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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0294.PDF
I56 FUG HT FEBRUARY 8TH, T945 AIRPORT FOR VATICANT HE Vatican is reported to be studying the possibilities ofconstructing a small airfield within its boundaries to enable church dignitaries to travel without alighting on • Italianterritory. ' DISRUPTING INFLUENCE MR. ALEXANDER B. ROYCE, chairman of the AirlinesCommittee for U.S. Air Policy, in a speech at New York, said that the proposal for a single international U.S. airlinewould "disrupt the basic principle of regulated competition, which was established by the people through Congress in theAeronautics Act of 1938." » - . P.A.A. CUTS FARES DETAILS of the Pan-American Airways' proposed programmefor the Pacific and Alaska, filed with the Government last week, show greatly reduced flying times and fares. The fares are mostly lower than the first-class shipping fares.For example, a 108-passenger aircraft is scheduled to fly from Los Angeles to Sydney in 32 hours, charging $295 (about £75). LUFTHANSA'S LAST 'T'HE Lufthansa service between Germany and Portugal is-«- reported to have been recently reorganised. The service is now operating in two sectors, once weekly from Stuttgart toMadrid by large aircraft of the Fw 200 class carrying news- papers, and the second sector from Madrid to Lisbon by smalland fast machines carrying only two passengers. HAWAIIAN EFFICIENCY HAWAIIAN AIRLINES (previously Inter-Island Airways),one of the world's smallest air transport companies, have recently celebrated their fifteenth anniversary with a proudrecord of a 100 per cent, operational safety throughout that period. ' ' With three Douglas DC-3S and two Sikorski S-43S as freightcarriers, the Hawaiians operate a network of 350 miles and do their own maintenance and repairs. Last year they carried108,000 passengers; fares cliarged were 8 cents per passenger mile. SPANISH PURCHASE— THE sale of three Douglas DC-3 aircraft to the Spanish AirTransport Company, Iberia, has been approved by the U.S. Surplus Commission. The sale was made under the agreement between the U.S.and Spain, signed on December 2nd, establishing three trans- 'oceanic air routes with terminal points at New York andMadrid, Seville and Barcelona. -AND AIRLINE PLANS THE purchase of twenty-five Douglas aircraft and an increasein the domestic airline services were among the matters discussed at a meeting of the board of the Spanish Iberia Air-line Company last week. The managing director reported that the Spanish delegationat the jecent International Air Conference at Chicago had dis- cussed the purchase of U.S. aircraft, including four trans-Continental and twenty-one Continental Douglas DC-3 and DC-4 machines. " It is planned,"' he said, "to increase the frequency of theexisting Spanish airline services and to establish new lines to the Canary Islands, Spanish Guinea, the Balearics, and a newline linking up the northern provinces of Spain parallel to the Atlantic coast."The total capital of the Iberia Airline Company, the chair- man announced, is now 100,000,000 pesetas (about £2,500,000at present rates). It is owned by the National Institute of Industry—a State concern created to control big industries. AIR SERVICE TO AUSTRALIA A RRANGEMENTS for the establishment of a direct service•*"* between Britain and Australia were announced in Can- berra recently. The aircraft will operate direct between Britain and Aus-tralia, Australian crews taking over at Karachi. The Liberator and Catalina aircraft which will be used on the Indian Ocean part of the service will eventually be replaced by Lancasters. The Indian Ocean service now arrives at and departs fromPerth every three days and is operated jointly by the B.O.A.C. and Qantas. The existing arrangement is to continue, butwithout prejudice to Jong-term policy. The cost of the ground organisation in Australia for* th«new service will be met by the Commonwealth Government, and Britain will be responsible elsewhere. In making this statement Mr. Francis M. Forde, the ActingPrime Minister, expressed his hope—perhaps rather too opti- mistically—that sufficient aircraft would be available for aonce-weekly service by February 1, building up a daily service thereafter. But on January 31st Mr. Hudson Fysh, managing director ofQantas, announced a postponement "needed to give Britain priority in building warplanes." The service, he added, woulddefinitely begin early this year. RAILAIR VIEW MR. O. H. CORBLE, assistant general manager of theL.N.TD.R., speaking.of air travel in Britain after the war, said to Hackney Rotarians recently, "A lot of planninghas to be done in connection with the resiting of our airports. How long will London be content with Croydon, which is—half an hour away by Victoria? Not very long. "Air travel will not be cheap. People have the idea thatpost-war air services will be at a speed of about 500 m.p.h.; they are mistaken."We aim at an economic safe speed of about 200 m.p.h. and we want frequency of service with a small type of air-craft." CANADIAN REPORT ' A REVIEW of the activities of Trans-Canada Airlines during1944, given by its president, Mr. H. J. Symington, C.M.G., K.C., shows a substantial increase of domestic andoverseas operations. The Canadian Government transatlantic air service, ascheduled operation undertaken by T.C.A., ' carried high- priority passengers, freight and mail bound to and fromCanada's armed forces overseas. Although operating under great difficulties, the addition of more modified Lancaster-type aircraft, more flight crews and more trained maintenance personnel resulted in increased schedules. Individual mailloads of as much as 3 tons were commonplace. Domestic routes now total 5,296 miles, including an east-west service from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Victoria, B.C., and north-south branches reaching into New York, London,Windsor, Calgary and Edmonton. Daring 1944, T.C.A. air- craft flew 9,144,000 revenue miles (last two months esti-mated), an increase of 889,181 over 1943. Traffic continued to mount—as it has during each of T.C.A.'sseven years of life—although not to the same extent as in the past, due to near-capacity utilisation of available aircraft.Passengers numbered 157,800, an increase of 17,524. Mail weighed 3,818,700 lb., an increase of 92,093. Express weighed903,300 lb., an increase of 81,694. (Figures for the last two months are estimated.) To cope with this rising demand and better to serve thepublic, T.C.A. opened traffic offices in Sydney, St. John, Moiicton and Lethbridge. The first frequency-modulated radio-telephone circuit to be installed in Canada for commercial air- line purposes began operation between Vancouver and Victoriain June. At Winnipeg the company operates its engineering and main-tenance base, with research facilities, and the workshops at Montreal took care of conversion and maintenance work neces-sary for operations over the North Atlantic and also continued to maintain the Liberator aircraft used by British OverseasAirways Corporation on the North Atlantic Return Ferry Service, Schedule increases and modification programmes con-siderably enlarged the scope of this assignment in 1944. The total of T.C.A. personnel increased 15 per cent, duringthe year. Many of the newcomers were repatriated and dis- charged members of the armed forces, and this trend is ex-pected to become more pronounced. The T.C.A.—Mr. Symington said—has very concrete ideasfor peacetime international operations. At home a direct Winnipeg-Edmonton service will be begun immediately uponthe completion of the required airport and navigational facili- ties along that route; other additional schedules are also con-templated.
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