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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1759.PDF
OCTOBER Q.TH, 1947 FLIGHT 423 from Dorval, Montreal, to an airfield in the U.K. The Cor-poration have found it convenient to use Dorval as a main- tenance base owing to the shortage of hangarage for very largeaircraft in this country, and also to economize in the transport and storage of spare parts. The dollar situation has, however,: made investigation necessary, and if economy reasons demand • a change, then hangai accommodation will have to be foundin this country. It is understood that whilst the B.O.A.C. Atlantic Divisionhas been stationed in Montreal the Canadians have given every possible assistance and have made many of their own facilitiesavailable to the Corporation. i B.E.A. SCHEDULES AND CUTS JN addition to the normal reduction in schedules which wouldbe made at this time of the year, British European Airways have had to take into consideration the effect of the ban ontravel overseas for pleasure purposes. On October 6th the t winter schedules came into operation on all services except1 those to the Channel Islands, which although reduced will not feel the full effect of the reduction until November 2nd. When the full effect of the travel restrictions on the volumeof traffic have been felt, still further cuts may be necessary, or the Corporation may switch aircraft at present flying onsome routes to others more profitable. It may, on the other hand, be possible to increase internal services if the effectof the ban has been to stimulate the demand for air transport in the U.K. Services from Paris have been reduced from 35 to 20 servicesper week. This compares with 21 services during last winter with Dakota aircraft. Services from Brussels have beenreduced by half from 14, but there have been no other major reductions, and the service from London to Vienna will bethe only one not flown with Viking aircraft. There has been a slight adjustment on routes to Scandinavia, however, andthe service for Stockholm will stop at Copenhagen en route; that for Oslo will stop at Gothenburg, and the service fromGlasgow to Copenhagen will stop there also. In future, Stavanger will not be used. There have been drastic cutson some of the internal services, including cancellations of the London-Prestwick service, and the services from the Isle ofMan to Blackpool and Carlisle, between Cardiff and Bristol, from Bristol to Southampton, from Belfast through Carlisleto Newcastle, from Prestwick to Belfast and the popular service from Cardiff to Weston-super-Mare. The Corporation have also announced that owing to theeconomic crisis and the curtailment of pleasure travel there will have to be a cut in the number of staff. The announce-ment states that after careful consideration of all relevant factors and a detailed analysis of present requirements, a cutof one-third of its present staff must be made. This will affect between 2,000 and 2,500 personnel. The selection of staff isbeing given the most meticulous consideration and the general principles governing their release have been discussed fullyand agreed in detail with the trade unions at the Joint Council for Civil Air Transport. B.E.A. have undertaken to advisethe other Corporations of any staff being released in order that full consideration may be given to the possibility of theirbeing absorbed by either B.O.A.C. or B.S.A.A.C., who have promised to co-operate. They have also undertaken to dealindividually with each case so that full weight may be given to any special circumstances and so to avoid exceptionalhardship. The Treasury announced last week that the restriction on PERCIVAL DEVELOPMENT: A model of the Prince. This development of the Merganser will be powered by two Alvis Leonides. It will have a wing span of 56ft, and the fuselage will be longer than the Merganser's by 8ft. The maximum speed is expected to be about 227 m.p.h. NEW CHARTER COMPANY: Culliford Airlmes, Ltd., has been started by the steamship company Culliford and Clarke. The new company took delivery on September 24th of a Gemini and an Aero- van from A..& A. Ltd. The same company later delivered another ;;-'••-;.-.-.- Aerovan and a Merchantman. travel by non-British means of transport had been withdrawn,and travellers are now permitted to buy return passages to their destinations by the normal direct route irrespective ofthe " flag " of the means of transport and of the object of the journey, provided they pay in sterling to an agency in theU.K. No foreign exchange will be issued for use outside the scheduled territories except for approved purposes. SIGNIFICANT SAFETY WARNING IT is surely a reflection upon the operations and trainingorganizations of the major airlines flying scheduled services into the U.K., that the Ministry of Civil Aviation have foundit necessary to issue an urgent warning to pilots on the subject of landings in poor weather conditions. The Notice statesthat at London Airport recently, during bad weather condi- tions, a number of pilots experienced difficulty in making asatisfactory approach with the available instrument-approach aids, probably because they were out of practice as a resultof the recent exceptionally long spell of fine summer weather. It will be apparent to all, the Notice continues, that unsuccess-ful attempts to let down may give rise to a dangerous situation and may also cause considerable dislocation of air traffic. Itconcludes by drawing the attention of pilots to the need of maintaining them-selves at a high standard of competence in that aspect of their flying duties.One of the major European lines has recently lodged a protest with the Minis-try of Civil Aviation against a delay in landing of i\ hours, during which timethe company's twin-engined aircraft was circling the airport to the consternationand bewilderment of its passengers. Al- though the Notice draws the attention ofall pilots to the necessity of maintaining a high standard of instrument and blind-approach flying, the main responsibility must rest with the operating companiessince during the good weather in the summer months the only practice avail-able would be on the synthetic trainers. It would seem, however, that in the caseof the incident at London airport, where G.C.A. is installed, either the aircraft
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