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Aviation History
1975
1975 - 0655.PDF
FLIGHT International, 10 April 1975 Panic mars rescue flight Panic by South Vietnamese soldiers trapped by advancing communist troops at Da Nang airport on March 29 almost caused the destruction of a World Airways 727-100QC carrying out a mercy mission. Rioting troops fought their way up the rear stairs of the aircraft, preventing all but a hand ful of civilian refugees from getting on board, while others hung on to the wings or attempted to climb inlo the wheel wells. Some pushed shoes and bundles into hatches and doors to pre vent them from closing. As the air craft taxied away a number of the troops who had been unable to get on board opened fire. It was iiit by small arms fire and the trailing edge was damaged by a grenade. After some violent ground manoeuvring to avoid Army vehicles, the aircraft took off with a door warning light still show ing. When the aircraft arrived at Saigon the body of a soldier was re moved from a wheel well. On March 31 Air Vietnam was forced to cancel domestic flights to Nha Trang, a coastal town 200 miles north-east of Saigon, because of dis order at the airport. The town fell to the communists two days later. The president of World Airways, Mr Ed Daly, was on the 727 flight out of Da Nang and personally tried to prevent the soldiers from boarding. The airline bases several aircraft at Yokuta in Japan for non-scheduled flying in South-east Asia and has been using a DC-8-63CF for airlifting rice from Saigon to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. A World Airways DC-8 was involved in a second incident on April 2 when the pilot took off from Saigon in defiance of orders from air traffic con trol. On this occasion the aircraft was carrying 57 orphans to the USA. The aircraft had earlier been judged un suitable for carrying 458 orphans out of Saigon. During the last week a num ber of other airlines have been em ployed in flying orphans out of the South Vietnamese capital. • In the same week as World Air ways' controversial involvement in Vietnam, Ed Daly, the airline's presi dent, applied for a special $89 one-way 581 fare between New York or Washing ton and Los Angeles or San Francisco, a rate lower than that charged by any other airline. The US Civil Aero nautics Board is now studying the proposals. • A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy carrying as many as 326 people, most of them Vietnamese war orphans bound for the USA on the first flight of President Ford's Opera tion Baby lift, crashed and burned on April 4 while attempting an emer gency landing at Tan Son Nhut air port, Saigon. The latest estimate of the number killed is 20G. The flight recorder has been re covered but reports, including one from the captain of the aircraft, who was among the survivors, say that the C-5A became depressuriscd at about 23,000ft after a problem with the rear cargo-loading door. A Pentagon spokesman said that preliminary in vestigation of the accident indicated that the rear doors became detached and the loading ramp then dropped down, severing hydraulic lines to the rudder and elevators. Dash 7 airborne The de Havilland of Canada Dash 7 Stol transport made its first flight at Downsview on March 27 in the hands of project pilot Robert Fowler. Handling and systems checks lasting for 2hr lOmin were carried out at heights up to 7,000ft. After the flight the crew made particular reference to the low level of vibration. The Yakovlev Yak-42 100/120-passenger air liner, which flew on March 7, is revealed on its first visit to Moscow Sheremetyevo as an aerodynamically simple design, lacking com plex filleting and bearing a passing resem blance in the nose, empennage and wing-root areas to the BAC One-Eleven. The fat tyres, short, sturdy undercarriage and low door sills indicate a rough-field role—oirstairs are built in. The dominant features are the wide intakes and bulky cowlings of the three high- bypass-ratio Lotarev D-36 turbofans SENSOR A Chinese order for a substantial number of British Aircraft Corpora tion One-Elevens is expected to be announced in the near future. If confirmed, the order would re launch the One-Eleven line, which is running down, and open up new possibilities of developments. Among the BAC One-Eleven de velopments now being projected is the Series 800 powered by two Snecma/GE CFM56 turbofans. Pre sentations are being made to Air France of the One-Eleven 800 as a Caravelle replacement. The British aircraft industry understands that both Boeing and McDonnell Douglas are projecting developments respec tively of both the 727 and the DC-9 with CFM56s or JTlODs. Hawker Siddeley is also well advanced with Trident studies based on two of the new medium-thrust civil turbofans. There is a growing belief in the British airframe industry that Lord Beswick, Minister of State for Aero space and Shipping, is on Mr Benn's final shortlist of candidates for the chairmanship of the Aircraft Cor poration of Great Britain. Senior officials of the Ministry of Defence, which through the Procurement Executive has a nested interest in the appointment, would like to see an industrialist. Lord Beswick has held directorial positions in the aerospace and airline industries, is a former RAF and BOAC pilot, and has twice been an aviation minister. Among the other names which have come forward is that of Lord Shackleton, Labour peer and former Minister for the Royal Air Force. The British aircraft industry does not like the name "Aircraft Cor poration of Great Britain." It is pro posing British National Aircraft Corporation. British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Siddeley Aviation project and production departments are now tentatively and informally working together in various areas. Hitherto there has been little or no co-operation at any level between the two main British airframe and GW companies. There is no doubt that one of the first problems that will have to be faced by the Aircraft Corporation of Great Britai?i will be the closure of some factories. There is a serious excess of unused ftoorspace and facilities. Both BAC and HSA hope that nationalisation will be got over quickly, and that no hasty rationali sation will be enforced, so that the companies can get on with their work while getting used to the idea of working together. The most important part of the forthcoming Bill to nationalise the UK airframe and shipbuilding in dustries is expected to be the "small print" which will be debated in the committee stages of the Bill.
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