A Jewel From The (old imperial) Crown

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

India was once regarded as the old British empires most valuable possession .... "The Jewel In The Crown".

As a result of British political influence within the region (from 1858) .... the British aircraft industry (and British industry generally) realised success through the sale of both VISCOUNT and HS748 turboprops to INDIAN AIRLINES .... and even AIR INDIA´s first B707´s (series -420´s) were powered by British RR CONWAY fanjet engines too.

The French Aircraft industry also campaigned successfully within the region as well .... selling CARAVELLE jetliners to INDIAN AIRLINES in preference to the less efficient HS TRIDENT aircraft.

Indian AIRLINES entered the jet age during 1964 when it took delivery of its first CARAVELLE jrtliner.

CARAVELLE 6N, C/N 231, first flew from the Toulouse based fascilities of SUD EST AVIATION on October October 20th 1976 .... supporting the manufactueres registration F-WLGB. It was delivered to INDIAN AIRLINES on November 2nd 1967, rgistered VT-DWN, and named "Shantidoot" (one of 9 such aircraft to be operated by INDIAN AIRLINES) .... and served with the airline until 1976.


INDIAN AIRLINES CARAVELLE 6N VT-DWN "Shantiddot" (1975)





On October 12th 1976 VT-DWN was written-off with the loss of all 95 POB. The aircraft had departed Santa-Cruz, Bombay, for Madras, when it suffered a compressor failure within its number 2 engine shortly after T/O .... and which caused severe damage to the aircrafts hydraulic system .... igniting a fire within the aircrafts hydraulics reservoir and engine bay .... and which quickly progressed to a complete loss of flight control. Whilst attempting to make an emergency landing the aircraft suddenly dived from an altitude of approximately 300FT and impacted the ground at a 45 degree axis less than 1000 FT from the RWY threshold. Failure by the crew to shut-off fuel supply to the damaged engine was later cited as a major major contributing factor in the case of this particular accident.

Among prominent PAX killed in this accident were the famous Indian actress Rani CHANDRA, her mother, 3 sisters, and several members from their supporting dance troupe .... all of whom were returning home after performance in the Middle East. Ironically .... the BOEING aircraft that was originally scheduled to have operate their flight had been grounded with by a technical malfunction (it had been forced to return after its departure that day also) and was substituted for the CARAVELLE service at the last minute.

After CHRANDRA´s death her unfinished movie "Bhadrakali" had to be completed using a stand-in/look-alike of the famous Indian actress. Her first film, "Anjusundarikal", was widely acclaimed. Her Other major films included "Ulsavam, Kadarumasam, Nellu, Swapnadanam, Oonjal, Alinganam, Abhinandanam, Sindoooram, Thirumadhuram", and "Anuragam". She also won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress for the film "Swapnadanam". Rani CHANDRA additionally played a major role in the very popular Tamil cinema song "Kannan Oru Kaikuzhanthai".

Many thanks to Giuseppe SCAPACCINO for this particular contribution to the historic HJG hosted AFG CARAVELLE inventory .... "GRAZIE AMICO" ,)

Mark C
BOG/CO

[George Carty - HJG]

Are you sure the Caravelle was more efficient than the Trident (as opposed to just being available earlier). It would be surprising if the Caravelle's Avon turbojets were more efficient than the Trident's Spey turbofans...

George

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

I was really just quoting "the blurb" (that came up in my research) in regard to INDIAN AIRLINES acquiring CARAVELLE´s

The TRIDENT was operated by PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL .... though I think that might only have been a short term lease throgh BEA .... I´m not sure .... BUT .... the aircraft doesn´t appear to have appealed to INDIAN AIRLINES, or to any of the other rgional Asian carriers either .... with the exception of China and its CAAC. It did sell in the middle East (both in Kuwait and Iraq) though .... if I remmber correctly.

It seems that SUD EST essentially (probably) convinced INDIAN AIRLINES that the CARAVELLE could do on just 2 engines what the TRIDENT could with 3.

A lot of marketing and sales pitch, like that, went on during the early to mid 1960´s period.

Mark C
BOG/CO

[walterleo]

Hi:

Efficiency is not only fuel burn p. hour as the Caravelle had two engines and the Trident 3 (the 3B had four: one small for hot and high T.O.). But the British aircraft was much faster, had superior avionics etc. But quite a number of 3rdworld airlines preferred the Caravelle as it was more apt to the demanding circumstances of that countries and it seems it was much cheaper.

Kind regards

Walter

[aerofoto - HJG Admin]

Did a very quick (only) read on the TRIDENT.

Whilst it was otherwise a very good aircraft it was also tailored "so closely to BEA´s requirements" that it (apparently) failed to have greater appeal.

In the words of pilots whom flew it too .... the TRIDENT (early versions of it at least) was also "underpowered" for its size and weight .... in fact some pilots referred to it as "a ground gripper".

The TRIDENT entered service around 1964 .... at around the same time as INDIAN AIRLINES took delivery of its first CARAVELLE.

I don´t have my CARAVELLE book with me in this trip, so, can´t determine how far abroad (on what routes) INDIAN AIRLINES flew it´s CARAVELLE fleet, but, it it´s possible that the aircrafts capacity, and capabilities, for both the routes and environments serviced by the airline (supporting facilities at some of these detinations "possibly" need to be borne-in-mind too) "might" have been better suited to "IT" rather than the TRIDENT .... "it seems".

Mark C
BOG/CO

[walterleo]

Hi Mark:

The story of BEA and BOAC and British Aviation Industriy is a very strange one, as these airlines demanded first an aircraft so closely to their "market projections" that the design some years later was unfit even for the BEA-BOAC markets. To make things worst the British airplane had to be powered by RR only as demanded by the Britsh Governments, so the design could not grow according to new circumstances hampered by the lack of power the RR engines often had in comparison with the US built ones. BOEING did all that to the contrary and with what success! AND: The financial backing of US government and other friendly airforces always covered the development costs of new brake-throughs.

The Russians had a similar design philosphy as the British freezing their outlays still earlier as the British, but back in the USSR Aeroflot and some friendly foreign airlines had to buy what was offered: No discussion!

So the history of design and marketing of airplanes is an interesting point for one trying to understand how the world is really running.

Kind regards

Walter

P.S.: The Trident seem to have had also some real problems with their leading edge lift devices. Mr Braunburg who was one of the frist LH B 727 captains writes in one of his books, that on his first flights to London always some strange people came while his new 727 was standing on the ramp at LHR and they were measuring and taking photos of the B 727 wing. Somebody told him, the strange people were Hawker ingeniers trying to solve their problems with the Trident wing. But even after that the Trident needed slats up to 225 kts and had an additional lever to move the slats, not together with the flap lever. All that was contributing to the crash of G-ARPI on flight BEA 548 which still is the worst airplane accident in GB.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_European_Airways_Flight_548

Still to note, that incidents similar to that crash occured with Tridents before.