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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0255.PDF
FLIGHT, 22 February 1957 257 CIVIL AVIATION Although no major structural change has been made to the Comet 3 during its refit to 4 and 4A standard, a fuselage pressure-test—seen here in progress—was one of the routine checks made before its first flight. This was due to take place as we went to press. Other changes include the installation of Rolls- Royce RA.29 engines, the fitting of detachable wing-tip panels, and the installation of a revised cabin-air system and elevator "q"-feel. OLD SORES TWO events in the British air transport scene last week gave uspause for sad reflection. One was the frustration of a leading independent airline—Hunting-Clan—about the terms of referencewhich continue to restrict its use of new equipment on Colonial coach services. The other was the suspension by B.E.A. ofscheduled passenger helicopter services in the United Kingdom until the "advent of an economic helicopter." There was a certain irony about the fact that at London Airportlast week the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation said— almost within sight of two new Viscounts lying idle at the Hunting-Clan maintenance base—"Let me make it plain that I consider that the independent airlines, as well as the Corporations, havean important part to play in aviation's future." How to give to the independents a bigger share was not, said Mr. Watkinson, easy;but he was "encouraged by the very great enterprise which has been shown by independent operators in developing the limitedopportunities which they have so far been given." It is, of course, inevitable that the day will come when theVikings with which Hunting-Clan and Airwork have operated their Colonial coach services since 1952 will have to be replaced bynewer equipment. But any move to do so is vitiated by the Government terms of reference under which those services areoperated. Hunting-Clan knew those terms when they ordered Viscounts two years ago, and they had to adhere to them (theViscounts were leased to Middle East Airlines). Then, last December, they took delivery of two more new Viscounts—andthe issue came to a head again. "It is extraordinary," Mr. M. Curtis (Hunting-Clan managing director, is quoted as having saidlast week, "to suggest that you must never replace your aircraft with more up-to-date ones." It will be remembered that Airwork as well as Hunting-Clanhad to dispose of their new Viscounts (to Cubana)—though the air- craft were bought in full knowledge of the conditions upon whichthe companies started Colonial coach services five years ago. We turned up the exact terms of those conditions, as laid down bythe Government to the Air Transport Advisory Council on July 30, 1952. The crucial phrases appear to be those we have put initalics: "... a Colonial coach-class service will have to be: (a) a lower class of service than that of normal scheduled services,e.g., as regards type of aircraft, shorter stage lengths, passenger amenities, baggage allowance, etc.; and (b) operated to a statedfrequency closely related to the requirements of the new class of traffic in the territories in which rights may be exercised and at afare not exceeding a fixed sum (without rebates) low enough to ensure dependence on the new class of traffic." And a furthercondition: ". . . provided the proposed service is of such a nature as to generate a new class of passenger traffic without materialdiversion of traffic from the 'normal scheduled services' of any other previously approved U.K. operator, and does not involvethe right to pick up and set down passenger traffic in territories where relations with the U.K. are governed by bilateral Air Trans- port Agreements and/or where fares are subject to InternationalAir Transport Association arrangements." It is the opinion of Hunting-Clan that the Viscount would nothave exceeded these limits. It is, apparently, the opinion of the Government that it would. There is another school of thoughtthat the phrase "type of aircraft" might be deleted in recognition of the fast-moving pace of air transport, and of the fact that theViking is old and relatively inefficient. The other conditions appear to be sufficient to ensure that there is "no material diversion"from B.O.A.C.'s traffic, especially as the Corporation is now so competitively equipped with Britannias. One hopes that the twoBritannias ordered by Hunting-Clan—due for delivery early next year—do not await the same fate as the company's Viscounts,although their future seems less uncertain when considered in the light of a news item on page 260. * * * We recorded last week the news of B.E.A.'s decision to shelvetheir helicopter plans. (We should have made it clearer, inciden- tally, that by "helicopter plans" we meant scheduled passengerservices. The Corporation's helicopter unit will continue in being on a charter and experimental basis.) The reason given by B.E.A.was that such services must await the advent of an economic helicopter. A weighing of all the factors—particularly of B.E.A.'s persistentefforts, with and without Ministerial support, to get helicopter passenger services going—leads to the conclusion that this isan unhappy decision. This is a feeling shared by many people within the Corporation as well as by the helicopter manufacturingindustry, and which can be expressed by the argument that if in 1920 the airlines had decided to wait for the DC-3 there wouldhave been no DC-3—and, even if there had been, no one would have known how to operate it. Agreed, B.E.A. have amassed a good deal of experience withhelicopter scheduled services, from their South Bank-London Air- port schedules of two years ago, and during earlier services fromL.A.P. to Southampton. But were these services—like the deter- mined intensive operations of Sabena and New York Airways—ona scale by which the expertise essential to ultimate success and profitable public service is assured? And were they sufficient togenerate helicopter-consciousness in the public mind? Analogies with the Belgian and New York helicopter efforts arenot inappropriate: there is in Britain a similar high density of population, and close proximity of commercial centres—the truebreeding-ground of a demand for the benefits and facilities of helicopter travel. Above all, there is a vigorous helicopter and gas-turbine industry,which is well aware of the helicopter's present economic infancy, yet whose products are attracting the interest of operators in theland of its strongest rival industry. It would be good to feel that it was building upon continuing domestic operational experience.J.M.R.
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