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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1755.PDF
FLIGHT. 20 October IQ40. NEW " C " CLASS : " Cathay " the first of the ten Boeing Stratocruisers for B.O.A.C., on arrival at London Airport on Saturday, October 15th, after a 2,580-mile non-stop flight from New York. A height of 28,000ft and an air speed of 350-360 m.p.h was maintained throughout most of the journey. The aircraft has been flown to Filton for operational trials and crew-training. CIVIL AVIATION NEWS FUTURE OF PRESTWICK Thursday, October 13th, Lord Pakenham attended a meeting of the Scottish Advisory Council in Scotland. The purpose of his visit was to remove those doubts which appar- ently still existed, he said, in some quarters, with regard to the future of Prestwick. In a historical reference to the airport, he acknowledged the part played by local enterprise in the selection of the site, but reminded the Council that the airport as it stands, was substantially a product of the State and paid for out of public funds. General development, including the building of run-ways and most of the buildings, represented a total investment of over £2,000,000. By the end of the war the Air Ministry had spent about £1,500,000 on runways, hard standings, taxi tracks, aprons and buildings and a further sum of £500,000 had been spent by the M.A.P. on factory buildings and services. It was, he said, a direct result of such develop- ment that the Government was able to designate Prestwick as an international airport soon after the end of the war. Since the M.C.A. had assumed responsibility in the spring of 1946, some £300,000 had been spent on further improve- ments, including the strengthening of the main runway for Stratocruisers. Lord Pakenham then announced the long-term plan for the further development of the airport which had only recently been agreed by the local authorities, the Scottish Aerodromes Board and the other interested Government depart- ments. Under the new scheme the existing main runway is to be maintained and a new one is to be constructed, extending in a S.S.W. direction from the S.E. end of the present main runway for about 2,500 yd. New terminal buildings are to be constructed in thp angle of the intersection of the runways. The Minister went on to say that the entire scheme would cost about £5,000,000. To embark on expenditure on such a large scale would, he said, need careful consideration, and owing to limita- tions on the programme of capital investments, a start could not be made before 1953 a* the earliest. Lord Pakenham referred to the suggestion that London Air- port had been developed at the expense of Prestwick, and the argument that whereas the Government had approved a plan to spend about £26,000,000 on the former, practically nothing * had been allotted to the Scottish airport. He pointed out that total expenditure at Prestwick amounted to about £3,500,000, while the expenditure at London Airport to date was approxi-f ely ^12,000,000, and the final expenditure at Prestwick a 11 would be about £8,500,000. He thought it could not be dis- puted that as a centre oftraffic, particularly with the outside world, London would need greater facilities than any other part of the country, and the airport would be required to accommo- date more operators. There had been a suggestion, he said, to extend the existing main runway towards the coast up to a length of 7,000 yd and to build, in association with it, a slip- way and a breakwater for a flying-boat base. Lord Pakenham then explained that in the next few years B.O.A.C. would re- place progressively the existing medium-sized flying-boats by landplanes. Although the Corporation's policy contemplated the use of Princess flying-boats, that type was not likely to be available until 1953, and it was expected that existing flying- boat facilities would be adequate for many years to come, especially in view of the small number which would be em- ployed, initially at least, on a few suitable routes. INDIAN AIRLINE ACCOUNTS TTHE annual report of Air-India, Ltd., for the year endedJ- December 31st, 1948, revealed a profit (including depre- ciation and Rs 47,354 carried forward from 1947) of Rs 149,065(£11,200 approximately). In comparison with the figure for the previous year's operation (Rs 947,354 profit) the company con-sidered this to be a disappointing result. The smaller profit was occasioned by the higher cost of operation due to increasesin salaries and wages, fuel prices and insurance charges; increases which were only partially offset by improved trafficrevenue. The company's fleet consisted of eight Vikings, r3 DC-38 and one Beechcraft D17. Passenger-miles and ton-mites flown had decreased slightly but total revenue had shown an increase from Rs 21,6631279 to Rs. 22,343,608. At theend of the year a total staff of 3,761 was employed. Bombay- Karachi services had been reduced from 14 to seven per weekas a result of the permit system being introduced for travellers between India and Pakistan, but a new daily service had beeninaugurated on the Bombay-Baroda-Ahmedabad route. The report stated that ten-year licences had been granted by theAir Transport Licensing Board in respect of all routes which the company was operatiug Air-India International, Ltd., on the other hand, for whomAir-India, Ltd., are the general technical managers, had shown an operating loss for the period March 8th, 1949, to Decemberjist, 1948, of Rs. 424,068 (,£31.885 approximately), excluding provision for depreciation. This loss was considered to be
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