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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1980.PDF
626 FLIGHT NOVEMBER 25TH, 1948 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS Tourist Revenue : Airline Training for Australia : B.E.A. and Malta Airways FUHLSBUTTEL, HAMBURG: A B.E.A. Dakota photographed in front of the terminal building at Ham- burg Airport. These aircraft are used on the Corporation's freight service between London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Hamburg ; B.E.A. are acting here as general agents for K.L.M., S.A.S. and Sabena. INDIAN CIVIL AVIATION PROGRESSJ N a review of civil aviation in India, Mr, N. C. Ghosh,. Director General of Civil Aviation to the Government of India, disclosed recently that between July 1st, 1947, andJune 30th, 1948, the number of flying hours had risen to 66,554 from 48,629 in the previous year. The distance flownhad increased from 7A to over io| million miles. Comparative figures showed that the number of passengers carried had alsorisen from 188,796 to 314,546 and, compared with the previous year, the weight of freight carried had trebled. On thequestion of training facilities for pilots, engineers and ether technical personnel, the Director General said that it hadbeen decided to establish a flying training school and an airfield school at Allahabad and the Government of India were to sendsix experienced pilots to the U.K. for training as instructors. Some 50 trainer aircraft had been ordered from Canada andthe U.K., and these were expected to be delivered shortly. Development work on airfields at present in progress includedthe bringing of the three airfields, Santa Cruz at Bombay, Dum Dum at Calcutta, and Palam at Delhi, up to internationalstandards. An expenditure of 20 million rupees had been approved for the improvement of other airfields. A regularityfactor of yy.7 per cent has been achieved in 1948. MALTA AIRWAYSA N official licence has been issued by the Governor to MaltaAirways to operate an air service between Malta and Rome (non-stop) and between Malta and the U.K. The terms andconditions of this licence have been made known to and accepted by the Company so that it may be possible to com-plete arrangements hi association with B.E.A. to take over these services. A financial reconstruction of the company hasbeen necessitated and the authorized capital will now be ^200,000. The immediate issue of shares include 13,200 £1fully paid shares to existing Maltese shareholders and 6,800 £1 fully paid shares to B.E.A. A new Board of Directors hasbeen appointed as follows: Col. R. Strickland (Chairman), Lord Amherst, D. Craig, A. Grima, L. Degiorgio. It is intendedthat the service and travel facilities offered by B.E.A. to the public should operate as previously and Malta Airways hasnominated its associate B.E.A. to continue to operate these services as a carrier. During the period of aircraft develop-ment the policy has been adopted whereby B.E.A. Viking aircraft flown by B.E.A. crews will continue until it has beendecided that Malta Airways would be justified in acquiring its own fleet. Arrangements arc being completed whereby Malta Airways will be appointed the general sales agents inMalta for B.E.A., B.O.A.C, B.S.A.A. and Alitalia, and Malta Airways has agreed to take over much of the local handlingof passengers, mails and freight hitherto performed by B.O.A.C. Fares and rates will remain the same as thosecharged by B.E.A. and the frequency of the service mav be increased depending on the demand. CIVIL AIR LIFT'S FIRST HUNDRED DA YST HE'civil side of the Berlin air lift completed its hundredthday on November nth. B.E.A. w^ho are organizing the civil side of the air lift is now handling 43 aircraft charteredfrom 20 different companies. During the 100 days 3,994 sorties have been made to Berlin with coal, food, fuel oil,petrol and other supplies. A-tota.1 of 17,487 metric tons have" been transported and on the 99th day the daily record wasbroken with 96 sorties. At present the air lift fleet which has been organized from the start by Lt.-Col. G. Wharton, O.B.E.,the Charter Superintendent of B.E.A., consists of 10 Haltons, 4 Tudors, 5 Lancastrian tankers, 2 Vikings, 2 Hythe flyingboats, 17 Dakotas, 2 Bristol Wayfarers and 1 Bristol Freighter. All the Dakotas and two of the Vikings until recently operat-ing into Berlin were taken off the air lift between November 10th and November 20th as their current contracts expired.As these aircraft were withdrawn the number of Haltons in- creased from 10 to about 24. The load which the Haltons cancarry is more than double that of the Dakotas, i>\ tons as com- pared with 3 tons 2 cwt. This extra weight factor coupled withthe shortage of Dakota spares which has been handicapping their "operation are the reasons underlying the change. Afurther move was to centre all the heaviest aircraft, for example the Tudors and Lancastrian tankers, together with the eightnew R.A.F. Hastings, at Schleswigland on about November 14th. By centring alL the heaviest aircraft in' one placeWunstorf will be left^clear for the additional Haltons. Several marks of Avro Tudor are now engaged, or aboutto start work, on Berlin supply duties, and the heavy load which they are able to carry on each trip has already beenthe subject of favourable comment. At the present time, now that the Globemaster has been withdrawn, the Tudor is takingthe largest individual load of any aircraft operating into the Berlin airports. It is reported that the Tudor I's load of flour,meat, milk, etc., weighs on an average 20,600 1b and that the two Tudors, a I and V of A.V-M. Bennett's company, AirFlights, which are equipped as tankers to carry fuel (which now has top priority) average 20,000 1b. This represents a B 12
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