Yesteryear

New Piper Aircraft unveiled the Piper 6X and Piper 6XT, at the Sun ‘n’ Fun Fly-In at Lakeland, Florida on April 2. The two variants of the Saratoga with fixed undercarriages are powered by 300hp Lycoming engines and the respective basic equipped price is US$336,000 and US$356,000 for the 6X and 6XT. Escalating insurance premiums has prompted the move to build the aircraft with fixed undercarriages because of more favourable treatment by insurance companies to fixed landing gear configurations.

On April 8 Delta Air Lines announced the retirement of its last 727 aircraft. The first 727, N452DA joined the fleet on January 23 1973 and the airline ultimately introduced 184 727s in service. The final 727 scheduled airline service by any major airline was operated by the Delta flight from Greensboro, North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia on April 6.

The prototype Cessna 525B Citation CJ3 had its maiden flight lasting 1hr 43min from McConnell AFB, Wichita, Kansas on April 17. Orders have been received for over 160 CJ3s, which is scheduled for certification in the second quarter of 2004 with deliveries commencing in the third quarter.

25 Years Ago

The maiden flight of the first Boeing 747-400, N401PW, took place from Paine Field, Everett, Washington on April 29 with a landing at Boeing Field, Seattle where the test program is based. The 2.5 hours flight reached 20,000ft and a speed of Mach 0.7. Orders for the 747-400 stand at 124 plus 70 options from 18 customers.

The go-ahead for full-scale development of the European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) was announced in the House of Commons by the Defence Secretary, Mr George Younger, on April 25. The British share in the four-nation program of about £7 billion is 33 per cent, Federal Germany 33 per cent, Italy 21 per cent and Spain 13 per cent. The RAF is planning to buy 250 EFAs to replace its Phantoms in the air defence role and Jaguar in ground-attack roles, with a service entry in the later half of the 1990s.

The USN’s first Grumman F-14A (Plus) assigned to an operational squadron was accepted by VF-101 at NAS Oceana, Virginia on April 11. By 1990 Grumman is expected to construct 38 new-build F-14A (Plus) aircraft and to remanufacture 32 existing F-14As to the new standard.

A non-stop distance record for a commercial twinjet was claimed on the delivery flight of an Air Mauritius Boeing 767-200ER on April 18. The aircraft, the first 767-200ER delivered at the optional high gross weight of 175,543kg, left Everett on April 16 for Halifax, Nova Scotia for an overnight stop. On April 17 with a takeoff weight of 158,400kg, it then flew non-stop to Plaisance Airport, Port Louis, Mauritius covering the 14,046km (7582nm) in 16hr 27min.

The first aircraft to be fuelled by liquid hydrogen, the Tupolev Tu-155 (which was modified from a Tu-154 airliner, CCCP-85035), had its first flight on April 15. The aircraft has a experimental NK-88 engine installed on the right side which, uses as its fuel a frozen mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquefied natural gas.

50 Years Ago

The RAAF received its first Dassault Mirage IIIO, A3-1, at an official handover at Aerodrome de Melun Villaroche near Paris on April 9. Tests will be undertaken in France before the aircraft arrives in Australia. Deliveries of the first 30 aircraft will commence this year with initial aircraft going to No 75 Squadron at Williamtown currently equipped with Sabres.

Douglas announced on April 8 that development and production of the short-haul DC-9 twin-jet short-range airliner will proceed. No orders have yet been received for the DC-9. The 56 to 83-passenger aircraft has been designed to operate from runways less than one mile in length over route sectors from 100 to 1100 miles at speeds up to 560mph.

The first conventional flight was made by Northrop X-21A laminar-flow control system research aircraft on April 18 investigating the elimination of boundary layer air turbulence over the wing. The program involves two Douglas WB-66D weather research aircraft with completely new wings, modified by Northrop, channelling boundary layer air turbulence through thousands of tiny holes and ducts in the wings converting it into thrust. The engines have been removed from under the wing and replaced by rear-mounted podded jets.

The US Defense Budget for the coming year is expected to have provision for 3,240 new aircraft comprising 960 for the USAF, 680 for the USN and 1,600 for the Army.

BOAC proposes to reduce the number of aircraft planned to be in service in 1967 from 62 to 52 to to offset financial losses and balance reduced commitments. With 18 Boeing 707-436s in service plus two on order, the airline has placed orders for 12 Vickers VC10s and 30 Super VC10s, and has not indicated which type will be cut back. Meanwhile in Australia, BOAC commenced its first services from Brisbane on April 1. The flights to London operated by Comet 4s on Mondays will take 36 hours via Darwin, Singapore, Colombo, Bombay, Teheran, Tel Aviv and Zurich.