Yesteryear

• A US team will visit Iran to establish a delivery priority for a further $10,000m of military equipment the Iranian Government wishes to purchase in the USA. Additional aircraft being sought by the Iranians include 15 Lockheed C-130H Hercules, 70 Grumman F-14 Tomcats, 140 General Dynamics F-16s, 6 Lockheed P-3F Orions, 3 Boeing 747s and 11 McDonnell Douglas RF-4E Phantoms. An earlier Iranian request for 31 F-4G “Wild Weasel’ Phantoms was rejected by the US State Department in mid August and additional F-4E Phantoms were offered in lieu.

• The UK Ministry of Defence has authorised Lockheed-Georgia to devise a programme to ‘stretch’ 30 of the RAF’s C-130K transports. The first aircraft will be modified at Marietta with the addition of two fuselage plugs totalling about 180 inches and the other 29 aircraft will be modified by Marshalls of Cambridge over an expected four year period. The change will increase cargo capacity by about 35%.

• The RAAF has salvaged a Caribou which crashed near the West Irian border. In an operation which began on 27 October, the aircraft was dismantled and the fuselage was eventually slung underneath a Chinook and flown 234km to Moem Barracks near Wewak.

• A version of the 707-320 has been offered by Boeing powered by General Electric/SNECMÁ CFM-56 turbofans for mid 1981 delivery, provided sufficient orders are received by the end of the year. Boeing will also offer kits to retrofit the CFM-56 to existing 707-320Bs and 320Cs in service.

• British Aerospace’s Scottish Division is believed to be close to relaunching the Jetstream in the civil market and a decision is expected soon. Scottish Aviation had acquired the Jetstream design after the collapse of Handley Page.

• Rockwell International, after completion of a final batch of 40 aircraft currently in production, will halt further production of its single engined range of light aircraft because of poor market penetration.

20 Years Ago

The first flight of the prototype Sepecat Jaguar E-01, developed jointly by Breguet and BAC, took place at Istres on 8 September.

• McDonnell Douglas delivered its 3,000th Phantom, an F-4J for the USN on 8 September, when it was flown from St Louis to Squadron VF-92 at Miramar NAS San Diego. Delivery of the 1,000th Phantom to the USN was on 7 July 1965 and the 2,000th to the USAF on 12 March 1967.

• Interest has been shown by BOAC in a long- range version of the Lockheed L1011 and they may order 10 for service from 1973 onwards. • Qantas has received their 21st and final Boeing 707-338C VH-EAJ ‘City of Geelong’ which arrived in Sydney on 3 October. Scheduled operations of QF 707-138Bs ceased on 29 September.

• The second prototype BAC/Sud Concorde 002 G-BSST was rolled out of the main assembly hall at Filton on 12 September. It is expected that 001 will have its first flight at Toulouse during December or January followed by 002 about six weeks later.

• Cessna achieved record production during September delivering more aircraft than in any other month in its 41 year history. The September total of 830 aircraft comprising 772 single and 58 twin engined aircraft raised the total to 7,003 for the year ending September. • The prototype Dassault MD-320 Hirondelle had its first flight at Boradeau-Merignac on 11 September. The Hirondelle is powered by two 870shp Turbomeca Astazou XIV and can carry 6-14 passengers over a 620-1,860 mile range at 310mph. It is a turboprop descendant of the Flamant of which 350 were produced.

• Ansett-ANA and TAA have each ordered a fifth Boeing 727 for delivery in November 1969. The Ansett-ANA aircraft will be a QC version. •The USAF has grounded all of its General Dynamics F-111 As following the loss of its 11th F-111 on 23 September at Nellis AFB.

• A number of ex-TAA aircraft have recently departed for overseas. Douglas DC-3s to go were VH-SBK and VH-SBM which left from Brisbane during September on delivery to the Indonesian airline Seulawah and VH-SBJ left Lae on 10 October for the Laotian operator Continental Air Services. Also leaving was Otter VH-SBT from Bankstown in September fitted with long-range cabin tanks and carrying Canadian registration CF-XRI.

• Up to 10 September, the USAF had lost 4,353 aircraft in the Vietnam war including 2,013 helicopters. Of the losses, 888 were over North Vietnam.

• The Potez factory set up at Baldonnel, Eire to build the Potez 840 has been closed down without the completion of a single aircraft. • The Minister for Defence, Mr A Fairhall, received the RAAF’s first F-111C at the General Dynamics Fort Worth plant on 4 September.

30 Years Ago

• Shorts are working on a heavy lift freighter design called the Britannic which would use a large number of Britannia components and would be powered by either the Bristol Proteus or Rolls-Royce Tyne.

A Black Knight research rocket was successfully fired at Woomera on the night of 7 September reaching an altitude of between 350-400 miles before impacting 50 miles down range.

Both the RAAF and RAN are interested in the Northrop N-156F fighter. The interest shown by both services would improve its chances for selection and Australian licence production. It is one of the aircraft the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Frederick Scherger, will look at during a six weeks overseas tour. Amongst other aircraft he will examine are the North American A-3J Vigilante and the Republic F-105 Thunderchief.

The Northern Territory Aerial Medical Service received their second de Havilland Dove VH-DHH at a ceremony at Bankstown on 15 September. The aircraft, which had been flown from the UK by Rollo Kingsford Smith who is the Sales Manager of de Havilland Aircraft Pty Ltd, was modified and equipped at Bankstown for the aerial ambulance role.

• Lockheed has placed ‘Old 1961’into storage after using it for Electra engine tests. Originally built as a military C-69 it was sold to Hughes aircraft after the War as a surplus aircraft and was repurchased by Lockheed in 1950 and stretched to become the first Super Constellation. It was modified into a turboprop test bed during 1954.

• The first production de Havilland Comet 4 G-APDA has completed the fastest long distance flight made by an airliner. It left Hong Kong two days after the official opening of Kai Tak’s new 7,730ft runway on 14 September and covered the 7,925 miles to Hatfield in 16 hours 16 minutes flying time (18 hours 32 minutes elapsed time) making the entire flight in daylight. The aircraft made refuelling stops at Bombay and Cairo.

• Details have been released by Southern Cross Aviation of Toowoomba of the SC-1 presently, being built. Designed by Newton Hodgekiss, the single engined mid wing monoplane powered by a Lycoming 0-360 180hp engine will seat four, have a wing span of 37, length of 22′ 9″ and height of 7’ 5″. Flying trials of the prototype should be under way by December and a decision regarding production will be made after the evaluation of test results.

•Pan American World Airways will replace the Boeing Stratocruisers with Douglas DC-7Cs on the San Francisco/Sydney route on 30 September and will extend the route to Melbourne. The DC-7C will be seven hours faster than the Stratocruiser. Pan American intends to introduce the DC-8 onto the service in late 1959.