FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1944
1944 - 2316.PDF
504 FLIGHT NOVEMBER 91H, 1944 Civil Aviation Royal Aeronautical Society's All-day Debate ? I iHE Council of the Royal Aeronautical Society is to be congratulated on its decision to organise an all-day JL debate on the subject of civil aviation. The meeting, which was held in the lecture hall of the Institution of Mechani cal Engineers, Storey's Gate, London, last Saturday, was so well attended that many could not find seats. Lord Brabazon, a past-president of the Society, took the chair throughout, and as Sir Roy Fedden said, it must have been a severe sacrifice on his part to do without the cigarette in its familiar long holder for so many hours (smoking is not permitted in the hall). There were no lectures in the ordinary sense, but five speakers made opening remarks on different subjects, which were then followed by discussions. In his introduction Lord Brabazon reminded the audience that the power of speech was granted us for the purpose of communicating thoughts, not merely to make a noise, and as there was much to faw in a short time it was neoessary lor al! speakers to be brief, an admonition taken to heart by nearly everybody. The fivi speakers and their subjects were: Brig. Gen. Critchley, Director-General of British Overseas Air ways Corporation (The Selection and Training of Personnel for Civil Aviation): Maj. K. H. Thornton, o! the Aifeed HoK and Co. ship ping line Economics of Air Transport); Mr. Roy Chadwick, chief designer, A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd. (Civil Aircraft Design); Mr. E. W. Hives, Rolls-Royce, Ltd. (Civil Aircraft Engine Design); and Mr. W. P Hildred, I>irector-General of Civil Aviation (Route Facilities). GEN. CRITCHLEV said B.O.A.C. worked on a basis of three air crews for each aircraft, the most that could be expected from the crews being 1,000 hours a year, and from each aircraft 3,000 hours. He stressed the time taken to convert combat aircrews into civil aircrews, about one year. At first aircrews would be taken in from the R.A F. and given conversion courses, but he thought engineers would have to have civil training. He pleaded for the revival in the RAF of Short-Service commissions. Men would then do five years in the RAF and another five in commercial flying. The training of station managers was a difficulty. They had to be able, in addition to their ordinary work, to entertain kings, ambassadors and people of every condition. In short, they had to be all things to all people. Administrative branches would have to be recruited from the educational establishments, and he had hopes that B.O.A.C. would be allowed to take over, after the war, one ol the K.A F. establishments and use it for training all branches of their own personnel. Servu e would be the keynote mid aim of the training Discipline was essential, and a very large pro portion of what was called " pilot error " came from disobedience of some order. [Gen. Critchley made osrtain remarks on which we do not wish to waste space here, but which appeared to indicate that he ought to enrol himself as the first pupil at the " finishing school " in diplomacy which B.O.A.C. proposes to set up.—ED.] Civil Discipline GRP. CAPT. WILLIAMSON confirmed the long conversion course needed, particularly for engineers, to train them in civil maintenance, and also agreed on the question of discipline. In the AT.A. they started with civilians, and discipline was difficult to achieve. As soon as they put their crews into uniform there was a marked improvement SIR ALAN COKIIAM welcomed Gen. Critchley's reference to the training of station managers. He recalled his own experiences when he was making long-distance flights through Africa, India and Australia, and said that if he had l>een taught some diplomacy before he started it would have been invaluable to him. MR. THEODORE INSTONF. suggested that every ambassador and governor should have a civil air attache on his staff, and regretted that Gen Critchley had made no mention in his plan for the future of the A T.C., which should be a fine source of supply. MR. GANDAR DOWER agreed with the importance of training and recalled that the Air Registration Board is now shouldering the responsibility for training aircraft engineers. • Am CHIEF MARSHAL SIR A. LONCVORE thought Gen. Critchley had exaggerated the time taken to convert from military to civil work. It might apply to a fighter pilot, but not, he thought to aircrews of Bomber and Coastal Commands. He would like Gen. Critchley to tell them if the personnel to be trained at the proposed B.O.A.C. establishment would be free to go to other companies. In reply to a question concerning the length of a pilot's useful life. Gen Critchley said at B.O.A.C. they were endeavouring to arrange for pilots to benefit from a high pension at 45. The general scheme was that from 20 to 35 pilots were expected to go anywhere. At 35 they were asked where they would like to settle down, and for ten years they were then put on routes traversing the selected district During these years they were given training in adminis trative work which they could undertake from 45 onwards. MAJ. R H. THORNTON, as usual, was exceedingly witty and cut ting in dealing with the economics ol an transport He began with the premise that there is no such thing as 1( « transport, and followed up by throwing out