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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1982.PDF
PLIGHT, 28 September 1951 431 CIVIL AVIATION HARD-WORKED DAKOTAS of Australian Notional Airways carried the bulk of the 65,000 passengers and 73,000,000 Ib of freight which comprised this busy airline's record traffic result for the year ended June, 1951. Here are three of them at Mascot (Sydney), being re-fuelled before their day's work. SEVENTH "COMMONWEALTH" LECTURE ON Thursday, October 4th, the Seventh British Common-wealth and Empire Lecture will be delivered before R.Ae.S. members at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great GeorgeStreet, London, S.W.I. The author of this year's paper is A.V-M. Sir Leonard Isitt, K.B.E., R.N.Z.A.F. (ret.) and his subject:"Air Transport in New Zealand and the South Pacific." Sir Leonard is chairman of New Zealand's State-ownedNational Airways Corporation and of Tasman Empire Airways, Ltd.; he is also a director of British Commonwealth Pacific Air-lines, Ltd. His knowledge of his chosen subject, therefore, springs from first-hand and unlimited experience. In view of the recentsurvey flights which have been taking place in the South Pacific, Sir Leonard's lecture will be particularly topical, especially as theestablishment of further trans-Pacific routes is rapidly becoming a matter of strategic importance. A B.E.A. DISAPPOINTMENT A RECENT B.E.A. statement reveals that the Corporation **• showed a cumulative loss of £19,887 for the first four months of the current financial year, as compared with a profit of £6,969 for the same period last year. This was in spite of an all-time revenue record, of £1,155,160, which gave an operating profit of £103,011. But for the payment of some £90,000 of fuel tax on internal services there would have been a profit of £70,000 for that period. (Fuel tax is not payable on services to points outside the United Kingdom.) The cumulative results for the year ended July last show a loss of £1,006,123, a reduction of 18 per cent over the figure for the previous period. U.S. MAIL PAY DECISION T^HE United States Senate last week approved by 52 votes to-*• 28 a bill limiting "oversea" operators' subsidies to those com- panies holding certificates as mail carriers. P.A.A. and T.W.A.,therefore, are the only two companies who will continue to be subsidized. It was originally proposed that oversea carriers of"persons or property" would also be eligible for subsidies, but this was later ruled out by an amendment. A new scale of rates for mail payment to domestic airlines isalso being drawn up and will come into force on July 1st, 1952. Additional payments to maintain airlines in a sound financialstate will, in future, count as subsidies. One clause of the bill states that rates paid to American airlines carrying mail abroadshould not be lower than those paid to foreign companies for similar services, and no higher than those approved by theUniversal Postal Union. , An amendment was also adopted permitting the Civil Aeronau-tics Board to sign long-term subsidy contracts with airlines operating both foreign and domestic services. THE 40-PASSENGER HELICOPTER A LONG-RANGE forecast of the dates by which large-scale•^7- passenger helicopter services may be expected in the United Kingdom has been given by Mr. Peter Masefield, chief executiveof B.E.A. He emphasizes that only machines of 40-seat capacity wiii be aDie to operate economically at acceptaoie lares, i'ne lactthat helicopters carrying up to 40 men are now in production for the U.S. Army inevitably makes Mr. Masefield's forecast lookdisappointing; but he is probably wise in not erring on the optimistic side. Briefly, his time-table makes the followingsuggestions:— 1953—Experimental operations with one Bristol 173 12/14-passenger helicopter. 1955—Preliminary scheduled passenger services with Bristol 173s.1957—Introduction of a developed and enlarged version of the Bristol 173.i960—Preliminary services with a large commercial helicopter. 1965—The large helicopter established as an economic com-mercial vehicle. Nevertheless, B.E.A. is apparently pressing hard for a speedierrate of development in the hope that these dates can be improved upon. THE SEALAND S NEW WORLD TOURT HE Short Sealand amphibian which is making a demonstration tour of the Americas has completed its flights in South America and, flying via Toronto, has reached Vancouver. It will now demonstrate its capabilities at many places throughout Canada, where a large number of amphibious aircraft are already in use. Two of these versatile machines, incidentally, were recently purchased by Jugoslovenski Aerotransport for service on routes between Zagreb and towns along the Dalmatian coast. In Norway, Vestlandske Luftfartselskap, who operate a Sealand on routes linking Norway's capital cities with coastal towns and islands, report full bookings and high utilization on all services. Pilots and ground crews are said to be equally pleased with the ease of handling and maintenance that are Sealand characteristics. RECORD TRANSATLANTIC TRAVEL A PREDICTION by statistical experts that transatlantic air-lines would experience no great increase in traffic results this year has been proved wrong. Statistics compiled by the U.S.Department of Commerce show that a total of 702,500 international passengers flew out of the United States between May 15th andSeptember 8th, as compared with only 571,700 in the correspond- ing period of last year. The great majority of the flights were toEurope. In spite of the fact that the Festival of Britain and the Parisian 2,000th anniversary celebrations took place this summer,experts had still not considered that results would approach last year's total traffic volume, which was, of course, boosted con-siderably by the numerous pilgrimages to the Holy Year cele- brations in Rome. Oddly enough, although transatlantic travel records werebroken this summer, advance bookings were poor. One theory is that passengers have realized that services to Europe are now soregular and dependable that advance bookings are no longer necessary; another concerns the general feeling of tension due tothe international situation. For B.O.A.C., who flew 14 services a week between New Yorkand Britain this summer, business in the April-June quarter
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