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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0225.PDF
22 January 1954 109 TOM E. BRANIFF, whose death is reported below, founded Braniff Inter national Airways 30 years ago. The company—one of whose Convair 340s is seen, right—has an exceptional safety record. T. E. BRANIFF /"\NE of the twelve people killed when a privately owned *-' amphibian crashed as a result of wing icing at Shreveport on January 10th was Mr. Tom. E. Braniff, president of Braniff Inter national Airways, Inc. This company, now the seventh largest operator in the United States, has one of the finest safety records in the world, a fact which makes the circumstances of its founder's death particularly tragic. Nearly all the twelve who lost their lives were senior business executives, and the accident may result in one of the largest liability losses to be sustained by insurance interests—much, no doubt, by the London market. It is customary with what are known as "industrial-aid aircraft" for each seat to carry automati cally a minimum of perhaps 50,000 dollars personal accident cover; in this case the passengers themselves also had very considerable private insurances. Mr. Braniff was one of five people who bought a five-seater Stinson for recreational purposes in 1927. It was a partnership which gave birth to an airline. The following year the Stinson was being operated on daily passenger services between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, with Tom Braniff's brother Paul acting as both pilot and general manager of the airline. Braniff Airways proper was founded in 1930 with a fleet of two Lockheed Vegas. Five years later the company bought out Long and Harman Air Service, bringing the route mileage to over 3,000. Another, more important merger took place in 1952, when Braniff were combined with Mid-Continent Airlines. The total route mileage is now nearly 19,000, with services radiating from Dallas, Texas, over a complex network to Minot and Minneapolis in the north and with Miami, Panama, Rio and Buenos Aires among the southern destinations. The company has not had a single fatal accident in the past 15 years and has received a dozen consecutive awards from the National Safety Council. Passengers are being carried at an annual rate of over one million by the fleet, which includes nine DC-6s, eight DC-4s, 26 Convair 340s and 32 DC-3s. BREVITIES MOSCOW RADIO has reported that a regular helicopter mail service was opened on January 12th between Moscow and towns in the Verieysk, Luga and Uvariv districts (which lie north and north-west of the capital). No mention was made of the type of helicopter employed. * * * Sir Clement Wakefield Jones, a part-time member of the Board of B.O.A.C., will retire when his term of office expires at die end of the Corporation's financial year (on March 31st, 1954). Lord Rennell has accepted an invitation to join the Board when Sir Clement retires. * * * Aided by strong tail-winds, Super Constellations set up two unofficial Atlantic records last week. An L.1049C of Air France flew 3,625 miles non-stop from New York to Paris in 9 hr 55 min (365 m.p.h.); and a similar machine, operated by K.L.M., flew the New York-Amsterdam route non-stop in 10 hr 14 min— 3,630 miles at over 350 m.p.h. * * * On February 1st the M.T.C.A. will introduce certificates of competency for aerodrome controllers, to be valid only at the specific airfields at which tests have been conducted. The syllabus for the examination, and other details of the certificate, are out lined in a pamphlet which can be obtained from the Secretary, Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (ATL lb), Berkeley Square House, London, W.l. * * * In seeking British and American Government approval to extend their normal London-Montreal services to Chicago, B.O.A.C. are following a lead set by two other major airlines. Last year Air France became the first transatlantic operator with a service terminating at Chicago and on May 1st Pan Am will open a DC-6B service between London, Detroit and Chicago. * • * Since 1947 Seaboard and Western Airlines have been seeking C.A.B. approval to operate a regular all-freight service across the Nortii Atlantic. A report from Washington last week suggested that their efforts were at last proving successful: a C.A.B. examiner has recommended that the airline receive a five-year licence to operate an all-freight service linking New York, Philadelphia and Boston with most countries in Western Europe. The recommendation has yet to be finally approved by the full C.A.B., and by President Eisenhower. B.E.A. STEWARDESSES look forward to the installation (forecast in "Flight" last week) of Murphy public-address equipment on Viscounts and Elizabethans, a step which will greatly simplify the "briefing" aspect of their service to passengers. The four shown practising microphone technique with the aid of a tape recorder at B.E.A.'s Radio Training Unit, Northolt, are (left to right) Carol Herdman, Pat Hill, Beatrice Toal and Anne Whiteway.
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