and Northrop and submissions must be made by November 30. Two companies will then be selected to continue detailed design work, and the final choice of contractor is expected to be made by the end of next year. The programme is financed at $59 million (£25 million) for the fiscal year 1969 (July 1968-June 1969) and it is expected that the first FX will fly in 1972. Two engine companies—Pratt & Whit- ney and General Electric—received en- gine development contracts last August. That the engine programme is in advance of that of the airframe reflects the over- whelming importance of engine design to the success of the aircraft It is not impossible that France may play some part in another American project, the VFX for the USN. Follow- ing the Dassault/LTV collaboration agreement (Flight, September 26 and October 3), the selection of LTV must result in some French contribution to the LTV submission. There are at present four contractors in the VFX study pro- gramme, of which LTV is one. Full French participation in the VFX pro- gramme in the event of LTV being selected as finalist is considered doubt- ful in the light of present Franco- American relations; but with a change in French and American administration —possible in the first case and certain in the second—this situation could change before the project really began to harden. Major Knight Honoured For a series of X-15 flights, during which he reached a speed of 4,520 m.p.h.. Maj William J. ("Pete") Knight of the USAF has been awarded the 1968 Harmon International Aviator's Trophy. Maj Knight piloted the X-15A-2 to a speed of 4,520 m.p.h.—faster than it had ever been flown before or since— on October 3, 1967, exceeding a record speed he had previously set up. A few days later he qualified for astronaut's wings, given by the USAF to pilots flying more than 50 miles above Earth to the outer fringes of its atmosphere, by taking the X-15A-2 up to 280.000ft The Harmon Trust citation says that "the flights accomplished by Maj Knight obtained basic research data directly applicable to the future construction of hypersonic transports . . . and contributed significantly to US aircraft research programmes." Autair Orders One-Eleven 500s An order for five BAC One-Eleven 500s has been placed by Autair Inter- national, the manufacturers announced early this week. The airline has taken an option on a further three. Although no exact delivery schedule was given, BAC said that all five aircraft should come into service in time for the 1970 holiday season. BUA Group's Structure The new holding company for the BUA group, BUA (Holdings), is owned 92 per cent by British & Commonwealth Shipping and 8 per cent by Eagle Star Insurance. The principal subsidiaries are British United Airways and the new British United Island Airways which comes into official existence on November 1 (see story on pages 598-599). BUA (Holdings) also has a 51 per cent interest in Bristow Helicopters, and 70, 60.5 and 60 per cent interests respectively in Sierra Leone Airways, Uganda Avia- tion Services and Gambia Airways. XV-4B Flies "by Wire" What is believed to be the first flight by an aircraft controlled entirely by commands signalled electrically by its pilot has been made by the Lockheed XV-4B Hummingbird IIV/STOL research aircraft at Atlanta, Georgia. There is no mechanical linkage between the pilot's FLIGHT International, 17 October (945 controls and the flying control surfaces in the primary system; instead, pick-offs on the control column and rudder pedals transmit electrical signals to the powered- control units on elevators, rudder and ailerons. A back-up system is fitted fOr manual reversion. There are, of course, many aircraft flying with electrically powered flyjng control units, but these all have a mechanical linkage between the pilots controls and the units. The adoption of an "all-electric" system—an apparently straightforward, simple and obvious step. discussed for many years—represents a fundamental change in philosophy, especially where the high safety standards demanded by civil aviation are concerned. The XV-4B, built under US Army contract in 1961, completed its original programme a year or so ago and was recently modified to include four J85-GE-19 lift engines of 3,0151b thrust each, with two similar units for propul- sion, together with the new system. The XV-4B will be used in a research pro- gramme to develop and assess an integ- rated flight control system. Fan Jet Falcon Faster The FAA has authorised an increase in the maximum operating ("red line") speed of the Fan Jet Falcon from Mach 0.85 to Mach 0.88. This means that for the first time a business jet is certificated for a speed of more than 600 m.p.h. at altitude. Air League Treasurer Mr Ian Campbell Orde has been elected honorary treasurer of the Air League. He succeeds Mr Clive Hunting, now the league's chairman. Instructors' Forum Amendment Since page 611 of this issue closed for press with the report of the Instructors' Forum at Kidlington it has been learned that the name of the lecturer on in- structional techniques should have been given, correctly, as Wg Cdr Ray Tavanyar. NEXT WEEK IN ... "Flight" Thursday, October 24): Britain's airline industry surveyed: our annual review giving company-by-company in- formation on scheduled and non- scheduled carriers—brief histories; routes- fleets; names of executives; financial results; future plans. THIS WEEK IN ... "Autocar" (Thursday, October 17): Motor Show Number (biggest issue of the year). containing a stand-by-stand, fully <f'us' trated description of the exhibits ai Earls Court. "Amateur Photographer" (Wednesday- October 16): Preliminary report on the new cameras and other equipment intro- duced at Photokina, the big exhibition m Cologne.
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