Mont Blanc Rescue Eight men were rescued by two Alouette helicopters from a hut near the summit of Mont Blanc on January 3, following unsuccessful attempts to save two young climbers who had been trapped on the mountain for 12 days. The eight comprised the two-man crew of a Sikorsky S-55 helicopter, and two guides, who had crashed in the machine while attempting to rescue the two climbers on December 31, and four guides who had been lowered from another helicopter after the first had crashed. The rescued men were flown to Chamonix, the two pilots suffering from shock and frostbite. Rescue operations for the two climbers, who were officially believed to have died of exposure in the night of December 31, were stopped on January 3, after the crashed S-55, in which two men had been left for shelter, had been examined from the air by the French Secretary of State for Air. A 360 m.p.h. Beverley In a New Year message to employees of Blackburn and General Aircraft, Mr. Eric Turner, the company's chairman, says: "Apart from the present version of the Beverley, which will be produced throughout 1957, you will be interested to know that we have just put forward proposals for modifying the Beverley to a turboprop version which would make it a long-range 360 m.p.h. machine without sacrificing its ability to operate from small, secondary airfields." Mr. Turner adds, "Then there is the new aircraft, still unfortunately hidden under the cloak of security. I believe that the aircraft will eventually go into widespread service at home and abroad, and the possibilities are tremendous if we pull together and make every post a winning post." Wingless Wonders Partly because a penguin population makes aircraft landings hazardous, the U.S. Navy is moving the site of its International Geophysical Year station in the Antarctic from Cape Adare to Cape Hallett, which is more accessible by ship and provides a larger area for conversion into a landing strip. N.Z. Helicopters Until recently there were two helicopters in New Zealand, a Bell and a Hiller. Now another has been imported by an American concern, Kern Copters, Inc., who will initially undertake agricultural contracts and may later extend their scope. |
Source: Flight International
