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Aviation History
1972
1972 - 3227.PDF
800 WORLD NEWS * customs barriers should be estab lished; the financing of collaborative projects should be protected against fluctuating exchange rates; and the Community should set up facilities to provide credit. He noted that when the EEC is enlarged on January 1, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, all members of Aicma, will not be included in the new community. Nevertheless Sr Maso, who is also the president of Casa, pointed out that the merger between Casa, Hispano and Enma has allowed Spanish industry to partici pate in the Airbus, Mercure, Mirage and Europlane projects. Two major take-off disasters A total of 216 passengers and crew members were killed in two take-off accidents last week. In the first, on November 28, a DC-8-62 of Japan Air Lines, JA8040, crashed shortly after becoming airborne at Moscow, Shere- metyevo. The aircraft, which was bound for Tokyo, was carrying 62 passengers and 14 crew; 61 people, believed to include all the crew, were killed. Japan Air Lines officials at Moscow were not at first allowed near the crash site by the Russian authorities, but 24hr after the event a full Japanese investigation team, led by the airline's president, Shizuo Asad, was able to start work. It was known at that time that a cockpit voice re corder had been recovered and the Russians were also believed to have found the flight-data recorder. The United States, as the country of manufacture of the aircraft, has offered the services of the National Transportation Safety Hoard and in particular playback facilities for the recorders. The Japanese Transport Minister, Hideyo Sasaki, on November 30 ordered the line to suspend its trans atlantic flights but this move was thought to have been forced on the company because of the shortage of equipment; JAL has lost three DC-8s this year. On December 3 a Convair 990 Coro- nado of Spantax crashed on take-off from Santa Cruz, Tenerife, killing all 148 passengers and seven crew. The aircraft was one of two chartered to carry a West German party of travel agents who were returning to Munich. Reports speak of an explosion in the starboard wing just as the aircraft lifted off. The cause is not known but recent political events in Munich give cause to consider sabotage as a serious possibility. Carbon brake tested The Dunlop structural carbon brake for Concorde has successfully com pleted a further series of type tests to the latest specification requiring an in crease of 23 per cent brake energy to suit the production Concorde. After 100 stops, which included 95 normal-energy stops of 25-05 million ft lb (34 million joules), four overload stops at 31-32 million ft lb (42-5 million joules) and one rejected take off (RTO) of 51-59 million ft lb (70 million joules), the wear on the 11 structural carbon heat-sink discs was minimal, being well within the speci fication, according to Dunlop. The weight loss prior to the RTO was 4-31b, l-97kg and after RTO the total weight loss was 51b, 2-29kg. Dunlop believes that this is the highest energy loading level ever to be successfully absorbed by a brake of Concorde size. The structural carbon heat sink started its emergency stop with a residual temperature of 200°C to represent the temperature build-up during taxi-out. The stopping distance achieved in the RTO was 1,770m, against the specification requirement of 2,007m. After completion of the RTO the wheel was free. The Dunlop brake will be further assessed by the independent testing authority at Ceat, Toulouse. BOAC might need TriStar It is possible that BEA TriStars may work on some BOAC routes and that BOAC's VClOs may be used on BEA routes, the chairman of the British Airways Board, Mr David Nicolson, said last week. There might be a market for the -2 TriStar within BOAC, he added, and the airline might need an aircraft smaller than the 747 for some long-haul services. Mr Nicolson added that these were only ideas drawn from the initial studies of route structure and fleet requirements within the British Air ways group. It appears, however, to be the first official indication that the -2 TriStar is a serious possibility for BOAC; although BEA's TriStar order is conditional upon development of the longer-range version, the condition was included chiefly as an insurance that the TriStar project would con tinue. On the subject of Concorde Mr Nicolson said: "I think we are large enough now to take on the pioneering of a totally new development of the Concorde type. It is very difficult to make a projection as to what kind of a profit you are going to be able to make with Concorde — something totally new—when you don't know where you are going to be able to land, where you are going to be able to fly over and who else is going to have it. "But, although there are uncertain ties, the Concorde has tremendous advantages for all of us, not least in terms of leadership and prestige." Product liability warning Representatives of British com ponent manufacturers gathered at the Royal Aeronautical Society last week to hear from members of the in surance community about the pitfalls FLIGHT International, 7 December 1972 in American law of product-liability suits, unless they are properly insured. The audience heard that under US law a company need not be proved negligent in manufacturing a compo nent, the failure of which ultimately caused death or injury to a passenger. The part need only have failed. Damages are likely to be astronomic and proceedings can be brought in American courts against companies whose products are involved in acci dents outside the United States, but involving US citizens. Furthermore, it does not matter how old such com ponents are. A full report will appear in Flight next week. New Esro chief announced The European Space Research Organisation announced last week that Prof Maurice Levy of France has been elected chairman of the Esro council for 1973. M Levy, who replaces Prof G. Puppi of Italy, is research director of the French Ministry of Industrial and Scientific Development and has been a delegate to the Esro council since last year. Fokker man's jubilee December 1 marked the completion by Mr F. J. L. Diepen of a 25-year association with Fokker and latterly Fokker-VFW Mr Diepen formed the company Frits Diepen Vliegtuigen NV in 1945 and co-operated in the marketing of Fokker aircraft from 1947. In 1954 an offshoot of his com pany, Avio-Diepen, merged with Royal Netherlands Aircraft Factories Fokker, and Mr Diepen was appointed managing director (commercial) of Fokker. He organised the sales programme for the F.27, and the success of the aircraft is attributed by the manu facturer largely to his efforts. On January 1, 1970, he joined the board of management of the VFW-Fokker holding company. A strong protagonist of inter national co-operation within the air craft industry, Mr Diepen became vice-president of Aicma in 1968 and its president in 1970. Popular RAF Museum A total of 45,000 people had visited the RAF Museum at Hendon since its opening on November 17 at the time of going to press. Of this number 34,800 had attended the museum in the first two weeks. Average daily attendance is 700, although this num ber soars up to 6,500 daily at week ends. The best individual day's figure was 7,068 on November 20. The Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Saturday, and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. "Flight" next week will include a detailed review of Sweden's aircraft industry, including a technical de scription and cutaway drawing of Volvo Flygmotor's RM8 engine.
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