Yesteryear

• The first TAA Boeing 727 VH-TJA was sold to a dealer based in Miami and during late October it was being prepared for its fight to the USA.

• Preliminary design work has been completed by the Lockheed Georgia Company of a variant of the Hercules with a total fuselage stretch of 35ft compared with the 15t stretch of the L- 100-30. The new design known as the L-100- 50 would incorporate several additional changes such as a new wing spar, heavier skin panels and a revised landing gear. Gross weight would be 170,000lb compared with the L-100-30’s 155,000b gross weight.

• The Vickers Viscount V. 747 VH-RMO which had been at Essendon since 1968 was broken up on 5 October.

• Mr James Killen, the Minister for Defence said that the Government is seeking a replacement for the Macchi MB-326H aircraft which have been in service with the RAAF and RAN since 1967. A total of 97 Macchis had been delivered and they would need to be replaced by the early 1980s.

•The Iranian Imperial Air Force will be permitted to purchase 160 General Dynamics F-16 fighters from the USA although the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has expressed concern regarding the scale of continuing arms purchases for Iran which amounted to $10,400m between 1972 and 1976.

• Pan American World Airways announced in October that they would introduce a direct service from Sydney to San Francisco on 10 December. The weekly service will be operated by Boeing 747SPs and the flying time will be approximately 13 hours.

•The Brazilian Air Force has retired the last 21 C-47 transports in its inventory owing to engine maintenance problems and spares shortages. The oldest aircraft will be retained by the Air Force’s Museum in Rio de Janeiro while the remaining 20 aircraft will be offered for sale with prices between £5,325 to £18,640.

• On 8 October the first flight of a Lockheed L-1011-200 powered by three 50,000lb Rolls Royce RB211-524s took place at Palmdale. The TriStar 200 will have a range of 4,450 miles and the first aircraft will be delivered to Saudia.

•On 9 September TAA celebrated 30 years of operations during which almost 50 million passengers were carried.

20 Years Ago

• United Air Lines has ordered six Concordes which will be used initially on the Company’s route between the US mainland and Hawaii. This takes total Concorde sales to 60 aircraft for 13 airlines.

• During the graduation ceremony held at Sydney Airport on 26 September for the No. 1 course of the Qantas Cadet Pilot Training Scheme, Chief Executive and General Mana- ger Mr C. O. Turner said that Qantas estimated that their front-line fleet in 1980 would comprise 10 supersonic aircraft, 15 jumbo jet types and about 15 Boeing 707-338Cs.

• Construction of the prototype Hawker Siddeley 801 maritime aircraft based on the Comet is well advanced and it should fly during the next northern spring.

•A Boeing 707 of Lufthansa arrived at Sydney airport on 20 October with a crew and 152 passengers, which was the largest number of people to land in one aircraft at that airport.

•The USAF is concerned about the loss rate of McDonnell F-4 Phantom and Republic F-105 Thunderchief aircraft to North Vietnamese MIG-17 and MIG-21 fighters. US pilots have reported that although these larger fighters perform satisfactorily greater distances with air-to-air missiles, they lack the the guns, visibility and manoeuvrability necessary for close combat with the smaller MiGs. To counter this problem the USAF feels that the Lockheed F- 104 Starfighter and LTV F-8 Crusader would be more suitable for the task.

•The delivery of the first Douglas DC-9-30 aircraft for Ansett-ANA and TAA scheduled for November has now been delayed until February or March 1967. The war in Vietnam has caused a delay in the delivery of Pratt & Whitney engines and this has disrupted DC-9 production.

The 25,000th Beechcraft, a King Air for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, was delivered on 14 September. The first aircraft produced by the Company was the Model 17 Staggerwing in 1932. The model produced in greatest numbers is the Bonanza with sales exceeding 8,000 followed by the Model 18 with over 7,000 sales.

• The Department of Supply called tenders on 27 October for the sale of six RAN Fairey Firefly aircraft which are in flying condition together with four spare engines. They were retired from RAN service earlier this year and were flown from Nowra to Bankstown in March and are presently parked near Hawker de Havilland.

• LAN-Chile has signed an order for eight Hawker Siddeley 748s. This takes total 748 sales to 138 and of these 88 are for export including 42 to operators in Latin America and the Caribbean.

30 Years Ago

• Qantas has announced an order for seven Boeing 707-138 jet airliners at a cost of £18. 8m. The first aircraft will be introduced into service on the Pacific route in mid-1959 and they will gradually replace the Lockheed L1049 Super Constellation fleet.

•The name Golden Anow has been dropped by Convair for their new medium jet airliner project and it will now be known as the Convair 880.

•The Treasurer and Acting Prime Minister, Sir Arthur Fadden has announced that the Del ence Budget will remain at last year’s level of $150m Of this, the RAAF’s allocation will be £53. 75m an increase of £1. 6m over last year. The RAAF will spend £8. 6m (compared with £10m last year) on new aircraft this year, farge ly comprising Avon Sabre fighters and Canberra bombers.

• The US Navy’s four remaining Martin JRM Mars flying boats which have been in service since 1946 have been retired from use. They were the USN’s largest flying boats and had a span of 200ft and a length of 12011. The Convair R3Y Tradewind will replace the Mars.

• The Minister for Air, Mr Athol Townley announced on 26 September that the RAAF and RAN would have the familiar red, white and blue roundel on their aircraft replaced by a new insignia which would feature a red leaping kangaroo in the centre.

• The prototype P. L. 7 Tanker which was built by Kingsford Smith Aviation Service Pty Ltd at Bankstown had its first flight on 20 September. Powered by a 400hp Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah X engine, the Tanker has a span of 40 9%” (upper) 30′ (lower), a length 24′ 6″ and a gross weight of 5,000b. Production versions are expected to sell for approximately £13,000.

• An interesting visitor to Bankstown was a Junkers Ju-52 of Gibbes Sepik Airways. While at Bankstown the BMW Series 2 engines of 590hp were replaced by 600hpPratt & Whitney R1340 Wasps driving constant speed propellers. Two other Ju-52s have been purchased by Gibbes Sepik and they are being re-engined in Sweden prior to delivery to New Guinea in late October.

• The Douglas A-4D Skyhawk, which is the smallest combat aircraft in the USA, has entered USN service following acceptance trials at Rhode Island.

• The 38 de Havilland Sea Venoms which recently arrived in Australia on board HMAS “Melbourne’ are to be fitted with ejection seats at a cost of £165,000. This modification has been recommended by naval authorities following the investigation of a crash in August of a Sea Venom during training operations off Moreton Island in which two naval airmen were killed.