suggestions and asking questions under such different heads as subsidies, air mail, airports, ground formalities, all-weather punctuality, short-haul possibilities, and air freight. Of subsidies, Maj Thornton said the difficulty was to know where to leave off, once one had started to subsidise. It was ridiculous to say all routes needed subsidies. Some did not, but on those which did the basis should he such that operators were on a common competitive level He hit out—smilingly, but hard— at the aircraft designers who kept on increasing wing loadings until miles of runways were needed at airports. In shipping, on the whole, the vessels weie designed lor the ports, not vice versa. It had become the fashion, Maj. Thornton said, to think of air transport in terms of thousands of miles., There were other aspects. In America they had developed very useful air services of 150-200 miles. America had gone mad on air freight. There was nothing aircraft could steal from surface transport, but it could create new traffic. There were many things which everyone wanted daily and wanted fresh Those aircraft could bring from much farther afield. He could visualise a sort of Continental mail order house which would deliver daily and in a few hours anything .which any customer 1 anywher- in Europe ordered. Hunway Lengths M«. CAMPBELL-ORDK pointed out that whereas in the old days airports had to deal with short-range aircraft only, they now had to cater for aircraft flying 3,500 miles. That meant much more complication and consequently the need for the right men in the air and on the ground, fie had had many discussions with designers at home and abroad and was told there was no great difficulty in designing for good take-off in 10,000ft. and no great improvement in performance to be gained by designing for very much longer runs. DR. ROXBEE Cox thought some subsidies might be justified. A line might not pay at once, but might pay well in five or ten years. He pleaded for some other measure of transport efficiency than ton-miles per gallon. Perhaps ton-miles per hour might suit. It was not necessarily economical to fly slowly, and with the advent of jet propulsion, speed could be achieved economically, perhaps 300-400 m.p.h. or even more. An effort should be made to assess the economic value of speed. MR. PETER MASEFIELO pointed out that since the earlier days costs had come down and speed and range had gone up. It was not true that 100 per cent, load factors were desirable. Best economy resulted from load factors of 65-70 per cent, of capacity. With modern nircraft we were now down to some 4d. per revenue-passenger-mile, and further economies were to be expected. SIR ROY FFUDEN, referring to training, said we had marvellous material in the lower ranks, but we needed leaders. All branches must have better education. CATT. PRITCHARD thought the time would come when we should bring mutton from Australia by air, and that it could be done by charging the customer a penny extra per pound. To Capt. Pritchard Maj. Thornton retorted that the extra cost to the custo.uer of airborne mutton would not be a penny, but several shillings per pound! To Campbell-Orde he replied that it 1 was not the 10,000ft. runways alone that had to be considered, but \ the vast area of country around that had to be sterilised because of the flat climbing angle of heavily loaded aircraft. MR. ROY CHADWICK said if one took as a basis a passenger airliner suitable for world use, there were several arrangements possible, such as the tailless, the tail-first, the tandem, and the orthodox. The tailless did not give enough space except in huge sizes. The tandem offered a certain amount of saving in structure weight in large sizes;. But, on the whole, he thought the four-engined orthodox type was the most practical at present and for some time to come. As for size, except for very long range there was no need for the very large machine, and a better system was to have smaller aircraft working at higher frequency There was pay-load advantage in shorter stages. As an example, if the range was 4,000 miles and the pay-load 7 per cent., then at 3,000 miles it rose to 12, at 2,000 miles to 18, and at 1,000 miles to 25 per cent, of the gross weight. He suggested 1,000-mile stages; speed over ground 250 m.p.h.; cruising speed 300 m.p.E.; maximum speed 400 m.p.h. Then one could fly from 8-12, 12.30-4 30 and 5-9, which was as much as anyone wanted, except those in a very great hurry, and could cover 3,000 miles in a day. Air transport features Mr. Chadwick placed in the following order of importance: safety; regularity; comfort; operating cost; cruising speed; original cost He made the interesting observation that first cost was less important than many thought. In one year's flying, for instance, the cost ol the fuel might well be the same as the first cost of the aircraft. - One important aspect was that of control. Should one carry a large crew to do all the work, or a small crew and rely on Radar? He personally wanted a competent crew, with good communications. Space does not permit of a fuller report of the debate this week, but next week we shall deal with the introductory talks by Mr. Hives and Mr. Hildred, with the discussions which followed them and Mr. Chadwick's remarks, as well as with the more general discussion with which the debate concluded.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
