Answers on Jets

One of the prime questions about jet airliners is how well they will fit into U.S. air traffic alongside slower, prop-driven transports. Last week in Seattle, a Civil Aeronautics Administration evalua tion team took its first flight in Boeing's prototype 707 transport, which ten airlines expect to start flying in 1959. CAA's conclusion: jets will not only be able to operate in and out of airports with older transports but in many ways will be easier to handle. Items:

P:Instrument landing approach: the CAA pilot twice deliberately entered the glide path off course, but because of the 707's maneuverability got back on course so easily that he concluded jets will probably suffer fewer missed approaches than prop-driven planes.

P:Speed range: at both 585-m.p.h. cruising speed and 116-m.p.h. stalling speed, the 707 handled well, indicating that jets can mix readily with slow, high-density traffic around airports.

P:Descent from high altitude: the 707 was put through a normal descent and a simulated emergency descent, both without making the passengers feel uncomfortable. Thus control-tower operators should be able to feed jets into final landing approaches with minimum delay from holding patterns at high altitude.

After 4 1/2 hours of test flights, CAA's pilots also proved some other jet-age points that they had been wondering about. One is that while a few fields have run ways long enough to handle heavily laden jets, most U.S. airports, particularly Washington's National Airport, must extend their runways or forgo long-range jet operations. Another is that all flights above 20,000 ft., where the jets will operate, will have to be rigidly controlled from take-off to landing. Said Acting CAAdmin-istrator James T. Pyle, who piloted the 707: "These planes come together awfully fast. The pilots certainly will need reliable guidance from the ground to keep from smacking into each other."

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