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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0513.PDF
FLIGHT, 27 April 1956 513 CIVIL AVIATION * AFTER SIR MILES IT would have been a miracle had the void left in B.O.A.C. bySir Miles Tnomas's resignation been filled to the satisfaction of everyone. Thus the appointments of Mr. Gerard d'Erlanger asthe new chairman and Sir George Cribbett as his deputy in- evitably brought the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation,Mr. Harold Watkinson, under heavy Opposition fire, and in the Commons the exchanges were sharp. The points raised at Westminster, and in other responsiblequarters, are worthy of retrospective summary. It was, the Minis- ter's critics said, a pity that B.O.A.C. should have had "its publicstatus lowered" by the appointment of a part-time unpaid chair- man. The changes had, it was argued, created an "organizationaltangle": if there was inadequate work to merit a full-time chair- man, what was the useful work that the full-time deputy chairmancould do? To what extent would he encroach on the chief executive's field? To whom would the chief executive report—the deputy chairman or the chairman? Could it not be assumed from the appointment of a part-time unpaid chairman with a"professional civil servant" as his deputy, that the intention was to bring B.O.A.C. more tightly under Government control? The Minister's answers were adroit, but clearly his critics arelikely to remain unsilenced until time has proved whether or not their doubts are ill-founded. One remark made by Mr. Watkinsonin reply to a newspaper's question about B.O.A.C.'s future equip- ment policy is worthy of quotation: "Nobody knows yet what theBoeing and Douglas are like—they have got an immense number of paper orders for paper aeroplanes." It is to be hoped that hisnew advisers will take a more realistic view of the challenge of the Boeing 707 and the DC-8.Lord Rennell of Rodd has tendered his resignation from the position of part-time deputy chairman of B.O.A.C., and it isannounced also that Lord Burghley, who has served B.O.A.C. for ten years, has been notified that his position as a part-timedirector, which terminated last month, will not be renewed. Editorial comment on the new appointments appears on page485. Brief biographical notes on Mr. d'Erlanger and Sir George Cribbett follow.Mr. Gerard d'Erlanger, who is 49, learnt to fly in 1928, sub- sequently having flown about 60 types of aircraft. He becamea director of Hillman Airways in 1934 and a director of British Airways, into which Hillman was merged, in 1935. Soon afterBritish Airways and Imperial Airways joined to become B.O.A.C. in 1939 he became a director of the Corporation, remaining a Mr. Gerard d'Erlanger, C.B.E. Sir George Cribbett, K.C.B., C.M.G. member of the board until 1946. He founded the Air TransportAuxiliary just before the outbreak of war, and was its commanding officer until the end of hostilities, being responsible for the deliveryof some 350,000 Service aircraft. In 1946 Mr. d'Erlanger helped to found B.E.A., becoming its first managing director and sub-sequently its chairman—a position which he held until 1949. He was appointed to the Air Transport Advisory Council in 1952,becoming its deputy chairman in 1954. In 1953 his firm, Erlangers Ltd., combined with other interests to form Air FinanceLtd. to assist financing the export of British aircraft. He became a chartered accountant in 1933 and was a member of the StockExchange from 1935-1939. Sir George Cribbett was appointed deputy secretary to theMinistry of Civil Aviation in 1946. In that Ministry and sub- sequently in the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation he wasassociated with die Corporations, being mainly responsible for negotiating international traffic rights on their behalf. Sir George,who is 60, served as a pilot in the R.A.F. in the 1914-18 War. He joined the Exchequer and Audit Department in 1919 and atthe beginning of the Second World War was a principal in the Air Ministry. From 1941 to 1943 he was director of administrationand finance with the R.A.F. in Washington, and on his return from the United States in 1943 assisted in the formulation ofpost-war British international air policy and the organization of its air transport. He was a delegate under Lord Swinton at theChicago Conference of 1944, which set up