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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0139.PDF
JANUARY 29TH, 1948 FLIGHT 119 accounts, which had increased the deficits accordingly. Hepointed out that whereas an ordinary commercial company started life with a share capital which was not repayable duringthe life of the company, the Corporation had no such share capital, but only loan capital which had to be redeemed, onwhich interest had to be paid currently. Substantial provision had to be made in the accounts of B.O.A.C. for amortizing theirloan capital, and provision had been made not only for full amortization of all assets, but also, for the redemption of stock. The Minister refuted the suggestion that B.O.A.C.. had beenordered to use the Tudor I on the Atlantic route. The ordering procedure for aircraft involved the interests of a number ofparties which were interlocked and could not be dissociated or treated in isolation. The Government were not, however,entirely satisfied with the procedure and had decided to call into consultation a few men of wide business and administrativeexperience to assist them in reviewing that procedure. In conclusion, Lord Nathan stated that there was to be nofundamental reorganization of civil air transport. Lg&l Knollys emphasized the uneconomic nature of oper-atnJgf^&ircraft into an airport without that airport being the operational and maintenance base, and he referred tothe time when preparations were being made to introduce the Tudor I into service and the only place for mainten-ance of the type was at Ringway, Manchester. He thought it would have been interesting to know the actual reduction indeficits had the corporation been able to operate economic aircraft. In connection with the ordering procedure, he saidthat he could see no reason for a full financial, technical and Contractual responsibility between the user and the manufac-turer with the power to take effective decisions, within the broad policy which had been agreed. He urged that those whowere responsible for operating airlines and who faced immense difficulties should be given a real opportunity to settle downto the job. [S.A.A. REPORT BY comparison with the reports of the other corporations,B.S.A.A. did not find it necessary in their annual report to explain away substantial losses incurred during the periodunder review, from August 1st, 1946, to March 31st, 1947. On August 1st the whole of the share capital of B.S.A.A. Limitedwas purchased at par for a sum of £50,000 from B.O.A.C. That corporation had acted on behalf of the Government inacquiring the shares temporarily from the five shipping com- panies which had formed the company. An agreement wasentered into with B.O.A.C. to ensure that the new corpora-- tion should commence operations free of any initial deficiency.The company paid all expenses out of current profit and made 110 charge for this upon the public purse on account of opera-tions up to the date of the formation of the corporation. During the period the corporation had operated five Lan-castrians and 11 Yorks, and altjicragh, not coming within the period covered by the report, tftfpical tests were carried outon a Tudor IV in July, ftyitf, and the first aircraft was deUyered to the corpofinian on September 29th following.TSW^rst comtfcgrciaf"Service had flown from London Airport on January ist, 1946, and during the whole period main-tenance work in the U.K. has been done at Langley. The Board presented, in addition to the balance sheet ofthe corporation at March 31st, 1947, and the accounts for the eight months from the date of incorporation, the balance sheetof B.S.A.A. Limited and the interim balance sheet and accounts of that company for the four months to July 31st,1946. Since the formation of the corporation results had shown an operating surplus of £32,132, after allowing forobsolescence and depreciation. After further adjustments in the surplus and deficiency accounting, the final result showeda net surplus of £20,507. The Limited Company recorded an operational surplus for the four months of £74,912, which,after adjustment, was reduced to £56,729. The net surplus for the year amounted to £72,736. No issue of stock hadbeen made by the corporation and now that Tudor aircraft were being purchased it would be undesirable to continueindefinitely to finance operations through loans and an issue of stock would be made in due course in accordance with theprovisions of The Corporation's Stock Regulations. It was pointed out in the report that whilst it had been the policy ofthe corporation to fix fares and rates as low as possible, it was emphasized that the corporation was not a free agentand was largely bound by I.A.T.A. Whilst the corporation was in sympathy with the aims of I.A.T.A., it was convincedthat a co-ordinating international body could be of real assistance provided it did not become too cumbersome andunwieldy, and that it restricted activities to essential purposes. On March 31st, 1947, the total number of staff employed byB.S.A.A. was 1,031, which compared with 526 at August ist, 1946. So far as the future of the corporation was concerned, thechairman, in his report, stated that there were many factors outside the control of the operator which militated againstcontinued economic operation. The tendency for morcand more documentation and to impose obligations without consider-ing the removal of any already imposed could not fail to have an adverse effect on all operators. Criticism was made of thesystem for ordering aircraft which was considered contrary to the interests of the corporation. Tinder the present systemthe purchaser had no control over price and was in the hands of the Ministry of Supply as to priority-of delivery, and wassubject to interference as to design. The Board was confident that the air services for which it was responsible could be runon a commercial basis provided it had control over ordering its own aircraft, that unreasonable restrictions were not placedon the routes, that the importance of Fifth Freedom rights were recognized internationally, and that competitors werenot given preferential treatment in the way of tax-free sub- sidies, remission of taxes or other advantages. GRID 1<?AVIGATION WITH Air Chief Marshal Sir John Slessorin the chair onFriday, January 16th, S/L. R. H. Blackmore, of theEmpire Air Navigation School, read a paper on Grid Naviga- tion and its allied problems, at a meeting of the Institute ofNavigation at the 5?oyal L'nited Services Institution. The time had come, he said, to break with the tradition of theMercator projection as a navigational chart in favour of one more suitable tothe specific needs of air navigation. The paper had been prepared with the objectof showing the methods of using other forms of orthomorphic charts for navi-gational purposes and to draw attention to the problems that arose from so doing.The Mercator projection was ideal for equatorial regions, but in high latitudesthe expanding scale made difficult the accurate measurement of distance, anda rhumb line diverged more and more from a great circle as distance from theequator was increased. Moreover, the geographical poles could not be pro-jected. On various forms of orthomor- phic charts the disadvantages of anexpanding scale could be minimized. Mercator's projection was really thelimiting case of a conical orthomorphic ITALIAN HEAVYWEIGHT : The &Z-3O3 at the Breda factory, 'Milan is nearing completion. Designed for the transatlantic route, the aircraft will be powered by four Bristol Centaurus engines, will accom- modate 55 passengers, and a speed of 500 m.p.h. is expected.
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