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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0566.PDF
350 FLIGHT, 23 March 1951 AVIATION PARIS VISITOR: On March 12th the Armstrong Whitworth Apollo made its first journey outside the United Kingdom—a proving flight to Paris. The trip from Baginton airfield, Coventry, to Orly, took I hr. 26 min. while the return flight was made in I hr. 18 min. The Apollo, which was awarded a C. of A. on January 1st, is expected to make further proving fights to Zurich, Geneva and Brussels during the next few months. A FEATURE printed recently in a London newspaper, andhaving the appearance of an officially inspired announcement, caused some surprise by implying that the Brabazon might beused by B.E.A. on the London-Paris passenger service. There is at present no more than a germ of truth in this premature sugges-tion. The position as we understand it must be prefaced by a series of "ifs." If suitable financial arrangements could be madebetween B.E.A. and the Miaistry of Supply; if a full C. of A. were applied for and issued for the Brabazon Mk 1 (or presum-ably the Mk 2, or both); if the research and other duties of the aircraft permitted it; if arrangements could also be made forcrewing and for servicing the Brabazon, and providing it with the requisite aids and equipment; and if fittings, including high-density furnishing, could be installed, then B.E.A. would be interested in the possibility of hiring one or both of these machinesfor use at peak times of the year on high-density routes such as London to Paris. Peak Saturday travel in the summer holiday months hasa potential of several thousand passengers a day to the most popular destinations, and the use of very high capacity aircrafton just those peak days has obvious attractions. B.E.A. state that so far no detailed discussions have taken place. As there is nopossibility of any Brabazon being available with a C. of A. before the summer of 1952 at the earliest, there seems to be plenty oftime to consider the matter before opening serious negotiations. These considerations apart, we like the idea of using these im-pressive giants for services between European capitals, and have no doubt that passengers would thoroughly enjoy the experienceof flying in them. THE B.E.A. CHAIRMANSHIP T^HE Minister of Civil Aviation has announced that the term ofA appointment of Lord Douglas of Kirtleside as chairman of B.E.A. has been extended until March 13th, 1954. Lord Douglas'original appointment, which was dated March 14th, 1949, was for three years and his term has thus been extended to covera five-year period. The chairman of B.O.A.C. holds his office for a similar term. U.A.L.'s PROFITABLE YEAR AMERICA'S second largest internal operators, United AirLines, have again enjoyed a satisfactory year. The company's net earnings for 1950 totalled almost $6,500,000, which compareswith the net profit in 1949 of $2,250,000,000. For the first time in any year United realized more than $100,000,000 in revenue.While operating expenses also reache'd a new maximum of $91,000,000 unit costs were reduced. Improved efficiency and a higher volume of traffic were re-flected in the reduced operating cost per revenue ton-mile—of 45.6 cents, as compared with 50.3 in 1949, and 54.6 cents in 1948.As a result of increased earnings, United's board of directors declared a 75 per cent dividend on the Corporation's commonstock—the first since 1946. The principal traffic results for the year were : revenue pas-senger-miles flown, 1,494,876,664, revenue passengers carried, 2,492,497. The revenue passenger load-factor achieved was69 per cent, a gain of 1.9 per cent on the figure for the previous year. Although a major factor contributing to this improvement ofUnited's traffic was considered to be the increased industrial activity caused by the Korean situation, it is nevertheless recog-nized that results were in some measure due to the public's increasing acceptance of air transport. Because of competition, United entered the air-coach marketon the Pacific coast early last year, using 66-passenger DC-6s. Steady expansion of this type of traffic has been maintained, butthe company is by no means certain that this type of travel will prove entirely beneficial to operating results. It has yet to bedecided whether the question of diverting from standard services to maintain the required high load-factors under intense com-petition at lower rates is fully justified. It will be recalled that last September the C.A.B., recognizing the extent of the prob-lem, ordered that all "coach" rates should maintain a level of ai least 4^ cents per passenger-mile and that they should continueto be restricted to off-peak hours. On the subject of air freight, United feels that although theactual growth of traffic in this category during the year was satis- factory, most of the rates currently being charged are still un-realistically low. LA.T.A.'s DEPUTY DIRECTOR I A.T.A.'s newly appointed Deputy Director-General, M.• Stephane P. Thouvenot, took over his new duties at the Association's Montreal headquarters last week. He will assist Sir William Hildred, the presentDirector-General. Formerly the Director of AirNavigEtion and Transportation in the French Ministry of Trans-port, M. Thouvenot was appointed to his new office onJanuary 1st. He has spent the last two months in Europefamiliarizing hjjMsetfCjifiiih the wcrk. nf A^yLA.T.AT^krafficcbnf rences, willi wWUrihe will be particularly concerned. M. Thouvenot, who holds therank of General in the Armee de l'Air, is best known for his workin creating a maintenance and repair base for the French AirForce in North Africa during the last war. After the liberation hewas appointed Director of the Department of AeronauticalProduction, later in his career becoming Director of Air Transport. In various capacities M. Thouvenot has. taken part in manyinternational negotiations and in recent years has assisted in the drafting of many bilateral agreements between France and othernations. He is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour and holds the Medaille de PAeronautique. He is also an experienced pilot. EDINBURGH-LONDON SERVICE THE chairman of the Scottish Advisory Council on CivilAviation, Sir Patrick Dollan, has now been officially informed of the reinstatement of B.E.A.'s Edinburgh-London service, around which controversy has recently arisen. With effect from April 16th these flights will consist of one morning and one evening service on the southbound route and a mid-day and an evening flight in the northbound direction, it will be recalled that the morning and evening services were can- celled last November and at the end of February the remaining direct services were completely suspended for a week for "tech- nical reasons". B.E.A. has said that, if there is a demand for additional services during the Edinburgh Festival every endeavour will be made to meet the situation. Meanwhile it is hoped that Edinburgh traffic will build up enough to warrant the provision of three scheduled services during the spring, summer and autumn seasons. M. Thouvenot
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