Yesteryear

• An RAN McDonnell Douglas TA-4G Skyhawk crashed at Nowra on 28 April during formation flying practice.

• Pioneer aviation identity Arthur Butler died on 13 April at the age of 77. He set a record in 1931 when he flew from Lympne to Darwin in nine days in a Comper Swift and in 1934 established Butler Air Transport.

• On 24 April ‘Operation Evening Light”, arranged to rescue American hostages held in Iran, was abandoned when aircraft invol- ved including Sikorsky RH-53 Sea Stallions from USS ‘Nimitz’ met with accidents at a desert landing area.

• The 1,000th Learjet was delivered by Gates Learjet on 28 March when Eaton Corporation received its sixth Learjet in ceremonies at Tuscon, Arizona. The first Learjet was delivered on 13 October 1964 and Lear-jet claims it has 26% of the free world’s business jet market.

• The price of some major US weapon systems was contained in Dept of Defense budget requests for 1981. The unit cost of the F-16 is $10m, F-14 $29m, F-15 $25m, E-2C $38m, Boeing E-3A $123m, McDonnell Douglas KC-10A $49m and P-3C Orion $29m.

• The first flight of a BAe 748 fitted with hush-kits took place at Woodford on 4 March. The 6. 8kg installation is fitted between the existing nose cowl and air intake casing and has the effect of the nose cowl being moved forward by 7. 6cm. It is claimed to give substantial reductions in approach and taxying noise levels and can be fitted to new and existing aircraft.

• Boeing’s chairman has said in Tokyo that his company was ready to undertake a joint feasibility study with Japan of a new 130/150 seat airliner. Boeing has said that an improved 737 or a short fuselage 757 might be developed to meet the 130/150 seat requirement using the 19,000lb st RJ-500 engine. • The RAF announced on 29 April a further order for 18 BAe Hawks to supplement the 175 Hawks already on order.

20 Years Ago

• Construction of the further extension to the north-south runway at Sydney Airport commenced on 23 March and, when completed late next year, will see the runway extended to 13,400ft.

• East-West Airlines has become the first Australian airline to provide a flat-rate unrestricted tourist fare for visitors from overseas. The $49 ticket introduced in April will allow unrestricted travel on the East-West network during its 49 day period of validity.

• Following tests which concluded in February, the US FAA has determined that wake turbulence from heavy jet transports over 300,000lb is less than anticipated. Since 1 March, the US ATC on FAA advice, has cancelled the previous 10 mile distance between Boeing 747s and other jets or a 2,000ft vertical separation. Other aircraft may now be only five miles behind large jets or 1,000ft below.

•Recent first flights of powerplants were the General Electric CF6-6 turbofan which has been developed as the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 powerplant, on a Boeing B-52 testbed on 2 March and the Rolls-Royce RB. 211 three-shaft turbofan for the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was flown on a VC10 testbed on 6 March.

• The procurement of 149 aircraft at a cost of $165. 9m for the Australian armed forces was announced by the Minister for Defence, Mr Fraser, on 10 March. Aircraft involved are ten additional Skyhawks and two H. S. 7488 for the RAN for training and support, 84 light observation helicopters comprising 75 for the Army as Bell Sioux replacements and nine for the RAN (the selection to be between the Bell OH-58A or Westland SA-341), 42 utility helicopters for the RAAF (possibly Iroquois) and 11 helicopter gunships (either Huey Cobras or armed Iroquois).

The UK and USSR signed an agreement on 13 April allowing BOAC aircraft to overfly Siberia when operating the airline’s London/ Tokyo service.

• Qantas announced in April the wet lease of a Caledonian Airways Boeing 707-320C for a 1 year period for migrant flights from Europe commencing in May.

• The first Lockheed HC-130N version of the Hercules has been delivered to the USAF Designed as a long-range rescue aircraft and in-flight helicopter refueller, it is able to loiter on station for three hours, transfer 2,500 gallons of fuel at maximum range and can simultaneously refuel two helicopters. • Concorde 002, flown by BAC Deputy Chief Test Pilot John Cochrane, made its first supersonic flight on 25 March. The BAC built prototype flew supersonically for about 10 minutes and reached Mach 1. 05 at 34,000ft during a 1hr 45min flight.

30 Years Ago

• An interceptor version of the Convair Hus- tler designated the B-58D powered by two Pratt and Whitney turbojets is being investigated by the USAF • Vickers has revealed that the Super VC. 10 will be approximately 28ft longer than the standard VC. 10, accomplished with an extra 20ft fuselage section before and an 8ft section behind the wing. This will enable an additional nine rows of seats to be fitted increasing passenger accommodation from 150 to 204. Gross weight will be 350,000- 360,000lb.

• Senator Paltridge, the Minister for Civil Aviation, said on 17 March that Cabinet had authorised design work on a new airport at Tullarmarine and has authorised the expenditure of about £2. 5m to purchase approximately 5,000 acres of land at Tullarmarine.

• The first production Douglas C-133B Car- gomaster was delivered to the 1501st Air Transport Wing of MATS at Travis APB on 31 March, the first of 15 of this version on order. The lower powered C-133A entered service with MATS during August 1957 and 34 have been delivered.

• A Supermarine Seagull V which had been stored at Camden for ten years had its first test flights at Pittwater on 21 March. Now registered as VH-ALB it previously served with the RAAF as A2-4. During a wartime career which saw it stationed at Richmond, Darwin and Rathmines it also served on board HMAS ‘Australia’.

The Grumman A2F-1 Intruder subsonic low-level shipboard strike aircraft was revealed for the first time on 29 April. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney J52-P-6 tur- bojets, the two crew Intruder is designed to fly for prolonged periods at low level at Mach 0. 9-0. 95. After a design contest in which eight manufacturers submitted eleven design projects, the Grumman design was selected on 31 December 1957.

• Three new aircraft for the Department of Civil Aviation arrived at Sydney Airport on 1 March at the conclusion of their delivery flights across the Pacific. The Cessna 310C VH-CAZ and Aero Commander 680Es VH-CAX and VH-CAY will replace Avro Ansons.

•Two of TAA’s DC-48, VH-TAA and VH-TAB, have been converted for cargo use and will be known as Cargomasters and the similar conversion of VH-TAC is in progress.

• Convair received a contract from Japan Air lines on 14 April for the delivery next year of three Convair 880-M airliners. The Convair 880-M with a 615mph cruising speed is currently the fastest commercial jet transport in the world. It is powered by four 11,650lb st General Electric CHJ-805-38 turbojets, has extra wing centre section tanks carrying an additional 1,540 Imperial gallons of fuel and passenger accommodation of 87.