FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0817.PDF
FLIGHT, 27 April 1950 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS B.O.A.C. STAFF CHANGES LAST week-end it was announced that Mr. J. \V. Booth,joint deputy chairman of B.O.A.C., had resigned from that position, although he would remain a part-time member ofthe board. It is understood that the reason for the change is Mr. Booth's desire to devote more time to his family business,and that there was no difference of opinion with the Board or its policy. When Sir Miles Thomas, the chairman, returned from hisrecent trip to America, he was reported as saying that he had made dollar savings by pruning the North American staff, andthe impression was given that this was more or less the work of a week-end. The position is that the pruning referred tohad been carefully worked out over a period of two years, and the mandate given to Sir Miles himself to reorganize B.O.A.C.,both at home and abroad, is now almost complete. In this connection Sir Miles Thomas stated that he was satisfied thatthe organization had been pruned to a hard core of personnel who could look forward with confidence to their continuedemployment and promotion. The total number of employees has been reduced from 24,000 to 16,000. As a result of Mr. John Booth's resignation, much of hiswork in connection with the commercial side of B.O.A.C. will be taken over by Sir Miles, while duties concerned with pas-senger handling will now devolve upon Mr. Whitney Straight, the remaining deputy chairman of B.O.A.C. No successor toMr. Booth is expected. One newspaper correspondent (who, it seems, has kept atally) says that twelve executives or senior officials were moved around in the Corporations during the last year, 34 directorsor officials have been changed since the war, and six different chairmen have served the two existing Boards. A BITTER BLOW '"PHERE can be no other way to describe the effect on British JL civil aviation of the news contained in last week's Budget. The existing tax on aviation spirit had for some time been regarded as one of the most annoying and unnecessary hind- rances to the development on a sound economic basis of air transport in this country; in fact, as mentioned in Flight last week, representations had recently been made to bring about at least some alleviation, if not complete removal, of this burdensome, levy. With the Corporations striving to reduce their annual deficits and the charter companies to function in spite of the already' prohibitive operating costs, the virtual increase of 3d per aircraft mile in the cost of running a typical feeder-line aircraft (and nearly twice this amount in the cast- of a 24-seat short-range transport) is indeed an appalling prospect. A most distressing aspect of the problem is that both theCorporations and the charter companies must compete witii foreign operators who are free from this burden; and, as faresare based on current operational and maintenance costs, the unfortunate implications are, of course, obvious. Our feelings on the subject are voiced in a leading article inthis issue, and we reproduce in full (below) the combined pro- test which has been made by most of the principal aviationorganizations. OPERATIONAL STANDARDS SOME of the new operational standards and procedures whichhave been recommended by l.C.A.O. are included in recently issued amendments to the various navigation orders and regulations contained in the Civil Aviation Act. 1941*. Public transport operators will now be required to provide means for training, practice b ', and periodic testing of, crews flying on scheduled services; to provide operations manuals for crew guidance; and to establish meteorological minima for each airport likely to be used. Flying times of individuals must be recorded and certain limitations are imposed on the amount of flying which may be done in any given period. Restrictions on the carriage of dangerous goods by passenger-- carrying aircraft are now extended to all types. CRITICAL CARGO '"THERE has recently been an increasing need for developing•*- methods by which radio-active isotopes required for medical services and industrial research can be safely carriedin aircraft. In order to minimize the harmful effects of these materials on human and animal tissues, consignments ofisotopes sent by air are packed in specially designed containers which completely eliminate danger to human beings standingmore than two or three feet away. The present regulations governing the carriage of thesematerials state that radio-activity at the surface of the package may not exceed 100 rnillirontgens per hour and the distance atwhich the consignments can be dangerous to bystanders must be shown on the accompanying label. The possibilities ofdamage in a forced landing raise other points. No danger to health will be caused by proximity to the container for an houror two, and in the event of fire of such intensity that the pack- age is destroyed, it can be safely assumed that the radio-activematerial will be volatilized and dispersed. To avoid the neces- THE PETROL TAX: A CONCERTED PROTEST A COMBINED protest against the doubling of the petrol taxwas made last week after an emergency meeting had been called in London by eight leading aviation organizations—the Society of British Aircraft Constructors : the Air League of ths British Empire ; the Royal Aero Club : the Air Transport section of the London Chamber of Commerce : The Joint Air Transport Committee of the Federation of British Industries, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce and the London Chamber of Commerce ; The Association of British Aero Clubs ; the British Air Charter Association : and the Helicopter Association of Great Britain. A telegram was also despatched to the Chancellor of the Exchequer urgently requesting a review of the whole question of the tax on petrol, including aviation spirit, J»S it affects the aviation industry. After the meeting, the following statement, dated April 19th, was issued from the offices of the Air League :— " The addition of 9d a gallon on petrol, including aviation spirit, announced in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Budget speech, is a bitter blow to the entire aviation industry. " The previous tax of 9d a gallon which is levied on aviation spirit used for all purposes, including the operation of internal air services, for test flying of aircraft, for training flights and for the bench testing of aero engines, was already a heavy burden on the industry and the airlines, from which they have already sought relief. So far as aircraft manufacturers are concerned it will be appreciated that in the course of test flying and the testing of aero engines incidental to the production and maintenance of aircraft and engines, very large quantities of aviation spirit are used, and the increase in the cost of aircraft and engines, apart from any other consideration- will constitute an additional handicap to British manufacturers in foreign markets. " The additional tax will cost the airline Corporations over £300,000 in a year. It will be a crippling addition to the costs of the air-charter companies which, like the airlines, have to face very severe foreign competition. Their maintenance costs, in particular, will be heavily increased in relation to foreign com- petitors. The tax will still further discourage the development of air services in the United Kingdom. " The flying clubs, of all users of aviation petrol, will probably be the hardest hit. Their struggle to continue their operations— which, since the end of the war. have been threatened with extinc- tion—is too well known to need further stress. They and the Air League have received great encouragement by the recently announced scheme for flying scholarships, under which over 200 Air Training Corps cadets will be trained every year in the flying clubs to Private Pilot's Licence standard. This training will involve a total of 6,000 hours flying a year but out of the £30,000 granted by the Government for this purpose £3,000 will now be absorbed by petrol tax. " The cost of club flying averages £3 an hour, and with this increase in tax it will mean that lO.s of the hourly rate will go to the Revenue. This will further increase the cost of club flying which is already beyond the means of many of those who, in the national interest, should be attracted to aviation, and completely nullifies the efforts which the flying clubs have bean making to reduce their costs."
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
