FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0853.PDF
MARCH 21, 1940 261 the 63 would be fairly satisfactory, but with 100, develop- ment could be vigorous. Assume a life based on obso- lescence as short even as five years (Hannibal lasted nine years until her tragic disappearance recently, taking with' her passengers and crew whose attainments, apart from any other consideration, made them men who are needed jn this world). Allow for some crashes, and take the average life as three years, again a severe figure. Then only 33 aircraft per year would be needed to keep this civil fleet always going. Even sixteen per year would be a very useful number. Such a figure, 33 aircraft per year, is but a minute frac- tion of total aircraft production. Total production of this country is unknown to all except a very few—certainly to me—but one may hazard a guess from reading American technical papers that it is well over 10,000 per year. It might even be 30,000—one can only guess. Even if it is as low as 10,000, the production of 33 civil aircraft per year is about one-third of one per cent, -of military production. As a figure it looks like this : 0.3 per cent. A figure which is just about the equal of a pinch of salt in a recipe—and just about as indispensable. Add " a pinch of Civil Aviation " to the wartime stew, Sir Kingsley, and stir vigorously. The result will exceed your fondest expectations. It would make the R.A.F. 0.3 per cent, weaker—instead of having 300 units of strength it would have 299—but the war is not going to be won or lost by as small a margin as that. If events continue in this country as they are going at present, it seems that Civil Aviation would have a happier life under any other Ministry than under its present grudg- ing parent, the Air Ministry. Even the Ministry for Economic Warfare might nourish it better! Big Business and the Independent Operators In a recent issue of Flight [March 7, page 209.—ED.] appeared an article setting out the views of the " indepen- dent " airline operators about the proposed Air Ministry action to prevent them running services and to acquire some of their aircraft. There were some indications that the independent companies thought they were going to be permanently suppressed, and the field of air transport, both internal and overseas, left completely open to the railway and other big financial groups. With my curiosity aroused, a little investigation was undertaken at the Inland Revenue Office in Bush House, inspecting the lists of shareholders and boards of directors of various companies. (This can be recommended as good sport for a wet day and only costs one shilling per com- pany. One gets all the Christian names of the directors in full and, more interesting still, their former names. Sometimes it is just a "von " changed to a "de," but it may be as thoroughly done as "Clyde," formerly '' Oppenheimer.") Flight's article says: "If they (the shareholders in Imperial Airways and British Airways) exercise this right (that of conversion of their shares to stock in the new British Overseas Airways Corporation) it is at once obvious that the big financial groups and various railway companies will own a considerable amount of slock in the Corpora- tion." Also we have lately had announcements which com- pleted the list (specially reduced—why? because of war?) of the members of the Corporation. The list now reads: Chairman of the Corporation, the Hon. Clive Pearson; Deputy Chairman, Mr. Irvine Geddes; Director-General, the Hon. Leslie Runciman; members, Messrs. Harold Brown and Gerard d'Erlanger. Only five members instead of the eleven or seventeen laid down in the Act. Looking first at the share list of Imperial Airways, it proves to be a staggering document of 800 pages. With its issued share capital of £1,623,869 divided among 5,238 names, the average holding is only just over £300. And only eight of the holders possess more than 10,000 £1 shares each. Moorgate Nominees 19,200, and Orient Steam Navi- gation 25,000, are among these. No, Big Business is not here, at least not overwhelm- ingly. (Probably founded too early, before Big Business realised that civil aviation was going to make itself felt.) The list of directors is long, including the Government directors appointed to watch national interests. British Airways is in a smaller volume. Its issued share capital is 363,204 shares of £1. The name of Mr. Gerard d'Erlanger is noticed as a director, as also is Mr. W. C. Tomlinson, while the Hon. Clive Pearson is chairman. Captain Harold Balfour was formerly a director in 1935, and the holder of 9,000 shares, but the list shows that these were transferred on May 24, 1938, to the joint account of J. H. Macdonald and J. L. Walsh, of 47, Parliament Street, S.W.i. The principal shareholders in the company are: British- Continental Airways, 63,204; Hillman's Airways, 63,947; the Macdonald and Walsh joint account, 130,868; Moor- gate Nominees, 86,053; the Hon. Clive Pearson, 1,000; W. D. L. Roberts, 9,131 ; and the joint account of Messrs. Hunter and Morgan-Grenville, of 47, Parliament Street, 9,000. (To be continued next week.) Cargo Service to the Jungle T^ROM far out in the Philippines comes an interesting story •*• about a Bellanca Aircruiser and its daily work in carrying heavy cargo for a mining company. The world-wide Elizalde Company is a Philippine organisa- tion and probably one of the richest companies in the world. It employs 10,000 workers and is engaged in about a dozen kinds of business, from the manufacture of paint to shipping, and from wine-making to gold mining. It is in the last-mentioned activity that the Bellanca has proved itself indispensible to the success of the mine. The Davao Gold Mine, on the Island of Mindanao, is the Elizalde subsidiary directly responsible for the plane's operation, and word that has been received tells of not only tractors and a truck as the aeroplane's cargo, but such articles as a diesel electric power unit, electric elevator hoist for a mine shaft, large electric motors and generators, sinker pumps, an auto- matic mine car loader and air compressors. The largest piece carried was the main body of a diesel engine, weighing, together with 200 pounds of tying-down gear, 4,095 pounds. Ihe work^ is similar to what has gone on for many years past in New Guinea, where gold mining companies are served by several air transport companies. A record was believed established when 34,000 pounds of cargo was carried in two hours and 20 minutes. On a year's operation the Aircruiser averaged 3,580 pounds of cargo per iv. ^e facilities and flying conditions between Davao andthe mine, the story is best told in the letter written by the fiead of the aviation department to the Bellanca AircraftCorporation: " 1 he airport at the mine is located in a dense mountainous jungle, 28 miles east of Davao, and the company long ago gave up the idea of trying to build a road into such difficult country. The only practical way of developing the mine was by airplane transportation. The airport is 3,000 feet long of which about 2,700 feet at a 5 per cent, grade is usable. It is located in a blind canyon between two mountains, and another mountain rises up to 7,000 feet at the east end of the runway. The elevation of the field is 1,600 feet. The only way in and out is from the west. All landings are made to- wards the east, and 80 per cent, of such landings are down- wind (5 to 12 m.p.h.) due to peculiar air conditions in this locality. It is not unusual to land with a ground speed in excess of 95 m.p.h. when a good tail wind is blowing. It is usually very gusty in the late mornings as the tail wind in- creases, and the landing then becomes more difficult. The landing gear has taken many a beating, and so far has shown no signs of weakness. Over 1,700 landings have been made during the first year, which is more than most airplanes get in three or four years of flying. " The topography around the field is such that a landing must be made after passing the edge of the field, as there is no chance to turn around in the narrow canyon. To change your mind at this point would be disastrous." Middle East C.-in-C. Visits Turkey AIR MARSHAL SIR WILLIAM MITCHELL, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force in the Middle East, and GeneralJaunaud, who commands the French Air Force in the Eastern Mediterranean, arrived in Angora on March 9 and paid officialcalls on various Ministers and heads of the armed forces.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
