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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0485.PDF
FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD FOUNDED 1 909 and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER No 2466 Vol 69 FRIDAY 27 APRIL 1956 Editor MAURICE A. SMITH D.F.C. and BAR Associate Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY Iliffe and Sons Ltd Dorset House Stamford Street London, S.E.I : Telephone • Waterloo 3333 (60 lines) BRANCH OFFICES Coventry 8-10 Corporation Street Telephone • Coventry 5210 Birmingham 2 King Edward House, New Street Telephone • Midland 7191 (7 lines) Manchester 3 260 Deansgate Telephone • Blackfriars 4412 (3 lines)Deansgate 3595 (2 lines) Glasgow C.2 26B Renfield Street Telephone • Central 1265 (2 lines) Toronto 2, Ontario 74 College Street Telephone • Walnut 4-5631 New York 6, N.Y. Ill Broadway Telephone • Digby 9-1197 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Overseas • Twelve Months, £4 10s. U.S.A. and Canada, $14.00 In this issue 488 Hollywood Premiere 491 Lightweight Quartet 492 Gliding at Hawkinge 493 Communications Flight, Kaduna 495 Long-range Navaids 498 Aircraft Accident Investigation SOI High-speed Experimental Flying 503 No. 16 Squadron 506 Logistic Transport 509 Lycoming T53 The Tired PilotT HIS is the time of year when the airlines are drawing in a deep breath in preparation for the heavy exertions of the summer. Without exception the efforts of every operator will be more strenuous than ever, and the question of aircrew fatigue once again comes into prominence. It is a disturbing fact that the majority of British pilots and crews are not entirely happy about flight-time limitations. Cautiously, I.C.A.O. leaves this highly controversial matter to the conscience of each country, and in the absence of international legislation individual governments are charged with reconciling the interests of the pilot and his employer. The airlines are not whipcracking slave-drivers; nor are pilots always grumbling about the strain and responsibility of their profession. But the Ministry's recent revised legislation on crew fatigue, couched in the terms of stodgy legalese—one pilot said that reading it was guaranteed to induce crew fatigue—was received by the British Air Line Pilots' Association with bitter disappointment and hostility. The pilots' attitude was perhaps over-vehement ("warped thinking," "Alice-in- Wonderland legislation"), since the document was undoubtedly the result of well- intentioned Ministerial study; but its outstanding weakness was the inadequate allowance that was made for the type of flying undertaken. The proposed "hours of duty, for instance, made no distinction between day and night flying, or between long-haul and short-haul operations. One does not have to be an airline pilot to appreciate that two DC-3 pilots flying a complicated U.K. airways pattern in dirty weather are more tired at the end of 16 hours than two pilots, assisted by a crew of three, flying by long stages to the Far East. ;• No responsible operator is likely to turn legislative loopholes to his own advan- tage, but while the opportunity exists for him to do so the pilot's mind will never be fully at rest. In the meantime operators can lighten the load on flight-crews by considerate scheduling, the provision of good rest facilities down the route, and the cutting down of stand-by time and pre-flight duty. And, looking ahead (since the technical load upon aircrews will increase rather than diminish with time) we quote for the attention of designers from G/C. J. A. Newton, chief of I.C.A.O.'s flight branch: "Since the present human design appears fairly static, with little evidence of a new improved model, it would appear that aircraft design must bear the brunt of any [fatigue-reducing] innovations." Under New ManagementW HEN the new B.O.A.C. appointments have settled into the perspective of history it will be seen that they were good ones. Not only because the men concerned, Mr. Gerard d'Erlanger and Sir George Cribbett, were well chosen—both are steeped in British aviation and understand the workings of airline commerce—but also because the Corporation's superstructure was re-modelled in accordance with B.O.A.C.'s increasing responsibilities. No matter how ardent the devotion of one man, the double responsibility of chairman and chief executive—as Sir Miles must have found—is a task for more than one. Mr. Gerard d'Erlanger has Sir George Cribbett's full-time backing as his deputy (confidence in the choice of Mr. d'Erlanger is tempered with regret that his chairmanship is not a full-time one), and probably by the time these words are read the post of chief executive will have been filled from the ranks of B.O.A.C. The first nettle the new men will have to grasp is the crucial issue of the Corporation's future equipment policy. Should it buy British-engined American jet airliners to maintain its competitive position in the early sixties, or should it wait until the late sixties for a supersonic British airliner? There is no reason to lack confidence in the ability of B.O.A.C.'s new management to make a decision that history will prove was correct.
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