Yesteryear

The first flight of a propfan powerplant took place on August 20 at Mojave. The General Electric GE-36 propfan engine was installed in a new elevated pylon on the starboard position on a Boeing 727-100. The GE-36 is the Unducted Fan (UDF) demonstrator and drives two eight-bladed counter-rotating 3.57m (11.7ft) propellers or fans installed in a pusher arrangement.

A Boeing 757 set a distance record on its delivery flight to Air Maroc. The 4,912nm (9,097km) from Seattle to Casablanca was covered in 10hr 15min. Fuel used was 30,336kg (66,860lb).

The first flight of the British Aerospace ATP took place at Woodford on August 6 in accordance with a schedule set two years ago. The ATP will enter service with British Midland and LIAT in 1987.

A HeavyLift Cargo Airlines Shorts Belfast freighter flew the first Shorts-built set of wings for the Fokker 100 from Belfast to Amsterdam on August 12. The wings continue the risk-sharing partnership between Fokker and Shorts established in 1966 for the F28, which has seen 241 sets of wings built for all the F28s so far produced.

Aeroflot-operated Mil Mi-26 heavy lift helicopters have been used to carry loads up to 17 tonnes (37,500lb) at the Yamburg pumping station in the Siberian oil and gas fields.

The Japanese Defence Agency released a Defence White Paper on August 8 which said that Soviet forces in the Far East had 85 Tupolev ‘Backfire’ bombers, and 2,390 other combat aircraft including MiG-23, -25, -27, and -31 and Su-24s, plus the carriers Minsk and Novorossisk.

20 Years Ago

Subject to US Government approval, the Imperial Iranian Air Force plans to purchase 160 General Dynamics F-16 fighters (including 10 two-seaters).

Since the joint Luftwaffe/USAF training scheme commenced in 1964, a total of 1,219 West German pilots have been trained on F-104 Starfighters at Luke AFB, Arizona.

The first flight of the BAC-assembled Concorde 210 G-BOAD, the fourth for British Airways, took place on August 25.

The first flight of the Scottish Aviation Bullfinch, G-BDOG, took place at Prestwick on August 20. The Bullfinch is a four-seat, retractable undercarriage development of the Bulldog and is intended for both civil and military customers. Both versions are powered by a 200hp (150kW) Avco-Lycoming AEIO-360-A1B6.

A Beaver/Otter replacement is being developed by de Havilland Canada. It will be turboprop-powered and carry 10 passengers or one tonne of freight. Boeing’s YC-14 prototype first flew on August 9.

The maiden flight of the first Boeing YC-14 prototype, 01873, to be evaluated under the USAF AMST program, took place on August 9.

On August 26, four RAF Vulcan B.2s flew to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana to participate in the Giant Voice 76 SAC bombing and navigation competition.

Qantas has ordered a further three Boeing 747s taking its total to 15. The aircraft will be delivered between September and December 1977 and one of them will be a Combi version with a large aft freight door.

The first SEPECAT Jaguar International had its first flight at BAC Warton on August 19. Ecuador and Oman have ordered 12 Internationals each.

The maiden flight of the first Lockheed JetStar II, N5527L, powered by four 3,700lb (16.6kN) Garrett TFE731-3 turbofans, took place at Marietta, Georgia, on August 18.

30 Years Ago

The first Douglas DC-9-30, N8916E, had its maiden flight at Long Beach on August 1, after a rollout on July 15. The Series 30 has a 4.58m (15ft) longer fuselage stretch than the Series 10, and passenger capacity is increased from 90 to 115. To date, 19 airlines have ordered 237 DC-9-30s.

Following the completion of additional accommodation in New Caledonia, services will be increased between Sydney and Noumea. From August 1, the previous UTA fortnightly DC-6B service will be replaced with two flights a week, one by a Qantas 707 operating Sydney/Noumea/Sydney, and the other by a UTA DC-8 on a through service from Paris. The last DC-6B flight was operated by F-BHMR on July 29.

The UK Minister of Aviation said on August 2 that BEA could only purchase British-built aircraft for its fleet. The announcement followed reports that BEA was considering US-built aircraft.

A joint RAAF-RAF exercise, ‘High Castor’, took place from Darwin between August 9-18. Participating were RAAF Mirages, Canberras, Neptunes, and Hercules, and Singapore-based RAF Vulcans.

Proposals to establish a ‘third level’ of regular scheduled air services in Australia are being studied by the Department of Civil Aviation. The services would operate to smaller airports with limited facilities. An outline of the Department’s policy has been submitted to the major airlines for comment.

At a ceremony on August 1 at its Wichita headquarters, Cessna unveiled the first of its 1967 models, the new two-seat Cessna 1967 Model 150. Amongst various improvements, the fuselage has been widened at the cabin doors by an extra three inches at elbow level. Cessna produced and delivered 3,000 1966 Model 150s, which was nearly four times the 1965 production level of 760 aircraft.

On August 24, A97-159, the first of the RAAF’s 12 C-130E Hercules on order, arrived at RAAF Richmond after a flight from the USA via Hawaii and Fiji.

On July 14, a Lockheed WU-2, 56-6722, landed at RAAF Base Laverton after a flight from Christchurch. During August, it continued to carry out flights over Australia as part of ‘Operation Hicat’, a worldwide research program into high-altitude clear air turbulence (HICAT). The flights involved climbs up to a 90,000ft altitude as far as Brisbane.