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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1740.PDF
25° FLIGHT SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1946 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS any part ol the world at a moment's notice. At present thereis too high a proportion of English-speaking people, but all operators and many Governments have been pressed to releasestaff of their own nationality, though they have not yet been able to do so. It is hoped that, as the European countriessettle down and secure more trained men, they may be able to spare a number for work at I.A.T.A. headquarters or in thebranches. It is inevitable that many of the younger staff must lie Canadian or American owing to the situation .of the head-quarters iii Montreal. At the first annual general meeting it was decided to createbranch offices. The functions of the branches are outlined in the bulletin, but Sir William announced that the first to openwas at Paris in March, 1946, the next at New York in June, and the third will be opened this summer in Cairo. The fourthat Rio de Janeiro will also open during the summer, and nego- tiations are going ahead toi the fifth at Johannesburg and thesixth at Sydney. The branches will act as links with the con- trolling head office and as administrators and servants of thetraffic conferences which take place within their regions. The co-operation between P.l.C.A.O. and I.A.T.A. was describedby Sir William as excellent. There was the closest co-operation in all departments, and the authorities of P.l.C.A.O. havealready expressed their gratitude to the I.A.T.A. Committees. The operational knowledge, ideas and practical experience ofrepresentatives of I.A.T.A. are made available to the P.l.C.A.O. divisions, which are responsible for making recom-mendations to the Council and the Assembly. Thus the objec- t:ves of the operators are watched. AIR WORK TRANSITION SINCE the almost forgotten pre-war days of Heston and thesomewhat happy-go-lucky aviation world, of the inter-war years, Airwork, like several other concerns of a similar nature,have been largely involved in the completion of military contracts. During the past six months or more, however, thecompany has been rapidly returning to peacetime conditions, and the hangar space at Gatwick Airport is taken up very largely with overhaul and modification work of an almostpurely civil character. Recently, Airwork have, for example, been working on thecivil conversion of military Dakotas both lor K.L.M. and B.O.A.C.—three for the former and ten for the latter, so far—with a further contract for thirty-eight overhauls for the Ministry of Supply and breakdown jobs for purposes of " canni-balization." Incidentally, though the term "breakdown" is one which suggests a very simple piece of work, this can oftenbe almost.as troublesome as one in which more useful results are obtained. The company has now been given the work ofbreaking down obsolescent military aircraft in the Scottish and Cumberland area—and anyone who has seen the number ofsuch aircraft which litter the fields surrounding any M.U. will appreciate the amount of travelling and the extent, of generalorganization required in any such widespread breakdown contract. In addition to all this, Airwork also look after -the now quitelarge Ministry of Civil Aviation aircraft fleet at Gatwick, and are, of course, proceeding with the development of a world-widesales organization for types such as the Bristol 170 and Vickers Viking. As an example of the kind of general work under-taken by Airwork, they have secured a contract from the—-J Sudan Government to run a leave service for Sudan Govern-ment officials from Cairo to London and return. For this purpose a Bristol Wayfarer is being used. The first of these •leave services started on August 25th, when Capt. W. T. Mellor, with a crew of four, including an air hostess, left withtwenty passengers. Of the Dakota conversions mentioned, those carried out forK.L.M., in co-operation with Rumbolds, have been very thorough, and the finished aircraft could certainly not bedistinguished from any genuine civil-built DC-3. The amount of effort involved in the conversion can be evaluated by anexamination of a Dakota in the form in which Airwork receives it. For the K.L.M. aircraft the freight-loading flooring isremoved and replaced by a lighter structure; the rear section of the wide double doors on the port side is locked and becomesvirtually part of the structure; the navigator's station is cleared to provide additional freight stowage; the entire fuselage issoundproofed; the heating system is redesigned; and the interior is entirely rebuilt and decorated. One of the moredifficult jobs, curiously enough, is that of removing the camou- THE SYSTEM OF THE FLYING CLIPPERS DON VIENNA PARIS x^ ISTANBUL^ 6 NKARA The United States Civil Aeronautics Board have granted Pan American World Airways the right to establish a " Round the World" service. New routes have been authorized across the Pacific from San Francisco to Calcutta and Sydney, with ex- tensions to link the Pacific Islands with Tokio, Hongkong and Shanghai. These will be operated as soon as landing rights have been obtained by inter-Government agreements, and P.A.W.A. will then be the first airline to operate and carry pas- sengers independent of any other organization on routes encircling the world. Covering 20,000 miles the flying time for the entire circuit will be approximately 90 hrs. The map shows the main P.A.W.A. routes concerned.
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