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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1906.PDF
FLIGHT, 9 November 1950 jU—*"*C^ 411 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS AMERICA'S LATEST: The newest version of the perennial Constellation, the L-104? (described in Flight's last news letter and shown here alongside one ol its elder and smaMer sisters) is due for delivery next year. It is designed to be powered by piston engines, prob- ably compounded, and, eventually, by turboprops. NOT TOMORROW, NOT TODAY . . . FROM recent reports it would appear that the idea of jetairline travel is slowly but surely. gathering converts in the United States. The president of National Airlines, Mr.G. T. Baker, who has previously expressed somewhat sceptical views on the subject, is now anxious to conduct trials withthe Avro Jetliner for possible use on the Miami-New York run. Mr. Baker considers thar the advent of jet transport willnot take a further five years, but "was here yesterday." With no comparable American aircraft in sight, he thinks that foreignmakes will have to be used. On the excellent maintenance characteristics of such aircraft,he says that during a recent visit to the Derwent engine-shops of the Rolls-Royce factory in Great Britain he found that 42men in one room of 5,000 sq ft could overhaul 20 power units a week, whereas the same number of piston engines wouldrequire 1,200 men in a 40,000 sq ft area. BILATERAL BARRIERS ? CPEAKING in Boston recently, Dr. A.-H. Sloteftiaker, vice-v-' president of K.L.M., criticized the air travel restrictions imposed by many governments which, he said, were " preventingairlines from carrying out completely the" international task of which they are capable." He pointed out that when bilateralagreements were negotiated, too much attention was devoted to the danger of competition with the national airline; the remedywas too often sought in a restrictive air policy. Supporting him, Mr. Ralph Damon, president of T.W.A., spoke of the para-doxical situation in which " the world appears to be losing the opportunity presented by aviation for developing internationaltravel and trade on a basis of complete freedom by retreating to the protection of restrictions more fitting to the Middle Ages." UNLUCKY FORTNIGHT FOR the second time within a fortnight B.E.A. suffered asevere accident when, on October 31st, Viking G-AHPN crashed in bad visibility while making a G.C.A. approach atLondon Airport. Only two of its 30 occupants—the stewardess and a passenger survived; they were both located near the tail. The Viking, which was returning from Paris and had beendiverted from Northolt because of dense fog, is thought to have landed at the intersection of Nos. 1 and 3 runways and bounced;it struck a pile of drain-pipes some 500yds off the runway, and then caught fire. The work of fire brigades and rescue teamswas severely hampered by the fog, which diffused the light of the flames. The Viking's pilot was Capt. S. D. Clayton. The Minister of Civil Aviation has subsequently announcedthat there is to be a public enquiry (R/T recordings, made by the apparatus recently installed, should provide useful evidence)and that Lord Brabazon of Tara is to lead an investigation into the relative responsibilities of pilots and airfield authorities inrelation to bad weather landings. When the accident was announced in the House of Commons several M.P.s urged areturn to the war-time " Fido " method of fog-dispersal. Later in the week another company suffered a severe blowwhen the Constellation Malabar Princess, belonging to Air India International, clashed in the Alps, near Mont Blanc, while making a chartc mgnr to London with 40 Indian seamen ^onboard. The aircraft was piloted by a Briton, Captain A. Saint; the remainder of the crew were Indians. Fhe Constellation had been overdue since Friday and thewreckage was not located until Sunday. It was found lying about 650ft below the summit of Mont Blanc (15,871ft), thehighest peak in Europe. Preliminary reports indicate that the ma.n fuselage was intact, but there was apparently no sign ofhfe in the area. At the time of going to press attempts were being made to undertake the extremely difficult climb, throughincreasing smw, to the scene of the accident. B.E.A.'S ASSOCIATE AGREEMENT IN view ot recent reports and comments regarding the pros-pects for independent operators ot internal services in this country, B.E.A. has issued a statement of its intentions. Two meetings were held last month between representativesof B.E.A. and of the charter companies and, arising out of these discussions the Corporation states that it has agreed to recom-mend to the Air Transport Advisory Council that 73 out of 92 applications made by 21 companies should be approved. Mostof these associate agreements will be for five years—a consider- ably longer period than has ever been previously approved.Plans are being made to construct an integrated*internal network of services which, it is claimed, will be increasingly beneficialto the public, to the private companies and to the Corporation. B.E.A. intends to resume its Nirmer service between Manchesterand the Isle of Man, but apart from this route it is not intended to withdraw permission from independent companies now oper-ating other scheduled services. The Corporation's statement has given rise to strong protestsfrom members of the British Air Charter Association, whose interpretation r>f B.E A 's intention is that the more popularand remuneiative routes might not be available to independent operators for five years. Mr. E. Rylands, chairman and secre-tary of B.A.C.A., said it was " apparent that B.E.A. intends to take ovei 80 per cent of the charter companies' business "and that the fact thar the Corporation intended to charter large numbers of aircraft for the 13 summer week-ends indicatedthat it was unable to digest properly the additional routes which it wished to take over. Mr. Rylands continued: " It is becoming abundantly clearthat if the independent operators are to survive, a proportion of their work must come either directly or indirectly fromthe Government. Only a speedy appreciation of this fact will preserve one of the nation's most valuable assets—the reserveof trained aircrews and ground-staffs, which should always bi- available in an emergency." I.A.T.A.'S ANNUAL REPORT AS some readers will already have learnt from the limited-circulation newsletter issued by Flight in the past few weeks, Sir William Hildred's annual report on the activitiesof I.A.T.A. was delivered before the Association's annual general meeting, which took place in San Francisco from Octo-ber 16th to 20th. We hope to include a summary of this report in a forthcoming issue. One of the important views expressed by the director-general
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