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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0261.PDF
FEBRUARY 7TH, 1946 FLIGHT 145 The European Set-up JSIortholt as Terminal : Practical Direction : Priority Necessities •ALTHOUGH the situation at the moment is necessarily f\ almost as chaotic as it could be, the immediate plans L •*• for the operations of B.O.A.C.'s European Division eventually to be taken • over by British European Air- ways—show promise of the right things to come. The primary difficulty at present is that of accommodation, both for aircraft and personnel, and it hardly seems possible that rapid progress can be made unless really high priori- ties can be given to civil aviation in the matter of building facilities. During last week-end the European Division of B.O.A.C. officially accepted, responsibility for services to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, but the change-over was neces- sarily more academic than real, and for some time to come these services will be run by R.A.F. crews and aircraft, while the maintenance work and traffic operations will be the responsibility of B.O.A.C. personnel who have been "shipped" for this purpose to the paraphenalia of Works and Bricks which is the present Northolt during the enlargement and reconstructive stage. The European services are now being run from this terminal, where temporary buildings have been erected for traffic purposes, and where equally tentative arrange- ments have been made for the accommodation of main- tenance crews. Towards the end of this month the present services to Madrid, Lisbon and Stockholm, which are at the moment being run from Croydon, will be re-based at Northolt. Empire and Atlantic services will continue to be operated from Hum and Hythe until Heathrow and any iu-w flying-boat base may be ready. Internal services, which are still being operated by the Associated Airways Joint Committee, will probably be running from Croydon for some time to come. So far as the aircraft are concerned, austerity Dakotas will be used for the European services until the Vickers Vikings come into use in the summer. The priority system for passengers must necessarily remain, but this will gradu- ally become less and less troublesome, from the traffic point of view. Among the immediate plans on the organisation side, two strike us as being excellent. One is that the operational centre will be actually on the airfield at Northolt, so that those who are directing the European Division will be closely and constantly in touch with reality, and the other is the appearance of practical flying people on the executive side. Apart from Mr. Gerard d'Erlanger and Mr. P. L. B. Wills (who is to be technical manager)—both of whom have plenty of '' straight'' flying experience—the present inten- tion is to co-opt a real, live transport pilot, with up-to-date experience, to assist the management. Other members of the main directive team are Mr. J. W. S. Brancker, traffic manager and deputy to Mr. d'Erlanger, and Group Capt. J. E. V. Tyzack who will be service manager. Mr. Brancker has now had a long and varied experience on the traffic side and Group Capt. Tyzack has held important staff posts during the war. In addition it is proposed that a navigation and radar expert will also be brought into the management. But before real progress can be made it is essential that work should go ahead rapidly on the building side. Apart from the needs at Northolt, the Corporation as a whole is suffering from an aircrew-training bottleneck and, though an airfield has been selected for this purpose, it is of vital importance that conditions at this airfield shall, as soon as possible, be made entirely suitable for the classroom and other work involved. Finally, of course, the " civilianising " of the European services at present run by Transport Command will not be possible until negotiations have been completed between the Governments concerned and B.O.A.C. Civil Aircraft cannot just set off on scheduled services unless bilateral agreements have been reached. Here again, when con- sidering the traffic potentialities at Northolt, it must be remembered that the European Division will need to handle not only their own traffic and aircraft, but also those of any other national operating companies which may be running parallel services. Furthermore, in addition to all these, internal services will no doubt be using Northolt when off-loading those passengers who are on their way to the Continent. The European Division of B.O.A.C. obviously have before them an immense task, and the hopes for the future rest very largely on the amount of genuine co-operation which can be obtained from the different departments in the Government—particularly in the matter of building priorities. FIDO AND HEATHROW 'THE Fido installation at Heathrow will not be completed -*- after all. This information was given last week by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. He lidded that experiments in fog dispersal for aviation purposes were, however, being continued. This decision not to use Fido is hardly a surprise, for it Hart already been given once and, although the matter was uinler reconsideration, there are clearly a number of arguments ''gainst its use. .First, Fido has only limited scope, for, while it will deal with certain conditions of fog, it will do nothing to disperse other forms of poor visibility; second^, radar aids to navigation are improving day by day and are not restricted HI their scope by any particular form of weather; thirdly, the txpense of installing and maintaining Fido is considerable;a 'id finally, as we said in Flight, of January 24th, although Fido can be regarded as a last emergency precaution for the safe landing of aircraft in fog, it is obviously very much better to divert such aircraft to some other airfield which is not similarly weatherbound. Incidentally, the airfield extensions to Heathrow airport will now probably be to the north of the airfield. This will in- volve the diversion of the existing Bath road, which is parallel "ith the main E.-W. runway, and the taking over of a con- siderable area of land on the north side of the Bath road. The precise extent to which existing villages will be affected has not yet been disclosed officially, but there seems little- doubt that the eventual demolition of a considerable numberof houses will be involved. However, to judge by present progress on the airfield, itwill be a long time yet before work can begin on any major extensions, such as those which must be covered in the ulti-mate plan for an air terminal which is to carry the amount of traffic envisaged for Heathrow. In any case, no major airportcan spring into being without being accompanied by an exten- sive project for the housing of essential airfield staff whomust often be available twenty-four hours a day. It would seem likely that persons displaced from their homes by theenlargement of Heathrow will find that their houses are to be reprovided under some housing scheme embracing a solutionof their problems as well as those of the airport staff. R.Ae.C CERTIFICATESD URING 1945 the Royal Aero Club issued 444 Certificates.Incidentally, the cost of these is now 15s., with the ad- dition of a further 5s. if the oral examination is held at theClub. After the issue of a Certificate, the Club applies to the Ministry of Civil Aviation for an " A " licence at a cost of 5s.In order to assist the A.T.C., the Royal Aero Club has, during the war, been issuing Gliding Certificates at a figurewell below cost price. These wartime fees have now been cancelled, and all such Certificates will now cost 5s. for eachcategory, with a reduction of 50 per cent, in the case of A.T.C. cadets The British Gliding Association has been forced toincrease the price of their gliding badges. Except for the "A" type these, however, are not at present available.
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