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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0916.PDF
72 FLIGHT FROM ALL QUARTERS More New Zealand Race Names SOME further details of pilots and crews in the London-Christ-church (New Zealand) Race—starting at Londqn Airport on October 8th—have been given by the Royal Aero Club. In the Speed Section, the R.A.F.'s entry of a Valiant B. Mk i will have a mixed Service/civilian crew. It will be piloted by S/L. R. G. W. Oakley, D.S.O., D.F.C., D.F.M., with E. B. Trubshaw, M.V.O., as co-pilot (Mr. Trubshaw was recently appointed Vickers-Armstrongs' deputy chief test pilot); also on board will be F/L. W. R. Peasley, D.F.C. and Derek L. Jones (navigators), Frank Curtis (flight engineer) and Gordon R. Holland (flight observer). The other R.A.F. entries—three P.R. Canberras—will be piloted by W/C. L. M. Hodges, D.S.O., D.F.C.; S/L. L. G. Press, A.F.C. (who, under A.V-M. D. A. Boyle, led the Canberra goodwill tour of South America last year); and F/L. R. L. E. Burton. The navigators will be S/L. R. Currie, A.F.C., F/L. J. W. Harper, D.F.C. and F/L. D. H, Gannon. Reserve pilot and navigator are F/L. R. M. Furze and F'L. T. E. Dunne. In the Transport Handicap, B.E.A. will be represented by the prototype Viscount 700, G-AMAV, which has been loaned by the M.o.S. (it was originally stated that a 701 from scheduled service would be used). The captain will be chosen from among the following : J. W. G. James, A. S. Johnson, S. E. Jones, W. Baillie and—a noteworthy name—P. G. Masefield (though the Corporation's chief executive is usually seen as a pilot of light aircraft he has had considerable experience on heavier types). A Merger of Ministries THE amalgamation of the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Transport was formally endorsed by Parliament on July 8th, when a Humble Address was approved by the Commons. A recent White Paper on the subject (Flight July 3rd) revealed little more than the effective date—October 1st. The Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation, Mr. A. T. Lennox-Boyd, went into considerably more detail, but his speech was concerned largely with reasons for the amalgamation, and several questions con cerning the actual modus operandi remain unanswered. The Minister himself has successfully straddled the separate Ministries since he came into office last year; from his point of view the merger will serve to close the inconvenient gap between Berkeley Square and Theobald's Road. Whether or not successive Ministers will show equal ability in grasping the essentials of completely different forms of transport remains to be seen. . Again, the new status of senior M.C.A. officials vis-a-vis more senior M.o.T. executives is not clear. Thirdly, presumably the Corporations will, instead of receiving their share of the civil- aviation estimates, be allocated part of the overall budget for road, rail, sea and air. This could result in unrealistic com parisons between the results of the Corporations and the longer- established forms of transport. Mr. Lennox-Boyd has proved himself to aviation as an air- minded Minister, but the new policy cannot be judged on his personal merits. Reactions to the forthcoming marriage between Transport and Civil Aviation, as expressed in the Commons, were tepid—there was little enthusiasm but, at the same time, few convincing objections were advanced. A summary of some views expressed in the debate follows. MR. LENNOX-BOYD, in commending the merger, said that no sugges tions could possibly be made that either of the two Departments— Transport or Civil Aviation—was in any sense running down. Economy in staff had been achieved by "very careful husbandry" and not by loss of work. Results by the M.C.A. had been "quite remarkable" in view of a passenger-mile increase from 363 million miles in 1946 to 1,229 mil lion at present. All but 1,385 of the 7,000 people employed were to be found at outstations. It was the Government's belief that, as civil aviation was essentially (and would become more and more) a matter of transport, it ought to be in a merged Ministry of all civil transport. The time had come to carry out the merger because things were settling down from the administrative point of view. The Corporadons had won the confidence of flying people all over the world and it was to be hoped that, with the Comets, Britannias, Viscounts, and Elizabethans, they would enter better financial times. The working of the new policy through the A.T.A.C. was going "remarkably well." In the Commonwealth, although much remained to be done, the general framework of civil air co-operation was now established. The pattern of bilateral arrangements had been reached and a large number made, and the ministerial need there was much less than it used to be. In airfield policy, the Department had pruned down to a smaller num ber the aerodromes previously thought necessary—all State-owned. In technical development, considerable advances had been made. Airline problems were, like those of rail and road safety, no longer unique. The airlines had fought their way through to a better recogni tion, and could be fairly dealt with in the merged Department. The nursing stage had passed, and now considerations of administrative efficiency must play their proper part. Road, rail, sea and air all made claims on the limited material resources at the same time. In this and many other fields a single Minister, devoted to getting the public the service it needed, was surely the best conclusion. There would certainly be some economies, although he would not put them very high. 1 hey would be in accounts and establishment and, to some extent, in finance. Speaking personally, Siid Mr. Lennox-Boyd, sudden immersion in the Transport Act and the new policy on civil aviation had given him a good deal of strain and some considerable anxiety. The task had been made much more difficult by the fact that his two Departments had been in two separate buildings a long way apart; it would be enormously simpli fied by the merging of them in the physical sense The Minister went on to remark that he and his successors would have the assistance, under the new set-up, of the Controller of Ground Ser vices with senior officers in both Departments engaged in a multitude of responsibilities for transport by rail, road, sea, and air. Each of these Departments, through their officers, would bring to the other great advantages. The impact of the jet age, the turboprop and the turbojet on older forms of transport would do no harm to the Ministry of Trans port. Conversely, the direct experience of many problems—finance, a great headache in civil aviation; the patient and often unspectacular planning and achievements in road and rail; the continual and often unsung running of the railways day after day—would do no harm either to those in the M.C.A. MR. PRANK BESWICK (Lab., Uxbridge) commented that the Minister had net mentioned safety regulations in his Lst of departmental duties. There w<- s a whole field of safety regulations and in no other case did circcm^ances change as they did in this field of <c:ivity. He could not think that Mr. Lennox-Boyd had had too much time to consider these methods in the last year. He also wondered if it could be said that the two Corporations were now safely "out of the red," that their respective responsibilities were clearly defined, and that their ability to meet foreign competition was such that they no longer needed a separate Minister to serve them. Mr. Beswick asked for the assurance that there was no intention to lower the status of civil aviation, and that, with the technical needs of civil aviation diverging sharply from the military needs, the voice of the Minister would be heard in the Cabinet or in Govern ment circles in favour of the proper priorities for civil air transport. MR. J. S. MACLAY (Nat. Lib. and Con., Renfrewshire, West), a former llllf ;.?-'• :;•:.;•;•; ** %®*m**^
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