What Will Replace

P-NG Wonders

What Will Replace the DC 3 ?

From a NG Correspondent With the arrival at Lae recently ■f a de Havilland Caribou freighter, sapua-New Guinea saw the fifth new \r craft in less than six months Uher to go into service or to be remonstrated in the Territory.

IITHE expanding needs of civil 11. aviation here are not being forgotten,” commented an oerator who saw the Caribou go trough its paces at a trade and nblic demonstration.

' The other four new aircraft to be i;en in the Territory recently are jie Handley Page Dart Herald demonstrated), Fokker Friendship demonstrated), Piaggio (in service Jith Patair, based at Port Moresby), nd the Lockheed Electra (in ser ).ce with Qantas, in transit at Port loresby).

Operators have also expressed in vest of a passing nature in the :cottish Aviation Twin Pioneer Ihich has gone into service in lalaya but which has not yet been i;en in Papua-New Guinea, although has worked on the Netherlands >de of the border.

The Caribou The Caribou is a high-winged ionoplane with two engines and large rear door and landing ramp, (chicles were driven up the ramp fito the fuselage during the demon oration.

The aircraft is designed to operate •om short and rough strips if neces ary. The take-off run is only 540 set, and can come as low as 300 set into a 10-knot wind.

Its stalling speed is below 70 idles an hour, making it an ideal iircraft for supply drops.

The current trend for aircraft nanufacturers to demonstrate their utest models has created consider ate speculation among P-NG people :oncerning the future.

People are asking what sort of ircraft can be expected in the i.ear future on domestic services, md are even now calling for bigger, aster and better aircraft. The cry ar something new has been notice- Ible from an number of town ad iisory councils in recent months.

The present mainstay of the aajor domestic services is the tried md trusted Douglas DC3, of a basic iesign going back to 1936.

A considerable survey of the ituation shows that newer, faster, md bigger aircraft might bring ireater economy to the operators, iut what would it bring to the passengers? It would mean fewer srvices per week (fewer mail fre uenc i e s to Madang, Wewak, lavieng, Rabaul and other centres),

it might mean re-siting of airstrips which are now close to the towns they serve, and it could possibly mean the abandoning of some smaller services because of airstrip requirements.

The balance is hardly worth the effort particularly when flight times between major centres would be reduced by only three-quarters of an hour or so at the very most.

The fact of the matter is that the DC3 is filling a requirement in P-NG (and particularly in New Guinea) to a much greater extent than is realised by the average person.

Furthermore, the fact that the DCS has a basic design going back a quarter of a century is not an m dictment of the aircraft today, but rather an outstanding tribute to wh&t h&s been one of the greatest designs in aviation history, It is not an exaggeration to say that everywhere airlines are un decided on how the DCS can pos sibly be replaced, except at very great expense. Aviation is becom ing more specialised, and most modern designs are ideal for one particular job, but not highly versatile.