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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0496.PDF
-\s FLIGHT APRIL 3RD, 1947 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS Freight Airport Idle : Greek Airline Agree- ment : Navigation . Examinations TRINIDAD AIRPORT: Thetemporary waiting room and control tower at Piarco, with twoBritish West Indian Airways' aircraft on the tarmac. Per-manent buildings are to be erec- ted on the north side of theairport, which will be two miles nearer Port-of-Spain. AMERICAN AIRCRAFT, BRITISH ENGINES LORD BALFOUR asked the Government last week if thepurchase of further American airliners was being con- sidered for use in our Corporations. Lord Nathan stated thata proposal had recently been received after discussions between Bristols and Lockheeds for the development of a Constellationtype powered by Bristol Centaurus engines. The merits of the project, he said, and the commitments which would be in-volved were now under examination by the Corporations, the M.C.A and the Ministry of Supply. Lord Balfour had indi-cated that he expected such an answer and had expressed his regret that further foreign aircraft might be purchased,although he naturally welcomed the reinforcing ol the fleet of aircraft in British airlines. He urged that the Ministershould look again at the reasons why there was so much delay in the production of British aircraft. The engines installed in Constellations now flying are WrightCyclones of 2,500 b.h p., and although the Bristol Centaurus most likely to be used—the Mk. 630—has a take-off rating onlyabout 100 h.p. in excess of the Cyclone, it has much to offer in terms of power at altitude, cruising power consumption andeconomical cruising speed. Experience has shown that there is unlikely to be any major difficulty in the installation ofBritish engines in American aircraft, as, for example, the development of the DC-4M, the Skymaster with Merlin enginesin Canada, which has been highly successful. THE HEN OR THE EGG ? QTANSTED airfield was opened on December 14th by Lon-*3 don Aero and Motor Services mainly for the operation of freight-carrying aircraft, but since that time activity has beenconfined to L.A.M.S. for maintenance of their aircraft. This situation is entirely due to there having been no Customsfacilities provided for the station. The Ministry of Civil Avia- tion have stated that until Customs can be justified officers willnot be stationed thce. On the other hand, L.A.M.S. cannot allow aircraft to land from overseas until Customs are pro-vided. The result is a complete deadlock. L.A.M.S. them- selves have an average of four aircraft movements a day,and even these they must send to Heathrow for clearance and pay the necessary landing lee. Requests have been receivedfrom operators in this country and on the Continent for operating a total of about fifty-five aircraft. The opening of Stansted with full facilities would relievethe congestion at Heathrow occasioned by the inadequate accommodation and allow perishable goods to reach the mar-kets without delay Stansted can provide covered loading accommodation anu Customs checking sheds, and, moreover,freight would not be given second place to scheduled passenger service? as at London Airport It has been estimated thatabout three Customs officers could manage the initial flow of aircraft, and Dr Humby, of L.A.M.S., has even offered topay their salaries and provide living accommodation as an inducement. Night flying, homing and ground transportfacilities are already installed, and it is interesting to note that BE.A. were considering it as a regular terminal forfreight aircraft when the formation of a cargo division was contemplated. W/C. Hulbert was to ask yesterday in the House of Com-mons when full Customs facilities were to be provided at this airport and what temporary arrangements now existed. FLYING CLUBS' FUTURET HE United Flying Club's Ball at the Dorchester Hotel onMarch 21st was a great success, and Lady Daphne Straight and the committee are to be congratulated on providing suchan enjoyable evening. Clubs in all parts of the country were represented by organizers and members, making it veryapparent that if the success of flying clubs depended entirely upon enthusiasm, their future would be assured.Mr. Lindgren, the Parliamentary Secretary, spoke during the interval, and expressed the Government's view that privateflying could be of no use to civil aviation until it was made available to the masses. It was no good purely as a sport forthe rich, he said. He had to admit, however, that the Govern- ment were at a loss to know how to tackle the problem, forit was quite obvious that flying clubs could not fulfil such a function without heavy subsidy. The future of flying clubs ismost certainly in jeopardy, for it will be difficult to obtain sufficient subsidy from the Government. At the moment,especially after such inclement weather, none of the flying clubs can possibly be operating economically. There wouldcertainly be a doubtful reception in the country to further taxation for the benefit of the few who wish to fly privately. GREEK NATIONAL AIRLINE SINCE the end of the war the Greek airline company, T.A.E.,have been operating in a limited sphere with the assistance, in the form of technical advice and financial support, of Trans-World Airlines. The Greek government are naturally anxious to resume full development of Greek civil aviation and to estab-lish a national organization which will be commercially and technically sound. Negotiations, consequently, started somemonths ago between the National Bank of Greece, British European Airways and Trans-World Airlines, to form -. nationalairline corporation, for the operation of internal and external^ air routes, and an agreement was signed in London on Marcht19th between the British and American companies. Further negotiations are now proceeding in Athens. It is intended to form the Greek corporation with an initialcapital of 2,000,000,000 drs. (approximately £100,000), in which British and American interests together shall be in aminority, but equally divided. The activities of the corpora- tion will not be confined to scheduled operations, but willinclude charter services for the carriage of passengers, mail and freight, internally and between Greece and foreign countries.Naturally the operational programme and the stages by which development will take place will .be governed by traffic possi-bilities and the supply of aircraft. In order to hasten this development, however, the American and English companiesare lending skilled and experienced personnel to the corpora- tion. Routes will first of all be opened between Athens and theprincipal centres such as Salonika, Crete and Rhodes, and at the same time to Greek centres of population such as Jannina,Larissa and Kavalla. The type of aircraft to be used will
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