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Aviation History
1975
1975 - 0094.PDF
56 WORLD NEWS between Saudi Arabia and the USA for 20 years and carries certain con ditions. The aircraft are for defence only and may not be transferred to any other country without US permis sion. Cost per aircraft has previously been recorded as $2-7 million and the re mainder of the contract cost is re ported to cover spares, training and modifications requested by Saudi Arabia. • The US State Department has mean while approved the transfer to Jordan of 24 F-5A fighters, an earlier mark than the F-5E, from the Iranian air force. Iran is rapidly equipping with F-4s and has ordered F-14 Tomcats. BAC faces up to nationalisation While proud of the record £850 million order book, three-quarters of it for export, currently held by BAC, chairman Sir George Edwards re marks in BAC's company newspaper that "one of the biggest difficulties our industry has faced has been inter ference from successive Governments, regardless of party. Now we have to face nationalisation." He refers to "the painful inter national consequences for Britain if we failed to meet the exacting re quirements which [these contracts] contain. So whatever my views might be about the need to nationalise the company I have helped to build, there are other things to consider. I have therefore decided, in the national interest and on behalf of you who work in BAC, to do all that I can to make it work. Until the day when nationalisation actually happens I shall try to help the Government to set up the right organisation and make full use of the high-class pro fessionals which the industry possesses." Lockheed delays again Another postponement of the Lock- heed-Textron merger has been caused by delay in the settlement of a claim by Lockheed against the US Navy in relation to a shipbuilding contract in 1968. Substantial delay beyond the now postponed February deadlines could be a "major obstacle," say the companies. Spotlight on emergency evacuation The latest report by the US National Transportation Safety Board to carry criticism of the Federal Aviation Administration is concerned with post- accident emergency evacuation of air liners. The NTSB says that although the American public transport accident rate has improved over the last ten years passengers are being injured or killed during emergency evacuations following survivable accidents. The report calls for a number of improvements, particularly with re gard to flight crew training, and FLIGHT International. 16 January 1975 For its initial subsonic tests, beginning about April 1977, America's first Space Shuttle Orbiter will be carried to 30,000ft by an ex- American Airlines 747-100 and released to glide back to the flight-trials base box at the Nasa Flight Research Centre, Edwards AFB. in California. The pick-a-back launch weight will be 192,0001b. observes that the matter is made the more pressing by the increasing use of wide-bodied aircraft. Danish Supporter order The Danish Defence Ministry has ordered 32 Saab Supporter T-17 trainers and observation aircraft. They will replace the Chipmunks currently used by the air force for primary train ing, and will also be used for observa tion missions in the Royal Danish Army Air Service, replacing the KZ.VIIs' and1 Piper L-18s, now used. The Supporter has been selected in competition with the Scottish Avia tion Bulldog and New Zealand CT/4 Airtrainer. The order is worth DKr25 million (£1-9 million) including spares and ground - support e q ui p m e n t. Deliveries are to be completed within two years. TWA bomb confirmed The US National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed that a bomb was the cause of the accident to a TWA 707 near Athens on Septem ber 8, 1974, which killed nine crew and 79 passengers. According to the NTSB, laboratory examination of wreckage has established conclusively that a "high-order explosive" caused the crash. The NTSB has advised the Federal Aviation Administration that within the two weeks prior to the accident a faulty device contained in a suitcase caused a fire in the rear compartment of an aircraft operating the same service; on neither flight had baggage been checked correctly at Athens airport and the board suggests that the FAA should try to hasten the in stallation of suitable detection equipment at Athens. Public transport accidents A Twin Otter of Golden West Air lines and a single-engined Cessna collided over Los Angeles on January 9. The two crew and ten passengers in the Twin Otter and two occupants of the Cessna were killed. • A DC-3, FAC-688, of Satena crashed near Docello, Columbia, on January 8. The aircraft was flying a scheduled domestic service from Neiva to Puerto Rico; four crew and 17 passen gers were killed. • The Romanian aircraft which crashed on December 29 is con firmed as an An-24 of Tarom, YR-AMB. • A Spanish DC-8 made a forced landing at Esenboga, Ankara, airport on January 9 during a freight flight from Baghdad to Madrid. The nose undercarriage collapsed on landing. New Air League chairman Dr Kenneth Bergin has been appointed chairman of the Air League on the completion of Sir Basil Smallpeice's term of office. Dr Bergin, who served as a pilot in the RAF, is now director of the Cavendish Medical Centre, London, and was previously director of personnel and medical services for BOAC, personnel director of the Cunard Steamship Company and Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. At the same time, three new vice- chairmen, have been appointed. They are Air Marshal Sir Harry Burton, ••* chairman of the League's Air Defence Committee, Rear-Admiral Nicholas * Goodhart, chairman of the League's Civil Aviation Committee, and Rex A. Smith, an Air League counsellor on '•* general aviation. Honours t Omitted from our list of aviation New Year's honours last week was < Mr J. G. M. Pardoe, director-general of safety (airworthiness), Civil Aviation Authority, who was appointed a CBE. Unfortunately mis read were the KCB to Air Marshal K. C. M. GMdings and the KBE to Air Marshal G. H. Dhenin.
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