Yester Year

• Prompted by high demand, Boeing is producing airlin-ers at an increased rate. A by-product of this has been the difficulty experienced by some sub-contractors in keep-ing up with production. On October 3 Boeing announced the suspension of 747-400 production for 20 days to allow suppliers to catch up. Boeing’s airliner production rate will reach 43 aircraft per month by the second quarter of 1998.

• Air Canada is operating one of its Airbus A319s, C-FZUH, in a special 60th anniversary commemorative livery which includes elements from all liveries in the airline’s history combined with a 60th anniversary logo on the tail.

• According to a report in the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat on October 8, 20 former Iraqi air force MiG-21 Fishbeds have been offered by Iran to anti-Taliban forces of ousted President Rabbini in Afghanistan. The aircraft were amongst 115 Iraqi aircraft flown to Iran in 1991 to pro-tect them from air raids by the US led coalition following the commencement of Operation Desert Storm.

25 Years Ago

• Air France’s only remaining Concorde service is Paris to New York following the final Paris to Washington flight on October 29.

• No 29 Squadron RAF McDonnell Douglas Phantom IIs flew from Ascension Island to make the first land-ing on the modified runway at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, on October 17. They will be based at Stanley to bolster the islands’ defences.

• After being unveiled by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden the first Saab- Fairchild 340 regional airliner, SE-ISF, was rolled out at Linkoping on October 27. The aircraft carries the livery of the launch customer Crossair on the port side and of the first US customer, Air Midwest, on the starboard.

• The 1000th Northrop F-5E Tiger II, one of 10 F-5Es and two two-seat F-5Fs ordered by the Mexican air force, was handed over at Palmdale, California on October 15. Northrop has delivered over 3500 examples of the F-5 and T-38 Talon. In service with 30 nations, the F-5 is the most widely used US built fighter in the world.

• Air Pacific is reorganising in an attempt to cut losses. The present fleet of one Boeing 737, two BAC One-Elevens and four EMB-110P1 Bandeirantes will be reduced to two 737s (with the lease of a second 737) and two Bandeirantes.

• A US Navy NC-121K, the last Lockheed Constellation serving with the US military, has been retired and will go to the Air and Missile Museum at Florence, South Carolina, for preservation.

50 Years Ago

• The world’s first artificial satellite, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik (fellow traveller) was placed into Earth orbit from a newly-developed ICBM, after a launch from the Tyuratam- Baikonur cosmodrome on October 4.

• TWA inaugurated a new service with the Lockheed L-1649A Starliner on a Polar route from Los Angeles to London on October 2 in 23hr 19min, creating a record for the longest non-stop sched-uled airliner flight.

• The prototype Avro CF-105 Arrow, 25201, left the final as-sembly line at the company’s factory at Malton, Ontario, on October 4.

• The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation is to convert Wirraway trainers into an agricultural aircraft called the Ceres. The Ceres’s fuselage will be extended by 0. 71m and the wing will have span increased by 1. 22m and 25 per cent increased area.

• Ansett-ANA began operations on October 21 following the completion of the acquisition of Australian National Airways on October 3. The airline has a fleet of 42 aircraft comprising four DC-6Bs, two DC-6s, three Convair 440s, two Convair 340s, nine DC-4s, 17 DC-3s, three Bristol Freighters, and two helicopters, a Bristol Sycamore and a Sud Djinn.

• Qantas Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation VH-EAO Southern Aurora arrived in Sydney on October 28 at the end of its delivery flight from Burbank, California. It was the first airliner to fly non-stop from Honolulu to Sydney and the airline’s first L-1049 to be fitted with wing-tip fuel tanks.