I.C.A.O., since when he has attended numerous Commonwealth and international con-ferences on civil aviation as the leading U.K. delegate. In 1948 and 1949 he was associated with Sir Miles Thomas in reviewingB.O.A.C.'s organization. In 1950 he delivered the Sixth Common- wealth and Empire Lecture, "Some International Aspects of AirTransport." AIR TRANSPORT AT OXFORD 'X'HE success of the Royal Aeronautical Society's two-week air*• transport course at Christ Church, Oxford 3 which ended onApril 18th, was evident in the atmosphere at a farewell dinner held in Hall the previous evening. Present were the 33 studentsattending the course, the organizers and lecturers, and a number of guests engaged in the administrative, legal, manufacturing andoperating spheres of air transport. The students of the course comprised representatives of B.E.A.,Aer Lingus, Iceland Airways, El Al, National Greek Airlines, K.L.M., Hunting-Clan, Airwork, Air Vietnam, Pan American,Blackburn and General Aircraft, British Petroleum, Vickers- Armstrongs, Shell Petroleum, Handley Page, Bristol Aircraft,Bristol Aero Engines and Armstrong Whitworth. Particularly large was the representation of Iceland Airways, who sent acontingent of six. During the fortnight at Oxford the students had attendedmorning lectures on air-transport economics, operations, and law, with group discussions and case studies in the afternoons, andhad heard a number of evening guest speakers. Under Dr. E. W. C. Wilkins, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D., assistantdirector of the course, the resident lecturing staff consisted of Mr. S. F. Wheatcroft, B.Sc. (economics), Mr. K. G. Wilkinson,B.Sc, D.I.C. (operations) and Mr. A. R. Barrowclough, B.A. (law). Dr. A. M. Ballantyne, B.Sc., Ph.D., secretary of the Society, wasdirector of the course. At the dinner, the toast of "Air Transport" was proposed by Mr.N. E. Rowe, C.B.E., president of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Air transport was a dynamic addition to the social pattern of life,he said, and it was appropriate that the first such course in the subject should be held in Oxford, where academic calm hadconsistently produced dynamic ideas. The course had been a modest start, but a successful one, and there was every likelihoodthat a similar course would be held next year. It was indeed hoped to make the course an annual event, perhaps followed by theestablishment of a University chair of air transport. The response was made by Sir Frederick TymmSj K.C.I.E.,M.C., formerly U.K. representative on the Council of LC.A.O., who traced in detail the history of that organization. The health of the guests and of Christ Church was proposedby Dr. Ballantyne, and Mr. S. N. Grant-Bailey, a Student of Christ Church and Dean of the Law Faculty at Southampton University,replied. Speaking on behalf of the students of the air transport course, Mr. A. G. L. Langfield, of Bristol Aircraft, Ltd., stressedthe benefits of belonging to such an international study group, and of the resulting interchange of ideas between the manu-facturing and operating sides. ELECTRAS FOR WESTERN A FLEET of nine Lockheed Electras, to be powered by Allison501 turboprops, was ordered last week by Western Airlines, one of the "Middle Six" U.S. domestic airlines. The aircraft willbe delivered between the end of 1959 and the spring of 1960, and will cost £7m with spares. This is Western's first association withLockheed; the airline's present fleet comprises eight DC-6Bs (plus 13 on order), nine Convair 240s, six DC-4s and eight DC-3s.The route network of 5,525 miles stretches from Edmonton, Canada, in the north to San Diego, California, in the south. The number of Electras for which firm orders have now beenplaced amounts to 128, distributed as follows: American, 35; Eastern, 40; Braniff, 9; National, 23 (increased from 20); K.L.M.,12; Western, 9. MORE FRIENDSHIPS FOR THE U.S. A FIRM order for six Fokker Friendships has been placed byFrontier Airlines, Inc., a small local service airline of Denver, Colorado. Frontier operate 13 DC-3s over a route network ofabout 3,500 miles (average stage length: 100 miles). They are the third United States operator to have ordered the aircraft,which, like those for West Coast Airlines and Mackey Airlines, will be built under licence to Fokker by Fairchild of Hagerstown.
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