FAA’s monstrous goof in the matter of the Washington TCA confirms the confidence-shattering premise that all its expertise, experience, facilities and consultants . . .
. . . notwithstanding, the agency is very capable of making monumental conceptual errors in air traffic control. . . . The fateful blunder proved to be that the demands made by the TCA exceeded the performance of the airplanes that were supposed to carry them out.
The oddest-looking plane at the 1970 Farnborough show was this BN-2A Islander Mk III from Britten-Norman. A larger, 17-passenger transport was created by adding a tail-mounted third Lycoming O-540.
This conversion by San Antonio’s Miller Aviation, adds vim and vigor, and puts a Piper alumnus in performance class with Beech Baron. The expanded nose adds 11 cu. ft. of baggage or avionics space (130 lb. total) capacity and decreases drag.
Cessna’s Citation fanjet has entered FAA certification flight-testing after completion of all developmental trails, which resulted in significant performance improvements, according to the company.
New landing gears are features of two models in Cessna’s 1971 lineup, the 150 and the Skyhawk/172. The Cardinal/177 (bottom) gets its new look from the landing light in its nose.
John L. Baker is the new “Mr. General Aviation” at the FAA. Gates and Northrop call off Learjet purchase talks after nine months of intensive negotiations, physical and financial inspections, and rumor generation.
The Reno pylong race winner is Clay Lacy of Van Nuys, California, whose P-51 finished first in the Sept. 20 race, but had been disqualified for cutting a pylon. The committee later reversed the decision.
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