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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1759.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 November 1957 849 CIVIL AVIATION AN INDEPENDENT BUYS TWIN PIONEERS 'T'HE first order for Twin Pioneers from a British independent-»- operator is announced. The Airwork associate company, Fison- Airwork, who are best known for their industrial helicopter opera-tions, have placed an order with Scottish Aviation for the delivery of two aircraft in early 1958. Fison-Airwork will use their Twin Pioneers for oil-explorationactivities in Nigeria, work which the company have been doing for four years on behalf of the Shell-B.P. Petroleum DevelopmentCompany. So far Westland S-55 Whirlwind helicopters have been used to ferry engineers, drilling-rig crews and their equipmentfrom head base across the Niger Delta (an area of swamp and jungle where landing sites are limited) to the drilling sites.It is significant that a helicopter operator should have chosen the Twin Pioneer, whose STOL performance makes it "the idealchoice" (to quote Fison-Airwork) for their particular job. A total of 23 Twin Pioneers have now been sold to 11 com-mercial operators, as follows: Austrian Government, 1; Borneo Airways, 2; British International Airlines (Kuwait), 2; De Kroon-duif, 3; Fison-Airwork, 2; Philippine Air Lines, 5 (4 with Pratt and Whitney engines); Royal Iran Flying Club, 3; Rio TintoMining Company (Rhodesia), 1; T.A.E. (Spain), 3; Zinc Corpora- tion of Australia, 1. In addition Scottish Aviation have amilitary version in quantity production for the R.A.F. £lm. B.E.A. PROFIT COMING UP J HAVING made a net profit during the six summer months of£3|m, the B.E.A. are now hoping to wind up their 1957-1958 accounts with a net profit of £lm. This will be the first time thatthe Corporation will have cleared a round million since they made their first profit in 1954-55 of £63,000. The six-month winter business "shortfall" is thus expected tobe about £2^m. Most important achievement during the summer was a 66.7 per cent load factor, which was 1.4 per cent higher thanin the previous summer. It is significant, too, that the extra staff taken on to cope with the summer peak traffic increased by onlyfour per cent. The staff increase during the previous summer was 12 per cent. AMERICAN RIGHTS INTO HONG KONG AN American senator, Mr. Hubert A. Humphrey, has written a**• letter to President Eisenhower saying that Northwest Airlines are losing $lm annually because the British will not permit North-west Airlines to serve Hong Kong (see Flight, July 12). He was putting forward arguments that PanAm should not be given per-mission to parallel Northwest's transpacific route. The senator said, "I am disturbed that, despite more than eight years' ofnegotiating, our government has been unable to secure agreement from the British on a relatively minor problem in international airtransport. As a result.. . PanAm is now the only U.S. flag carrier serving Hong Kong. It seems incredible that the two governmentsare unable to reach an agreement which will maintain U.S. flag The American airlines are certainly being original in the design of terminals tor construction at New York Idlewild's new "terminal city." Here, following PanAm's and United's plans, is T.W.A.'s $12m proposal, vhich vies even with PanAm's (Flight," April 26) for unorthodoxy. Both have in common a vast sheltering canopy. Here is a recent picture of Caravelle fuselage assembly at Toulouse Saint-Martin. Production is now spread over eight factories in France and one in Italy (Fiat). M. Georges Hereil, president of Sud Aviation, says that four Caravelles a month will be built as from May 7960; and that "if negotiations now on foot" materialize, existing facilities could attain a production rate of seven Caravelles a month. "Negotiations" now extend to South African Airways, who have included the Caravelle in their jet studies (see "Flight," November 15). A Caravelle is to visit South Africa early in the New Year for tropical tests. service between the two areas under their respective jurisdiction... I urge most strongly that the Administration spare no effort in attempting to persuade the United Kingdom government tohonour its commitments to authorize direct service to Hong Kong by Northwest Airlines." C.A.B. DIGS IN ITS HEELS A GAINST mounting pressure on every hand, America's Civil**• Aeronautics Board remains steadfast in its stand against increases in airline fares. Dominating the thoughts of interna-tional operators at the resumed I.A.T.A. Traffic Conference in Paris, and in the face of increasingly shrill demands for higherfares from U.S. domestic operators at the opening of the General Passenger Fare Investigation, C.A.B. is sticking determinedly toits policy "that the general level of fares should be based upon the cost of the services provided, including a fair return on invest-ment," and not on such airline-sponsored yardsticks as "profit margin" and "operating ratio." The U.S. Air Transport Association says that the cost to theairlines of the 340 jets and turboprops now on order is over £714,000,000, or more than 25 times the combined earnings of allthe domestic airlines. A clear indication of the trend of airline affairs may be inferred from a recent statement that the commonstock of the 12 major trunk airlines has fallen to 64 per cent of its book value, whereas only a year ago the selling price was 122per cent. Hardest hit of all are Capital, who have asked the C.A.B. forFederal mail subsidies of £4,360,000 over the next two years. "We have repeatedly said that an emergency situation existed," the air-line declared in their brief to C.A.B.; and they reminded the Board of the temporary six per cent increase it had already rejected.Capital conclude that they will require a subsidy of 30.73 cents per revenue aircraft-mile to balance losses of about £1,785,000over the past three years, in spite of an increase in gross revenue from £17,850,000 to £33,930,000 during that time. This appeal for mail subsidies by a U.S. domestic operator maybe more likely to affect C.A.B.'s stand than the current demands for increases in fares, since the airlines and the Board are proudof the way that the major carriers have become independent of state aid. American Airlines, who are campaigning for a fareincrease of 20 per cent, quickly announced that they would con- test a subsidy to Capital on routes between the principal trafficcentres of the Eastern U.S.A., where there was "neither need nor justification." Similarly, the Independent Airlines Associationoffered to take over Capital's routes without a subsidy. The C.A.B. propose rates of return on investment of 8.9 percent for the four major carriers and 9.5 per cent for the regional trunk lines—slender enough margins in view of the airlines' equip-ment commitments, but symptomatic of the C.A.B.'s declared policy of keeping the level of prices down not only for the ultimatebenefit of the public but of the airlines as well.
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