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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0651.PDF
FLIGHT, 17 May 1957 655 AIR FREIGHTING The Cargo Business and its Equipment: Part I By ALAN H. STRATFORD, B.Sc. (Eng.), A.F.R.Ae.S., M.I.Ae.S.* One of the most successful post-war examples of the all-freight aircraft was the Bristol Freighter. A Mk 32 is seen here in the role tor which the aircraft has become best known—as a vehicle ferry. IN the years between the wars, when the cause of civil aviationwas not yet widely accepted, it was easier to plead the casefor the cargo and trading aeroplane than for the passenger- carrying machine. The air passenger was then thought to besomething of an eccentric, certainly well-to-do and never likely to be found in large numbers. Besides, there were so many otherpracticable and even profitable things that an aeroplane could be shown to do. There was crop-spraying, for instance, and oilpipeline inspection, supply dropping, and mail-carrying to in- accessible communities. And, of course, freight-carrying. Was this not a prime reasonfor the existence of the commercial aeroplane? There had already been a number of surprising exploits in which heavy loads hadbeen carried to outlandish places. There were exceptional and sometimes strange cargoes, and much had been written abouttheir ad hoc transportation by air. Some independent operating companies had even been formed to do this job, and "aerial work"was a nice phrase coined early on for these broader activities of air transport.Everyone knew that the world's railway systems earned a high proportion of their revenue from freight, and we presumed itwould one day be the same with air transport. But the post-war expansion of air transport has shown how wide of the mark wewere. The expansion has been largely in passenger traffic, and the demand for freight space has been poor by comparison.To the business man and shipper, it is purely a matter of economics. How do the costs compare? Often the time saved isno justification for the cost. Sometimes a real advantage can be shown, and a lucrative air-freight business may grow up. Thevariations in the cost and the balance of advantage are sometimes difficult to assess, and operators themselves may come to differentconclusions based apparently on the same set of facts. But the transport aeroplane has become a vital factor in thecomplex of industrial societies, and it cannot rely for long only on the movement of passengers. The long-awaited era of industrialtrade by air may be with us sooner than we think; but unless the right machines are available there is little hope that we shall beable to exploit it to the full. Have the airlines been too concerned with the more profitablepassenger business to turn their full attention to freight, or have they not had the right aircraft to operate effectively as freightersor on general trading duty? Are the current surface-freight rates so much lower than the air rates that the aeroplane has little hopeof offering competition, except in favourable circumstances with particular products and in individual markets? Finally, can themanufacturer of aircraft and powerplant, or the engineers and scientists who advise him, do anything to help the airlines in theirplans for more economic general transport operations? I.C.A.O. records that in 1955, for the first time in aviationhistory, the percentage increase of world air freight exceeded the * Civil aircraft adviser to the chief designer, Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitwonh Aircraft, Ltd. rate for passenger traffic. This increase of 19 per cent was, forthe first time since 1947, greater than that of the previous year. The recently published figures for 1956 show a similarly favour-able expansion. Has the comer been turned? These thoughts must occur to any aeronautical engineer who has wondered atthe slow headway made by air cargo. I myself am now convinced that the British aircraft designer, who must always be four or fiveyears ahead of the traffic demand, is offered a great chance today if he recognizes the opportunity and knows clearly the require-ments of the operating industry. The opportunity seems to depend on two main factors. One isthe possibility for imaginative use of the turbine powerplants which have reached such a high pitch of development in thiscountry since the war. Their high output, low weight and sim- plicity confer a great economic advantage over the piston engine.The second factor is the marked advance that has been made in the last ten years in the understanding of air transport operationalproblems, and in the maintenance and engineering techniques applied to transport aircraft. Most of this experience has so far been gained in passengertransportation, and the bulk of air freight has been carried in passenger aircraft. But the experience thus gained is now at thedisposal of the manufacturers of all-freight or trading aeroplanes. The Growth of World Air Transport. Published statistics tellus a good deal. In 1955 the world's operators carried 907 million short ton-miles of air freight. As stated, this was the first yearsince 1947 that the percentage increase in air freight was greater than that in the previous year. In 1955 there was an increase ofmore than 70 per cent above the total for 1950; but during the same five-year period, world passenger traffic increased by over120 per cent—and today it represents four times the transport load of air freight. In 1956 the movement of world air freightincreased to 1,030 million ton-miles, a 13 per cent increase over the previous year. A curve of the rate of growth of world air freight is illuminating.The phenomenal rate of growth from 1946 to 1947 was temporary, and from 1948 to 1953 a steady annual decrease in rate occurred.The rate of increase has picked up in the last two years and today's considerable growth and rate of growth is striking. Certain particular aspects of air freighting must be studied if thestatistics are to be understood correctly. Firstly, in comparison with passenger traffic, air freight always provides a far smallerproportion of airline revenue per load ton-mile. Further, the load-factors achieved with freight are generally lower than pas-senger load-factors. Figures from the airline records of Europe and America show that there are few airlines with overall freightand mail load-factors exceeding 50 per cent; and in the case of operators who have no purely freight aircraft, but who providefreight capacity entirely in the holds of passenger aircraft, the overall load-factors are considerably less.The Air Research Bureau, whose analyses of the European operations of its nine member-airlines and two associates are ofgreat importance, found that in 1953 the average freight/load- factor on freighter services was 54.5 per cent, while on passengeraircraft varied widely but averaged only 32 per cent. This pattern would probably be reflected in the United States, and it suggestsan excess of capacity in high-frequency passenger aircraft services which are not linked in any way to the requirements of the cargoshipper. Whether or not the current types of freight aircraft can supportthe air-freight transport business at its present rates will be con- sidered later; but it must be accepted that in Europe, where over80 per cent of freight is carried in passenger aircraft, such a low load factor is bearable only if the passenger aircraft is providing Although never designed as freighters, probably more DC-3s are flying in this capacity than on passenger work. They are not ideal —even with their doors enlarged as on this British independent operator's aircraft; but they can offer highly competitive rates, simply because, as they are old aircraft, depreciation is written off the books.
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