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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0929.PDF
FLIGHT, 5 July 1957 29 Aviation Traders' Accountant (seen here less its propellers and anti-spin parachute fairing) is shortly expected to make its first flight. Engine-runs and taxying tests have been successfully completed. CIVIL AVIATION CARAVELLES FOR S.A.S. A MOMENTOUS event for theFrench Sud Aviation concern, and for Europe's airline industry, waskst week's order by S.A.S. for six Caravelles. This is the first export orderfor the aircraft, 12 of which have been bought by the national airline AirFrance. The S.A.S. Caravelles will be delivered between April and October 1959, and will go into service in the summer of that year. S.A.S.have a further 19 Caravelles on option, for delivery between 1959 and 1963.The choice of the Caravelle by an airline of the standing of S.A.S. is portentous. It means not only that the airline hasrejected the turboprop as the answer to its short-haul and medium- haul needs; but also that S.A.S. have decided not to wait until1963 for the specialized, "new plateau," 600-m.p.h. short-haul jet. S.A.S. may—and almost certainly will—order such an aircraft indue course. The order may presage a swing towards the jet in the medium-haul deliberations of S.A.S.'s European competitors. B.E.A., for example, operate services to Scandinavia (Copenhagen, Stockholm,Oslo and Bergen) in pool with S.A.S.; but pool agreements are subject to abrogation, and a partner operating an aircraft as highlycompetitive as the Caravelle may be tempted to try for a larger slice of traffic. This is why B.E.A. have been examining notonly their requirements for the 1963, 600-m.p.h. jet, for which Bristol, Avro and de Havilland all have projects: they are con-sidering also, as reported on page 2, a fleet of de Havilland Comet 4Bs to serve them in the interim. ANTIPODEAN TRAFFIC RIGHTS QANTAS were last week granted—in spite of the A.T.A. ofAmerica's vociferous protests about what they called the U.S. State Department's "give-away" policy—the trans-U.S.A. exten-sion from San Francisco to New York that they so badly wanted. By entering the competitive fray over die North Atlantic they cannow establish a unique round-the-world service that embraces five continents. The airline's chairman, Sir Hudson Fysh, describedthe new concession as "the most significant event in Australia's overseas transport for more than 20 years"—since the England toAustralia air route was opened. He added that Qantas' Boeing 707-138s would be used on both routes—eastward and westward.Australia appears to have bargained almost to the limit to obtain this route, and has granted the U.S.A. rights to Australia viaAntarctica, across Australia to Darwin and Singapore—and across Australia to Johannesburg. A contentious U.S. request—whichcaused a storm across the Tasman Sea—was to route PanAm's Three Scottish Avia- tion Twin Pioneers of de Kroonduif in formation over the Ayrshire coast before being delivered to New Guinea. They left Prestwick on June 26 flown by the manufacturers' pilots but with K.L.M. co- pilots and engineers included in the crews. Australian service via New Zealand, with traffic rights betweenthe two Commonwealth countries. Mr. Thomas Shand, New Zealand's Minister of Civil Aviation, said that T.E.A.L.[in which Australia and New Zealand are equal partners] would be seriously affected by any arrangement amending its traffic rights." NEW INDEPENDENT OPPORTUNITIES referred recently to "promising new recommendations" laidbefore the Minister by the Air Transport Advisory Council —promising, that is, from the viewpoint of Britain's private air-lines. These recommendations, made public on June 26, have been accepted by Mr. Harold Watkinson. The immediate implications are that Airwork and Hunting-Clan(the companies most affected) can at last operate modern aircraft —including Viscounts—on their colonial-coach services to Nairobiand Salisbury. Furthermore, because Ghana is no longer a colony and colonial-coach services are not applicable there, tourist-fareservices at I.A.T.A. rates can be flown to Accra via the West African route (Bathurst and Freetown) with "no restriction" onthe type of aircraft. This no doubt includes the Britannia, two of which are on order for Hunting-Clan for May 1958 delivery. Neither Airwork nor Hunting-Clan can yet say when Viscountsor Hermes will be introduced, but it is significant that the three Viscounts leased to Middle East Airlines by Hunting-Clan aredue to be returned in about twelve weeks' time. Airwork of course sold their Viscounts to Cuba, and as yet have no others on order. The longer-term implications of the new recommendations arethat both Airwork and Hunting-Clan will be given a combined 30 per cent share of the new I.A.T.A. third-class-fare traffic (aliasT.34 traffic) when it spreads to Africa from the Atlantic, where it is to be introduced nine months hence. The other 70 per centwill be taken by B.O.A.C., who will also have the exclusive British share of the "higher-class" traffic. No one knows how quickly third-class fares will spread toAfrica, or whether they will attract existing tourist-type pas- sengers. Thus the value to Airwork and Hunting-Clan of a 30 percent share of third-class traffic (which will of course replace their colonial-coach services) must remain in doubt. But it is a stepin the right direction: "thrift-fare" traffic is a class of business towards which world air transport is steadily moving and, accord-ing to the A.T.A.C. recommendations, there will be "no restric- tions" on the kind of equipment Airwork and Hunting-Clan canuse to carry it. This suggests that the two companies are now in the market for whatever transport will be suited to the routes.It appears not beyond the bounds of possibility that British independent airlines may soon be in a position to place orders forsuch aircraft as the DC-8, 707 and VC-10—a possibility which only a few months ago seemed remote. At long last Britain'stwo leading independent airlines (both, incidentally, members of I.A.T.A.) can really get down to some long-term planning. There is good news, too, from the trooping-contract front.Transair, whose two Viscount 804s are due for delivery in August, have won a contract from the Government to operate their Vis-counts on trooping flights to the Mediterranean from October 1. The contract was, presumably, tendered for in competition withoperators of twin-piston-engined aircraft. Transair's success is a vindication of their long-standing "calculated-risk" order for Vis-counts, and a fulfilment of the Air Minister's promise in Parlia- ment on May 9 that, where possible, future trooping contractswould be placed with the independents and that trooping would be done with modern aircraft. Transair (an Airwork associate)have a number of applications before the A.T.A.C. for die use of Viscounts on scheduled and inclusive-tour services also.
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