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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0431.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 April 1956 431 Aer Lingus' Viscount "St. Patrick" leaves Collinstown, Dublin, on one of the 33 Easter holiday Viscount services to London. The company's decision to adopt the Fokker Friendship as a partner for the Viscount is reported on the next page. CIVIL AVIATION CAPITAL AND THE BRITANNIAF OR some time now Capital Airlines, America's delighted Vis-count operators, have been looking closely at the potentialities of the bigger turboprop. Their studies of the Britannia, it appears,have been promising enough to prompt Mr. J. H. Carmichael, the airline's president, to sample the aircraft for himself, and onThursday of last week he flew to England with a party of senior Capital men for a three-day visit to Bristol. He was later sub-jected to the inevitable questions about the likelihood of orders (a newspaper report said that Capital "were understood" to haveordered ten, and to have placed an option on a similar number) which he countered with: "I can say it is a very fine aircraft andI am very pleased with its performance. But there will be many more discussions and a lot of figures to discuss before we signon the dotted line." Mr. Carmichael flew in a B.O.A.C.-operated Britannia from London Airport to fly a stage comparable with hiscompany's New York-Chicago route (as ill luck would have it, the aircraft had to turn back when 100 miles from Copenhagendue to an engine's excessive jet pipe temperature. After the visit to Bristol the Capital Airlines party called onVickers-Armstrongs "to discuss the delivery programme and to talk about new models and new developments." Mr. Carmichaeldescribed as "premature" reports that Capital intended to pur- chase a further 30 yiscounts. At the time of going to press a Britannia was due, on a date inthe very near future, to make landing and take-off tests at Dyce airfield (near Balmoral, the Royal Family's traditional Scottishhome) and at Wick airfield. The aircraft was to be accompanied by A. Cdre. Sir Edward Fielden, Captain of the Queen's Flight,with Mr. Bill Pegg, Bristol's chief test pilot, as pilot. I.A.T.A.'s ROLE 'T'HE recent action of the United States Civil Aeronautics Board•*• on I.A.T.A.'s resolution to increase by ten per cent first-class transatlantic and trans-Pacific fares raised the question of theextent of I.A.T.A.'s authority in the complex business of settling international air fares. It will be recalled that the Board at firstrefused to approve the increases agreed by I.A.T.A., subsequently reversing their decision in the face of strong airline protests. No one should know better the aims and ideals of I.A.T.A. thanits tireless director-general, Sir William Hildred, and in the light of the recent events it was particularly stimulating to hear histestimony to a sub-committee of the United States Congress, in which he showed how the interests of 55 governments and 73airlines are reconciled in the machinery of international airline fare-fixing. He explained that since every government in theworld is sovereign of its air space, international airlines can only operate according to agreements between governments, whichadjust the varying interests of them all on a world-wide basis. Governments, Sir William said, delegate responsibility to theairlines—through the I.A.T.A. Traffic Conferences—for the adjustment of fares: proposals were then submitted to the appro-priate governments for approval. Such matters as the exchange of traffic rights and the licensing of carriers "are completelyoutside the influence or control of I.A.T.A.," remaining the prerogative of negotiations between governments. Internationalairline operations, Sir William added, were based on "masses of bilateral agreements" between governments, and these agree-ments "depend for their efficiency on subsequent agreements on the fares and rates charged by the operators." Other points made clear by Sir William were that I.A.T.A. hasnothing to do with the policy of any country as to which of its flag carriers fly on international routes; that it has nothing to dowith inter-airline pool agreements; and that it confines its regula- tions to the "stabilization of fares and to the control of discrimina-tory practices." The fact that every airline had an equal vote in I.A.T.A., he added, strengthened the status of the small operatorand prevented the larger ones from exercising undue pressure. The problem of rate agreements was delicate and complex: somegovernments believed that certain fares should be lowered, while others felt they should be increased if their national carriers wereto maintain their economy. Each fare had to be treated on its merits in the light of local circumstances, and governments differedin their degree of the appreciation of the difficulties. It was not surprising that the airlines as well as governments believed thatirresponsible fare-cutting "could lead to nothing but disaster": the introduction of tourist fares, although it expanded the market, did not increase financial returns to the airlines.Sir William rounded off his testimony by quoting from the chairman of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board,Ross Rizley,speak-ing at I.A.T.A.'s general meeting last October: "It is no exaggera- tion to say that the existence and statesmanship of I.A.T.A., morethan any other single factor, saved international air transportation in the post-war period from the disastrous rate-wars and subsidywars that would otherwise have thwarted its sound development." ATLANTIC ALL-CARGO SERVICE /COMPETITION for the haulage of air freight between the^ U.S.A. and Europe—until now shared by K.L.M., PanAm, Sabena, Swissair and T.W.A.—will be intensified when Seaboardand Western's new scheduled operation is in full swing. The inaugural service, the outcome of many months of negotiationbetween the United States and European governments, was on April 10th when a Seaboard and Western L.1049H Super Con-stellation flew into London Airport from New York via Shannon. Seaboard and Western deal exclusively in air cargo, andalthough until now they have been operating the Atlantic on a non-scheduled basis they are the first all-cargo carrier to operatethe route to a timetable. There will be five return trips weekly with L.1049Hs (18 tons capacity) and DC-4s (eight tons), andpoints of call besides London will be Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Stutt- gart, Nuremburg, Paris, Munich, Geneva, Zurich, Amsterdam,and Hamburg. Gander and Shannon are intermediate points on all routes. (Left) Mr. A. Jock- son Kelly, who is PanAm's new vice- president in charge of the airline's Euro- pean operations. (Right) Mr. K. J. Luplow, who, as re- ported below, is to take charge of Boe- ing's newly formed European office. BOEING OPEN EUROPEAN OFFICE ITH the Boeing 707 now sold to three European operators—Air France, Sabena and Lufthansa—the manufacturers have decided to establish a new office in Europe to represent thecompany's transport division. Under Mr. K. J. Luplow, formerly Boeing's manager of foreign sales, the office is being opened laterthis month in Geneva for the co-ordination of sales, contracts, engineering and spares service, public relations, and advertising.Douglas, incidentally, have a similar European organization, also based in Geneva. HERON PRECAUTION A RECENT case of failure of a link-rod in the rudder servo-tabcontrol of a de Havilland Heron 2 led, in the usual way, to the manufacturers' notifying all operators of a modification. Theevent would, as with other minor modifications issued from time to time by aircraft manufacturers, probably have attracted littlepublicity but for the fact that in this instance certain Herons, notably those of Indian Airlines and Turkish Airlines, had to bewithdrawn from service until the replacement parts, which were not in store, were received from England.
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