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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 2115.PDF
SEPTEMBER IITH, 10.41. fLICHI 150 CANADIAN NEWS Canadian industry is expanding to meet overhaul and repairneeds, because of the tremendous increase in the number of aircraft in Canada. During the second quarter more than 200aircraft were.received from the United States and nearly 300 from the British Air Ministry. Reports indicate that orders for more than 1,000 aircrafthave been awarded to Canadian aviation plants recently. Total cost is understood to run higher than $25,000,000. CanadianCar and Foundry Company will manufacture 400 Hurricanes at its Fort William plant, after which it will be engaged inturning out single-engine Harvard trainers at the rate of 80 a month for an indefinite period. An order for 500 Harvardsis being given tc Noorduyn Aviation, Limited, of Montreal. Destination of the planes was not officially disclosed, but therehave been unconfirmed reports that the machines will be bought by the United States Government for distribution toChina, the Netherlands Indies, and possibly Russia. The new contracts will bring the total orders given for air-craft in recent months to about $60,000,000. National Steel Car Corporation, at Hamilton, Ontario, is working on 200Martin B-26 bombers at a cost of $27,500,000, and Canadian Vickers, at Montreal, has an order totalling $7,400,000 for 39Catalina airframes. These will also be built at the Vancouver plant of Boeing Aircraft. Mr. Ralph Bell, Director of Aircraft Production, said hebelieved that no single aircraft in use to-day was of more importance to Doth Britain and Canada than the Catalina flyingboat, because it is able to stay in the air for such a long time and is playing a vital part in the Atlantic patrols against sub-marines. Mr. Bell also announced that a repair and overhaul plant • capable of maintaining all aero engines in use on thePacific Coast will be operated at Vancouver Airport, Sea Island, by Canadian Wright, Limited, and British Aero Engines,Limited. The plant was built by the Dominion Government. The Canadian aircraft industry has expanded in a year and ahalf from 1,000 employees to the present total of 27,000, said Mr. Bell, and Canada's aircraft output now is close to 40machines a week. Civil Air Lines The emphasis necessarily placed on military operations hasnot stopped, though it has no doubt curtailed air transport. The Dominion Bureau of Statistics reports in its monthlysurvey that passenger traffic of the Canadian air lines continues to follow an upward trend. The Bureau said 12,507 revenuepassengers were carried in April, compared with 11,884 the previous month. Passenger-miles totalled 4,428,314, against 3,498,465. An in-crease of 15 per cent, w a s notedfor passenger revenues, whichtotalled $275,461 in period underreview, but air mail revenue de-clined to $260,355 from $332,678, a22 per cent, de- crease. Othertransportation revenues fell 33 percent, to $76,485, compared with $1*3.395- Petrol used byall operators amounted to363,853 gallons in April, and lubri-cating oil to 8,110 gallons, comparedwith 387,188 and 7,257 respectively.Number of em- ployees was sta-tionary at 1,600. 0!.jne cadets, Anore jobin, 14 Use of air mail .-_ °f No* 2 iaan de Brebeuf services of Trans- Montreal, iooks over—or Canada Air Lines .y 'eu"der?—a Noorduyn Norse- has increased so « at. Hubert Airport, Montreal. greatly that the Canada's new Air Cadets on a route march in uniform.But drill is only part of their training ; they also learn about airframes, engines, maps, models, signals and theoryof flight gap between costs and revenue has become narrow, and the onlycloud in a bright sky is the difficulty of obtaining additional flying equipment. In 1940, air mail carried by C.T.A. increasedby an average of 4 per cent, per month, and in making their estimates for 1941 postal officials worked on the basis that therewould be further increases. But each month their estimated figures were surpassed, with 91,423 lb. carried in March, 99,071in April, 116,904 in May, and 118,942 in June. (In June, 1940, 68,270 lb. was carried.) '' This air mail service is a potential profit-maker,'' a postalofficer said. "We are optimistic over the difference between cost of operation and revenue from the service being closedsoon, with income meeting the outlay. We are definitely look- ing to the day when the air mail service will pay its own wayand leave something of a profit." Air bases being built from Edmonton to Whitehorse, Yukon,will be in use by autumn, according to J. A. Wilson, director of air services at the Department of Transport. This chain ofbases is being carved out of virgin bush in the hinterland ol British Columbia as part of the work of the United States-Canada Joint Defence Commission. All radio stations will be ready this autumn. Considerable difficulty is being encounteredin getting supplies to the sites of these remote aerodromes. The British need for airliners is affecting even the Canadianservices, and Trans-Canada Air Lines and Yukon Southern Air Transport have both given up two Lockheeds. Those fromYukon Southern are Lodestars, and it is likely that the T.C.A. are of the same type. Cancellation of one of three daily returntrips by T.C.A between Toronto and Windsor follows this action, so that Canada is feeling the airline pinch (the wordbeing used more metaphorically than literally) as w.ell as the United States. It is not reported that Yukon Southern hashad to restrict its services (which operate through Edmonton and Vancouver to northern British Columbia) but this may bebecause the aircraft were only recently received and probably had not gone into service. Atlantic Ferry Crash '"PHE third recent crash of transport aircraft flying over theJ- Atlantic occurred on September 2nd \vh:n a transport flying from America crashed in an isolated and mountainousdistrict on the west coast of Britain. The crew of four and the six passengers all lost their lives. The passengers wereProfessor Mowat, of the British Library of Information in New York and formerly of Bristol University; Count deBaillet-Latour, a Belgian diplomat; Capt. S. Picking, of the U.S. Navy; Mr. E. Y Taylor, of the R.A.E., Farnborough;Lt. Col. Wrangham, of the Royal Marines, and Dr. Mark Benjamin, of the Central Scientific Office at Washington.The delivery of aircraft across the Atlantic and the running of the transport service for high officials travelling betweenhere and the United States has for some months past been under the charge of the Royal Air Force Ferry Command,having been taken over from Atfero, which worked under the Ministry of Aircraft Production.
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