Yesteryear

•An agreement in principle has been reached between Rolls-Royce and United Technologies for collaboration by the British company in the development and production of the “ten tonnes” Pratt and Whitney JT100.

• The Dutch Certificate of Airworthiness was received by the Fokker F28 Mk 6000 Fellowship on 5 November after a 350 hour programme involving the prototype and the first production aircraft.

• Lockheed is currently studying two short-fuselage versions of the L1011 TriStar, one for short range use the other for long range. The latter version designated the L1011-500 would be powered by the 50,000lb s. t. RB211-2548 and have a gross weight of 490,000lb. The 20’2″ reduction in fuselage length would enable 212,000lb of fuel to be carried giving a 6,200 mile range. The short range version would be powered by the derated RB211-36 of about 36,000lb s. t. and like the long range version, have various structural changes.

• The U. S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved $132. 7m funding for the McDonnell Douglas F-18 shipboard fighter on 6 November enabling full development to proceed. The first flight of this version has been set for July 1978 with sea trials commencing during August 1979.

• A new version of the DC-10 has been proposed by McDonnell Douglas to British Airways as a replacement for the Boeing 707 and Vickers Super VC10. It would have a new high gross weight of 572,000lb with a range of over 5,750 miles. Designated the DC-10-30R it would have 50,000lb s. t. Rolls-Royce RB211- 542B engines and other items to bring the Brit- ish content to about 30%.

• The aircraft carrier HMAS “Sydney” departed Sydney Harbour on 23 December under tow to a breakers yard in South Korea where she will be reduced to scrap.

• A small design effort is being maintained by Boeing on an advanced version of the 707 known provisionally as the 707-500. Power would be provided by either the GE/Snecma CFM56 or Pratt & Whitney JT10D and it would have a fuselage stretch of 23’3″ and a gross weight of 354,000lb. Also proposed is a military tanker version with a ramp weight of 378,000lb.

20 Years Ago

•The first flight took place at the British Aircraft Corporation’s works at Weybridge on 26 November of the first of 14 VC10 long range transports for RAF Transport Command.

• The delivery of the first of two Hawker Siddeley Doves early in December to the Royal Jordanian Air Force, took the Dove into its 21st year of production. Since the prototype Dove made its first flight on 25 September 1945, 540 have been built and of these 80% have been exported.

•A total of 13 confirmed orders have now been received by de Havilland Aircraft of Canada for the new turbine powered DHC-6 Twin Otter.

• The last scheduled BOAC Comet service through Sydney was flown by the DH Comet 4 G-APDM on 23 November, en route to London from Auckland. Comets have been flying on the Kangaroo Route since 1958 and were the only scheduled jet to operate to Auckland’s Whenuapal Airport.

• Hawker Siddeley are discussing the possibility of joint production of an Air-bus with the French Breguet and Nord companies.

•The annual conference of the Victorian Urban Fire Brigade’s Association was told by the Chief Secretary in Victoria Mr Rylah, that there was little chance of aircraft being employed effectively against bushfires in that state.

•Canadian Pacific Airlines operated their first jet airliner service from Australia to Canada on 3 December when DC-8 CF-CPJ departed from Sydney. The last Bristol Britannia service on the route CF-CZW “Empress of Rome” left Sydney en route to Vancouver on 26 November.

• The Minister for Air, Mr Howson announced on 1 December that the RAAF would purchase 15 aircraft to re-equip the navigation training school and VIP transport squadron, for delivery between 1966 and 1969. The aircraft to be acquired would be the GAMD Mystere 20s, 10 Hawker Siddeley HS748s and two BAC 1118.

• The Norwegian airline Braathens S. A. F. E. have ordered three Boeing 737-100s. A total of 87 737s have now been sold.

•The Dornier Do31, the worlds first VTOL pure jet transport was rolled out at Munich- Oberpfaffenhofen on 30 November.

• The first Convair 600, a Rolls-Royce Dart engined Convair-Liner has been delivered to Central Airlines by the Convair Division of General Dynamics. A total of 60 Convair 600s, which are converted 240, 340 and 440 transports have been ordered. Amongst the improvements in the Convair 600 are a payload increase of 2,850lb and an increase in cruising speed of 50mph.

30 YEARS AGO

• Qantas has now taken delivery of 12 of the 14 Lockheed Super Constellations on order. The final two aircraft to be delivered will be the version designed mainly for the carriage of cargo with a 16 ton freight payload capacity. They can be also converted to a mixed freight/passenger configuration carrying 8 tons and 50 passengers. Qantas’ last Constellation left Mascot on 2 November on delivery to Aerovias Guest in Mexico. The six Constellations have been sold (four to BOAC and two to Aerovias Guest) for $12M, the same amount Qantas paid for them in 1947.

• Super Constellations were introduced by Qantas onto the Australia-South Africa service on 5 November. The new route is Sydney. Darwin, Cocos and Mauritius eliminating the Melbourne and Perth stops previously used by the Constellations.

• Orders for new training aircraft for the RAAF have been announced by the Minister for Air, Mr Athol Townley. These were for 77 DH-115 dual Vampires and nine dual control Canberras. The Vampires will be built by de Havillands at Bankstown. Two of the Canberras will be imported from English Electric in England while the other seven will be converted by GAF and will be part of the order for 48 Canberras currently being constructed by GAF.

•Large crowds attended the Royal Newcastle Aero Club’s annual display at Broadmeadow on 5/6 November. Highlights were the appearance of RAN Sea Fury and RAAF Meteor aircraft giving aerobatic displays. The Avon- Sabre, scheduled to appear on both days did not attend due to unserviceability.

• A crowd of 25,000 were present at Mascoton 3 December to welcome the de Havilland Comet 3 G-ANLO on its record breaking flight to Australia. Some of the public surged onto the runway forcing pilot John Cunningham to abandon his first landing attempt and circle the city until the runway was cleared. The Comet covered the 11,585 miles from London to Sydney via Cairo, Bombay, Singapore and Darwin in a flying time of 24 hr 24 min. This is a record for a commercial aircraft and betters the 44 hr 28 min record previously held by a Qantas Constellation on a flight in June 1953. •The prototype Republic F-105A had its maiden flight on 22 October. The production version of the fighter-bomber will have a top speed of about Mach 1. 5 and is powered by a J-57-P. 25 turbojet.

• Production deliveries of the SE-3130 Alouette 2 helicopter are due to commence during March 1956.

•The Handley Page Victor may be powered by the Rolls-Royce Conway by-pass engine instead of the present Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire.