FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1971
1971 - 0088.PDF
, FUCHT International, 21 January 1971 < SAFEST YEAR IN USA 1 THE chairman of the US National Transportation Safety ., Board, Mr John Reed, last week described 1970 as the safest year in US commercial aviation history, and added that this was "no mere statistical abnormality." During x the year there were 145 fatalities in accidents involving i US carriers, the fewest in any year of the past ten. In 1960 the number of fatalities was 499, and in 1969 it was 1 158. t The domestic trunk airlines suffered no fatalities last year, said Mr Reed. The 14 supplemental airlines had three ' fatal accidents, involving 61 fatalities; but their safety „ record in preceding years had been much better, he said, with no passenger fatalities in seven out of nine years, i and no fatal accident in 1969. The 1970 accident rate for all , US carriers per 100,000hr flown (preliminary figures) was I 0.812 overall and 0.116 for fatal accidents. The respective ' figures in 1969 were 0.953 and 0.136. / 1970 accident review: page 105. , COLLISION INQUIRY THE US National Transportation Safety Board is treating v as a matter of priority its investigation into the collision * on January 9 between a Boeing 707 of American Airlines and a Cessna 150 near Newark, New Jersey. The occupants ' of the Cessna—an instructor and his pupil—were killed; ) the 707 landed safely at Newark, without injury to the 14 passengers and seven crew on board. According to reports the 707 was receiving radar vec- k toring from the Newark sector of the New York Common IFR room for an approach to runway 4L at Newark. The * 707 was descending to 3,000ft and turning from 160° on , to a heading of 180° when it was advised of "slow-moving traffic at approximately a 12 o'clock position at less than ' a mile, north-east bound." The crew replied that they had j no visual contact, but about 20sec later reported the col lision. They said that the Cessna undercarriage hit their * port wing. ( The Cessna was on a local VFR training flight from Linden, New Jersey, at the time. Weather was reported » as: broken cloud at 3,300ft, overcast at 8,000ft, visibility eight miles. The leading edge of the 707 was crushed back to the spar outboard of No 1 engine; there was damage » to the hydraulic system, and the undercarriage was lowered manually. ' , ENCOURAGING REACTION < RESPONSE to the first of the Department of Trade and , Industry's new annual financial surveys of the British airline industry was described as encouraging by Mr ' Anthony Grant, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, > This firing range, built to represent the dimensions and seating arrange ment of a Boeing 747, is a part of the training facilities for the US Sky i Marshal force, formed to combat hijacking. The marshal is aiming at a moving target in the "aisle". Mr Carl Maisch, the FAA's director of air i transport security, said last week that more than 250 arrests had been made by marshals since new security measures went into effect last ' September. Not all the arrests made directly concerned hijacking, , however; some concerned carriage of drugs and other contraband 81 in Parliament last week. He said that 79 per cent by number of the airlines had made information available for the compilation of the new statistics. (They are pub lished in Business Monitor, Civil Aviation Series, CA8— HMSO, London, price 5s per year; so far only 1968 is covered.) These carriers, Mr Grant added, represented 97 per cent of the industry's output in terms of CTM. Answering a question from Mr Leslie Huckfield (Lab, Nuneaton), Mr Grant declined to name the companies which had felt unable to co-operate in the survey, which is being conducted on a voluntary basis at present. Flight has listed them as including British Midland, Lloyd Inter national and Transmeridian (last week's issue, page 46). CONCORDE: EIGHT TO GO ONLY six flights by Concorde 001 and two by 002 remain to be done in order to complete the initial test programme, on the basis of which the airlines are expected to decide whether to turn their existing options into orders. This was revealed last week by Mr Brian Trubshaw, BAC flight test director, during a lecture at the Royal Aeronautical Society. He said that Concorde had now flown nearly 200 times and the two prototypes had been airborne for a total of close on 400hr, of which 90hr had been at super sonic speeds. Concorde will have to be flown at speeds of up to Mach 2.35 in the course of the remainder of its flight-test programme leading to certification, although it will be operated for the bulk of the time under Mach 2.05 airline cruise conditions. So far, said Mr Trubshaw, the aircraft had touched Mach 2.075, and four weeks ago reached an altitude of 58,000ft, 17,700m. Minimum speed achieved had been 126kt, 233km/hr and it had been flown at an incidence of 18°. Mr Trubshaw said that the whole object of the flight-test programme so far had been to prove to the airlines that Concorde would be able to cruise at twice the speed of sound, and meet the economic assumptions that had been made. This had been done very successfully with both aircraft, and in the manufacturers' view and that of the airlines, Concorde was a "goer." Pointing out that with all its test equipment aboard, Concorde was taking off regularly with its full operational payload, Mr Trubshaw said that a VE was coming out at around 176kt, 325km/hr and V2 following at about 205kt, 379km/hr. This gap was being reduced. Acceleration dur ing take-off had been particularly impressive. "Once this thing gets steam up it really goes," he said. During the approach it had proved remarkably easy to carry out quite large step manoeuvres to align the aircraft with the run way. Rate of sink at touch-down had varied from less than lft/sec, 0.30m/sec to 6ft/sec, 1.83m/sec. With the pilot's eye some 40ft, 12m above the ground they had sometimes "arrived" two seconds early during the first few flights. There was quite a lot of "sticktion" in the oleo legs which showed up over rough ground, and he felt the landing gear needed softening. Commenting upon the runs down the West Coast super sonic test route, Mr Trubshaw said that over-pressures had come out very much as they had predicted. They were around 21b/sq ft, sometimes a little more. Intra Airways has been granted its first scheduled-service licence by the ATLB. It is for the route Jersey-Staverton. The company has acquired its second DC-3. A DC-9 of KLM made an emergency landing at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, on January 13; an engine was reported to have "exploded" soon after take-off from the airport. There were no casualties among the 30 passengers and crew. New Brokers A new Lloyds insurance-broking company has been formed by three former directors of the Stewart Smith group. They are Mr John Miers, Mr Eric Outram and Mr Stanley Taylor; the firm is named Miers, Outram & Taylor. The company will handle all classes of insurance but will specialise in aviation.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
