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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 0079.PDF
FLIGHT International, it January 1973 51 ADVANCED ENGINE ORDERS THE first components for the Advanced Transport Tech nology (ATT) engine research project have been ordered by the Lewis Research Centre of the US National Aero nautics and Space Administration. The work is aimed at developing a powerplant suitable for transonic airliners, which are being studied by Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed under a contract from the Langley Research Centre of Nasa. Two half-scale, high-pressure-ratio fans have been ordered, one each from General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. Under the one-year contract each company will carry out initial testing of its unit and will develop noise- suppression techniques for it. General Electric is producing a high-speed, single-stage fan of 34in diameter, with a pressure ratio of 1-8:1. The Pratt & Whitney fan will have two stages and be about 30in in diameter. Current engines such as the CF6 or JT3D have fans with pressure ratios of up to 1-6:1. The high pressure ratio of the new fans now being developed is necessary because of the high cruising speed proposed for the transonic airliners—between Mach 0-95 and Mach 0-98. If the pressure ratio were lower than 1-8:1 the fan would be unable to cope with the mass flow generated by the forward motion of the aircraft. There is likely to be significant thrust generated by ram recovery at speeds approaching that of sound. The single-stage fan must be the more advanced of the t#6 ordered but, by virtue of its high tip speed, it will probably be the more difficult to quieten. CAT 3 AT SAN FRANCISCO AN instrument landing system to Category 3 standard is to be installed at San Francisco International Airport. The FAA placed a $342,000 contract for the equipment with Texas Instruments last month. Work on the installation will begin in about a year. Two other such systems have been ordered from Texas Instruments and are at present being installed in the USA—one for the FAA experimental centre at Atlantic City, NJ and one at Atlanta (Ga) Municipal Airport. The only operational Cat 3 ILS in the USA at present is a Plessey system installed at Dulles International, Washington on loan from the British Depart ment of Trade and Industry. TEESSIDE-AMSTERDAM APPROVED SERVICES will be started between Teesside and Amster dam by Dan-Air Skyways on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from April 2, using HS.748s. The British Civil Aviation Authority has thus reversed its decision, taken last September, to refuse daily schedules on the route by Dan-Air Skyways and British Midland. British Caledonian had objected to the services. There has been intensive lobbying by the Teesside airport authority and local industry against the previous CAA decision. In addition to Dan-Air Skyways, Air Anglia has been granted Teesside- Amsterdam rights, but only via Norwich. VANGUARD REPORT ISSUED THE report* of the investigation into the loss of BEA Vanguard G-APEC at Aarsele, Belgium, on October 2, 1971, confirms that corrosion at the rear pressure bulkhead allowed pressurised air to enter the tailplane structure, ultimately rupturing the top skin of the tailplane; the sequence of the failure was described in Flight for October 21, 1971, page 628. The accident investigation was carried out by the Belgian Civil Aeronautics Administration with accredited personnel from the British Accident Investigation Branch. The report states that "detailed study of the wreckage, together with calculations and physical tests . . . show that the failure of the rear pressure bulkhead started the seauence of structural failures leading to the accident." The approved maintenance schedule called for visual inspection of the bulkhead at relatively long intervals and assumed that the bonding paint and sealing schemes * Her Majesty's Stationery Office, CAAR 15/72, price 75p. remained intact and effective. Delamination and corrosion could occur and the corrosion could be severe before there was any visual indication. Radiographic techniques were not wholly effective and with the inspection techniques approved at the time the corrosion in G-APEC was not detectable. A modification has been introduced to improve access to the area for inspection. There was evidence that appreciable amounts of liquid had been retained at various times in the structure aft of the rear pressure bulkhead, but there was no positive evidence that the corrosion was associated with toilet liquid spillage. INDIAN LOSSES THE 1971-72 Air India annual report records a loss of Rsl6-6 million (£890,000), the first since the airline was established as a state-owned corporation in 1953. In his report, chairman J. R. D. Tata notes that many of the world's airlines were in financial difficulties in 1971-72 and that Air-India's losses were small compared with turn over. The period under review corresponded with a reces sion in the United States—revenues were falling because of low fares and there was a general escalation in costs. The introduction of two 747s increased capacity by 17-2 per cent, compared with that of 1970-71. Traffic, however, increased by only 1-2 per cent and the overall load factor fell from 54-3 per cent to 52-1 per cent. The chairman anticipated a larger financial loss in 1972-73, to be followed by a return to profitability. A loss for the year ending March 31, 1972, was also reported by Indian Airlines. When interest on loan capital, overdrafts, finance for aircraft purchases and depreciation were taken into account, a gross surplus of Rs61-4 million (£3-29 million) was converted into a net deficit of Rs45-5 million (£2-43 million). Strained relations between India and Pakistan increased the airline's costs. Diversions to avoid over-flying the former territory of East Pakistan and the suspension of flights to Kabul, following the hijacking of an F.27 in January 1971, led to an estimated loss of Rsl2 million (£640,000). Unsettled political conditions following the Indo-Pakistan war of December 1971 resulted in a Rs20 million (£1-07 million) decrease in operating revenues, while additional excise duty on aviation fuel added RslO million (£535,000) to operating costs. World Airways has acquired the three DC-8-63CFs pre viously operated by Atlantis. Safair Freighters, a subsidiary of the South African shipping company Safmarine, is to acquire three Lockheed Hercules -30s for use exclusively on Government contracts. Alexander P. Butterfield is the successor to John Shaffer as Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. Mr Butterfield has been on the White House Staff since 1969 and was formerly an Air Force colonel. The chairman of Japan Air Lines, Shizuma Matsuo, died on December 31. Before assuming the post of chairman in May 1971, Mr Matsuo served for ten years as president of the airline. Which? way The January issue of Which?, the magazine of the British Consumers' Association, provides a guide to cheap long-distance air travel and advocates advanced booking charters and part charters. The magazine publishes some "value-for-money" plans, showing how to take full advantage of special fares on ordinary scheduled flights. Pan Am pioneer Harold E. Gray, one of Pan American's original ten pilots who* later became chairman and chief executive officer, died recently, aged 66. Mr Gray be came president of Pan Am in 1964, and in 1968 succeeded Juan T. Trippe as chairman and chief executive. Because of illness he resigned as chief executive on November 18, 1969, and as chairman and a director of the company on May 5, 1970. In 1929, Mr Gray was the tenth pilot employed by Mr Trippe, who had founded the airline in 1927.
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