Yesteryear

• Production of the Boeing 727 will cease during the middle of next year when 727 number 1832 a 727-200F freighter, is delivered to Federal Express. There has been a sharp decline in 727 sales owing to the availability of the Boeing 757 and the forth coming 737-300 which provides the same cabin cross section but offers superior economy. • Because of the depressed state of the market in 1982, Boeing registered a fall in deliveries of 80 aircraft compared with 1981. Deliveries consisted of eight 707s, 26 7278, 95 7378, 26 7478, 2 757s and 20 767s.

• The first examples of the Boeing 747-300 were delivered to Swissair and UTA during the first week of March, immediately after certification of the type. Swissair introduced the 747-300 into service on March 27 and UTA will place it into operations on April 1.

Following the granting of FAA certification on December 21 the Boeing 757 entered service on January 1. The five test 757s had flown 1815 hours during 1298 flights prior to certification.

The Saab-Fairchild 340 flown by Per Pellebergs and Eric Sjoberg had its first flight at Linköping on January 25.

• Tenders for the RAN’s dual role shipboard helicopter requirement were scheduled to be submitted during February. To fulfil both ASW and utility roles, the main contenders are the Aerospatiale AS 332 Super Puma and AS 366 Dauphin 2, Westland Lynx and Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk.

• A contract valued at $US14m has been received by Northrop Services, for the conversion of obsolete F-86 Sabres to be used as target drones at the USN’s China Lake Naval Weapons Center.

20 Years Ago

• The first McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 to be delivered to Air New Zealand made its Inaugural flight to Sydney on February 3. The DC-10 was ZK-NZL which was painted In the airline’s new colour scheme.

The maiden flight of the first production Dassault Mirage F 1 took place at Bordeaux-Merignac on February 15. An initial batch of 85 has been ordered by the French Air Force and at least a further 20 will be ordered.

Air Saire has ordered five Boeing 737-200Cs to replace its Caravelles and Friendships on domestic and regional routes. Sales of the Boeing 737 have now reached 346.

The former North American Rockwell Corporation and the Rockwell Manufacturing Company will be merged and trade under the name of Rockwell International Corporation. Approval for the merger and name change was obtained at shareholder meetings of the two former companies in mid February.

• The second preproduction aircraft, Concorde 02 F-WTSA, carried a payload of 28,000lb which is 8000lb greater than the entry into service guaranteed minimum, on February 23. The Concorde flew 3750 statute miles non stop from Toulouse to Iceland and back and landed with 12 tons of fuel in reserve.

• Boeing’s sales of $2369m during 1972 were down on the previous year’s figure of $3039m. A total of 99 aircraft were delivered in 1972 and this will increase to 154 this year comprising 93 727s, 11 707s, 22 737s and 28 7478. • Winner in a contest to choose a name for the HS 1182 jet trainer is “Tercel” (which is a male falcon). The second choice of the Judges was “Hawk”. The contest organisers have pointed out that there is no guarantee that the Ministry of Defence will accept the name when the RAF receives the aircraft into service. The first flight of the HS 1182 is scheduled for the spring of 1974.

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the first production Fairey Firefly from Fairey’s Great Western Airfield (now Heat-hrow) to Yeovilton, the ex RAN Fairey Firefly Mk 5 WB271 flew from Heathow to Yeovilton on March 4.

• An order is to be placed by the USAF for two Boeing 747Bs equipped as airborne command posts. They will carry the designation of E-4A.

30 Years Ago

• Cessna delivered its 50,000th aircraft on February 25, a Model 172 Skyhawk registered N50000. Current production is 3000 aircraft a year and Cessna has produced more aircraft than any other company for the past seven years. The five most numerous Cessna models so far produced are: 172/ Skyhawk 7140, 182/Skylane 5608, Cessna 140 5560, T-50 (AT-8, AT-17 and UC-78) 5402, and Cessna 170 5171.

• A ceremonial flight by three Avro Lincolns was made over East Anglia on March 12 to signify the withdrawal of the last five of the type in RAF service. The five Lincolns had formed one flight of No 151 Squadron, RAF Signals Command, at Watton, Norfolk whose other equipment includes Canberras, Hastings and Varsities, Two of the Lincolns will go to RAF Hullavington, Wilts for pre- servation by the Air Ministry’s Air Historical Branch while the other three will be flown to No 23 Maintenance Unit RAF Aldergrove, Northern Ireland.

Qantas commenced a new service from Sydney to Djakarta with DC-3 VH-EDC on January 14. The regular service will trans- port engines overhauled in Sydney for Garuda Indonesian Airlines.

Mr Fairbairn, the Minister for Air, announced in Canberra on February 20 that an option had been negotiated by the Government to purchase an additional 40 GAMD Mirage O fighters, taking total RAAF orders to 100.

•Two Airspeed Ambassadors previously operated by the Royal Arab Air Force had been acquired by Dan-Air, taking their total for the type to seven.

The first flight of the Boeing 727 took place at Renton Municipal Airport on February 9 flown by Boeing Senior experimental test pilot SL Wallick. After a 2 hour 6 minute flight, the 727 landed at Paine Field north of Seattle.

• The highest time Lockheed Electra in the world, Ansett-ANA’s VH-RMA with a total time of 12,875 hours, has been undergoing the first major overhaul for the type in the world. The aircraft was stripped down to the basic airframe for an exhaustive check of all systems. An indication of the excellent condition of the aircraft was that after 11,000 landings, the oleo showed only one and a half of an inch wear while the leg itself had only one thousandth of an inch wear.