FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1370.PDF
460 FLIGHT, 13 September 1957 The Vanguard cockpit for T.C.A., as seen by visitors to Vickers' stand at Farnborough. It is described below. The first Vanguard is expected to fly in September 7958, possibly in time for next year's S.B.A.C. Display. CIVIL AVIATION STRONG WORDS AT MADRID THE theme of the I.A.T.A. annual report delivered by SirWilliam Hildred at Madrid last Monday concerned the airlines' financial situation. The report opened the I.A.T.A. annual generalmeeting, and reflected the thoughts uppermost in the minds of the 79 airlines present.By coincidence, or perhaps by intent, a sub-committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has just issued a report on its en-quiry into the U.S. air transport industry. The committee called on the Civil Aeronautics Board to re-examine its approval of inter-national fares recommended by I.A.T.A., which it referred to as "an international cartel." I.A.T.A.'s mechanism, it said, had resulted in"substitution of monopolistic price-fixing for free competition." Although Sir William did not mention the C.A.B. directly in hisannual report, the following remarks can have referred to none other than that institution: ". . . The relentless forces of inflationhave again got under way," he said, "and regretfully, but in accordance with sound business principles, we have tried to passon this increase to the users of air transport. Yet we have not been allowed to do so and have had a lot of things thrown at usto show why we do not deserve it." The system of government regulation which, said Sir William,restricted the airlines to inadequate returns on investment, "added insult to injury by superimposing its own accounting system on thefinancial returns of every airline." The process involved "going through airline accounts with a toothcomb," disallowing certainitems and adjusting others, all of them in such a way "as to inflate the operating profit and to shrink the capital base." I.A.T.A.'s need for a fare increase, said Sir William, did notmean that they had "set aside the policy developing new low fares to attract the currently untapped strata of the travel market," butit did mean that they were trying to lift the whole rate structure just a fraction higher to avoid falling back on government aid. Sir William's argument was that the airlines should be allowedto accumulate reserves which would even out the fluctuations in profits; and these reserves could in the first place only be obtainedthrough an adequate operating profit margin. ' .. A. . "Flight" photograph THE VANGUARD'S COCKPIT /CONNOISSEURS of modern transport-cockpit design should^ —if the mock-up on the Vickers stand at the recent S.B.A.C. Display (see photograph above) was a guide—be delighted withthe yanguard. Pilots have seldom been known to agree on their requirements, but it is doubtful whether many will find cause forcriticism in the basic layout of the Vanguard cockpit as designed for the aircraft's first export customer, T.C.A.It is laid out for two-crew operation, and all essential instru- ments, controls and switches are within easy reach and /or view ofboth pilots. The central pedestal incorporates the throttles (which are duplicated—an unusual feature), the customary control-leversfor the main services, and the radio controls. A compact square panel above the windscreen carries most of the aircraft-systemscontrols, and the main panel contains the flight and engine instru- ments (including the Collins Flight System) and most of theemergencies. The pilots enter their seats by "walking round from the outside" (as in the Stratocruiser—the most spacious cockpitof all), and no turning-round or neck-craning is necessary in the execution of cockpit duties. Most noticeable is the exceptionallyfine visibility, upwards and downwards as well as outwards. There is a jump-seat between the pilots and a fourth "occasional" positionbehind the captain for supernumerary crew. * QANTAS LOOKS BOTH WAYS A T a gathering in London on August 29, Sir Hudson Fysh and**• Mr. C. O. Turner, respectively chairman and chief executive of Qantas, talked about their airline's future. The new Qantasservice to London—an extension across the U.S.A. of the Pacific route—was the chief topic of conversation, and it was clear thatthis new service will be more to Qantas than a politically sounder link with the United Kingdom. Qantas have long been watchingPanAm uplifting European traffic out of and into Australia—and it has been traffic which they have regarded as rightfully theirs toshare. Mr. Turner did not have an easy task negotiating the necessaryrights in Washington ("I was there for 33 days, and I should "Flight" photograph know"), but it is to be hoped he has an easier time in London,where he is discussing precise details of the Qantas services which will now arrive in London from the other direction. He did notunderstate the amount of detail to be settled, but said he believed that the basic principles were agreed. (Sir Hudson Fysh remarkedthat when he went to look for a B.O.A.C.-Qantas agreement in his office recently it was not to be found—"proof enough" of the closepartnership existing between the two British Commonwealth operators.) Mr. Turner was asked about possible Qantas orders for medium-range aircraft: like most airline operators, he was non-committal, but he did not discount the suggestion that Qantas' initial Boeing707-138s might become the airline's medium-range transport, with 707 Intercontinentals as the long-term long-hauler.As this issue of Flight closed for press, it was announced that Qantas made a net profit in 1956-57 of £A484,000, compared with£A401,000 in 1955/56. Revenues went up to £A19,834,000 from last year's £A15,975,000. Big business for Napier was foreshadowed by this model on the firm's stand at Farnborough of a Panair do Brasil Constellation 749 fitted with Eland turboprops in place of its Wright piston engines.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
