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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0156.PDF
154 FLIGH1 There are two final erecting shops at Hum, each capable of accom- modating 72 Viscount fuselages. That illustrated (right) is devoted entirely to the production of VJ45s for Capital" Airlines VISCOUNT ROUND-UP News From Three Aspects—Operations, Production and Development DDRESSING the 24th annual meeting of the Institute of theAeronautical Sciences on January 24th, Mr. J. H. ("Slim") Carmichael, president of Capital Airlines, outlined broadlyhis company's experience of the Viscount during its first months of regular operation in the United States. Mr. Carmichael paidseveral tributes to the aircraft in the course of his address, but one remark stands out as being especially quoteworthy; Capital, hesaid, had placed the Viscount into service without experiencing a long or even a short period of adjustment—"Operations have beenas normal as though we had been flying these airplanes for the past five years." "The Viscount," Mr. Carmichael went on, was "a far betterpiece of equipment than we had ever anticipated." Other than routine checks, maintenance work on the Viscount was not doneout on the line as it historically had been done, and overnight checks had been practically eliminated. That work was done inCapital's main shop at their Washington headquarters; engine run-ups were every 100 hours instead of at the beginning of eachday's operations. Earlier, Mr. Carmichael had reviewed the effect of the Viscount'sintroduction on the American travelling public, which, he said, had again proved its "hunger for continuing technological pro-gress." Capital's purchase of a British product—admittedly developed by two of the greatest names in the annals of aviationhistory, Vickers and Rolls-Royce, but nevertheless a product of another country's industry—had tested the universality and states-manship of the aeronautical sciences. Mr. Carmichael told his audience: "The vision of those in your field who recognized thatCapital was not engaged in playing at diplomacy but had pur- chased the Viscount as hard-headed businessmen, aware that herewas a sound development of the next logical step in air trans- portation, is best evidenced by the orders for new transport aircraft, which today total over one billion dollars. Here again is testimonythat technological progress creates its own markets. ... I honestly believe the inauguration of Viscount service moved thetimetable by at least a year to eighteen months." When Capital announced their Viscount order they had receivedthousands of favourable letters from the public. Only eleven people had written critical letters, and eight of these had with-drawn their criticisms on receiving Capital's answer. Mr. Carmichael qualified his remarks by saying that only nineof Capital's 60 Viscounts were as yet in service. Even so, they were operating 3,600,000 seat-miles weekly at a load factor only apoint or so below the "low eighties" experienced in the first weeks of operation. This could not be explained away by the noveltyvalue of the Viscount—"there are not enough novelty-seekers among air travellers to sustain a high load factor"—but rather byits inherent passenger appeal, which not only attracted passengers but made them confirmed Viscount travellers once they had experi-enced a ride in it. Passengers were aware of the turboprop and interested in learning about it; seven printings had already beenmade of an explanatory booklet prepared by Capital on the turbo- prop and the demand for it had not yet slackened. Already the Viscount was securing for Capital the dominantposition on one of their most important routes. From February there would be six non-stop Viscount flights daily between thetwo major cities on that route, compared with the pre-Viscount frequency of two non-stop flights per day. Meanwhile, Capital'smain competitor had reduced his frequency on this route from five to four flights daily and had "removed his top-notch equipment toanother market." In an oblique reference to the 365-m.p.h. DC-7, Mr. Carmichael recalled that the Viscount, in its first majorcompetitive effort, "was pitted against the fastest and most modern piston-engined airplane. Its published operating schedule was Viscount EI-AFY "St. Brendan", illustrated at Dublin Airport, displays the distinctive new colour scheme of Aer Lingus. The cabin-top and fin, previously unpainted, are finished in Winchester green, and the cockpit-top colour is quoted as "English green". The fuselage flash is white.
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