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Aviation History
1971
1971 - 0004.PDF
FLIGHT Internationa], 7 January I97t lined in a letter to Sen John Stcnnis, chairman of the Senate Armed Ser vices Committee. Mr Packard said that failure to help Lockheed could have potentially grave consequences for defence programmes. The corporation has until the end of January to an nounce its decisions on his proposals. The alternative—possible litigation between Lockheed and the US Air Force—could result in anything from a recovery by the corporation of $25 million (£10.8 million) to their losing $480 million (£200 million). Lockheed had asked the DoD last March for more than $600 million (£250 million) to help continue work on the C-5A, Cheyenne, shipbuilding projects and the Sram missile motor. In his letter, which the DoD made public, Mr Packard said that the cor poration's bankruptcy was inevitable unless additional funds were provided. Even if they were, there was no guarantee that bankruptcy would be avoided, because Lockheed's overall financial stability was dependent on its commercial programmes, particularly the TriStar. The DoD proposals do not have to be approved by Congress, but it is thought that they may revive wide spread criticism over C-5A costs, which have already vastly exceeded the original estimate. Second Faucett 475 With its first BAC One-Eleven 475 due to enter service in July, Faucett of Peru has ordered a second. SST Lives on There always seems to be an escape route in American politics, and the SST found one at the eleventh hour last week, when Senate opponents of the project agreed to call oft' their filibuster in return for an assurance that full debate would be permitted early in the next Congress, due to con vene in March. Supporters of the aircraft have con ceded separation of the SST budget from the Transportation Bill, so that the next vote will be directly oh* the merits of the aircraft. Rousseau Nord Lost A Nord 2(12 of Rousseau Aviation crashed into the Mediterranean on December 31 while en route from Algiers to Mahon. A distress call from the aircraft was heard but, despite an extensive search, wreckage had still not been found as Flight went to press. All 27 passengers and three crew are missing, presumed dead. Tripoli Comet Crash Eight passengers and eight crew members aboard a Comet of United Arab Airlines were killed when the aircraft crashed half-a-mile from the runway during final approach to Tripoli on January 2. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service from Algiers to Cairo and it is reported that there were high winds and a sand storm at Tripoli at the time of the accident. Two days previously another UAA Comet blocked the runway at Asmara when seven tyres burst on landing. UAA has grounded its re maining Comets pending investiga tions. Twenty-five Years of Heathrow On January 1, 1946, an Avro Lan castrian of British South American Airways took off to inaugurate civil air services from Heathrow—services which to date have transported in and out of the airport just over 158 million passengers, half of them in the live years that the British Airports Authority has been owner. Twenty-live years to the day later the three crew members on that in augural flight—AVM D. C. T. Bennett, Capt ft. C. Alabaster and Capt D. A. Cracknell—attended a small lunch at the airport given in their honour by BAA's chairman, Mr Peter Masefield. Mr Jimmy Jeffs, later commandant of ffeathrow, and Sir William Mildred, then MCA and later of lata, were among the guests. "Flight" Appointments Barry C. Wheeler is appointed Production Editor. He joined the journal in 1960 as a trainee produc tion assistant and is now responsible for layout and production. Hugh Field is appointed Assistant Editor (Operations). He joined the editorial staff in 1969, is a member of the British Light Aviation Centre panel of flight examiners and of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators private and executive committee. Ted Wilding-White joins the staff with responsibility for the journal's regular weekly features on private Hy ing and spaceflight. He holds a private pilot's licence and Canadian CPL. Rising costs The Name XC-IA, now on its development programme, is to cost Japan's Defence Agency over £3 million per copy compared with £1.5 million estimated in 1966. Because of this the agency's order for the first Japanese military jet transport (seen here on its maiden flight, with a Fuji Tl chase aircraft) may be reduced from four to two in the 1971-72 fiscal year SENSOR The Sigma super glider designed and built by a British group is ex pected to make its first flight in March. Featuring an advanced two- position aerofoil section with an LID of 50 it will be one. of the most aerodynamically advanced aircraft ever flown. It is being constructed at Heathrow under the project management of Mr Lome Welch and with the help, on « commercial basis, of BEA apprentices. Three Boeing 720Bs are likely to be bought by Monarch as the first stage of its conversion to jets. The first aircraft, to be bought from American, Pan American or North west, is required in November 1971, the second in February 1972 and the third in April 1972. The inde pendent has its eye on the DC-i'j-63 as an eventual 720B replacement. Meanwhile the company's 1971 bookings for turboprop Britannias are 60 per cent up on last year's. Britannia Airways will take delivery of its first Boeing 7Q7-520C in March 1971. It will be capable of operating stage lengths of up to 2,U00 miles from Luton Airport. The auxiliary power units in BEA's Trident I and 2 fleets are to be changed for AiResearch units. The first conversion is scheduled to be completed in October. During this month assembly will begin of the various Bulldog parts now being constructed in the Scottish Aviation detail shops. First deliveries of the aircraft to Sweden are scheduled for mid-1971. Scottisli Aviation hopes shortly to announce more orders for the Bulldog from overseas, possibly including the Far East. An increasing number of senior people in the British air transport industry believe that there will never be a decision on a third London airport and that policy will move instead in the direction of the quiet-engine programme and Stol aircraft.
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