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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1058.PDF
FLIGHT, 17 April 1959 515 AIR COMMERCE ROUND-THE-WORLD CONTROVERSY LAST week the C.A.B. rejected Northwest's petition that a' permit should not be granted to B.O.A.C. to operate the Tokyo-San Francisco sectors of its round-the-world service onthe technical legal point that Tokyo was not designated in the U.S.-U.K. bilateral. The C.A.B. now has to consider Northwest's argument thatB.O.A.C.'s operation of the service would be "contrary to the American public interest." The service has, of course, been agreed in spirit (if not in theprecise letter) during the U.K.-U.S. Bermuda air agreement revisions of 1957; and neither the State Department nor theC.A.B. has in any way obstructed the inauguration of the service. Nor has Pan American, who have more to lose from the B.O.A.C.service than Northwest. The only question that might be reason- ably asked is why American procedures, having sanctioned an airservice, should allow its operation to be delayed virtually as passengers are being embarked. Northwest's behaviour has allegedly been due to the fact thatthey are piqued that they cannot operate into Hong Kong. The M.T.C.A., in an unusually expansive statement last week, said asmuch; but Northwest (in the person of Mr. Joseph Sykes) said: "At no time was the Hong Kong matter broached by Northwestas any sort of bargaining gesture." He added that even if Britain granted the Northwest application for landing rights in theColony, "I doubt if Northwest will withdraw the objection." Separate from the above issues, but confusingly akin, werereports last week that the C.A.B. had refused B.O.A.C. permis- sion to carry traffic between U.S. cities. In fact, after lengthy con-sideration, the C.A.B. had turned down a Qantas request lodged last year to carry traffic between its designated terminals inAmerica (i.e., San Francisco and New York). The background to this request, which has been strongly sup-ported by B.O.A.C., was explained in Flight for January 23, 1959. It was a request which was sailing as close to the wind of cabotage—to the intense disapproval of the U.S. domestic carriers—as might be devised by the cleverest air lawyer. Its rejection doesnot mean that Qantas and B.O.A.C. will lose business, only that they cannot tap a fresh market. BRIGHTER ROCK /"J.IBRALTAR now has a gay new airport building, symbolising^-* the efforts of the old fortress town to turn itself into a cross between Bournemouth and Biarritz. This addition to its amenitieswas opened on Wednesday last week by Lady Keightley, wife of the Governor, in Gen. Sir Charles Keightley's absence throughillness. It replaces the gloomy P. and F. building formerly used by passengers from civil and military aircraft and has theadvantage of being sited on the airfield. Construction of the building, a pleasing two-storey structurehinting at aeronautical design, has been carried out by Constructors Ltd. at the expense of and under the aegis of theGibraltar Government. Naturally B.E.A. have an active interest in such local improvements and their chairman, Lord Douglas ofKirtleside, was present at the inauguration. He had previously visited Tangier, to which the Corporation are now (from April 2)operating Viscounts, on the services of Gibraltar Airways. In general the Gibraltar Government seems to have spent£40,000 to good purpose. Statistically, the new terminal seems a worthwhile investment. Of Gibraltar's 287,760 visitors and sight-seers last year, 69,265 came and went by air (compared with 63,852 in 1957). There were 1,599 commercial flights to and fromthe airfield—by B.E.A., Royal Air Maroc, Hunting-Clan and Transair. With prospects of future benefits from 360 more hotel This is how S.A.S. will suppress the noise of Carayelles being run up at Stockholm Airport. The four stacks are all intakes; the primary (front) pair are mounted on movable doors (shown here open) and lead directly into the pods. The secondary intakes are fixed, and feed the plenum-type hut. The silencers at the rear are conventional rooms and a casino under construction (last year, tourism broughtin £2,034,500 to the exchequer) there is every reason for Gibraltar to write "welcome" on the mat. NEW TWIN PIONEER VARIANTS "D ECENTLY announced are the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneerxv Series 2 and Series 3. The former is the version fitted with Pratt & Whitney R-1340 engines, the prototype of which has nowaccumulated some 100 hours of test and development flying. Certification is expected shortly, and the first five Series 2s will bedelivered to Philippine Air Lines. The Series 3 is fitted with the new and more powerful AlvisLeonides 531 long-stroke engines. By comparison with the Series I (Leonides 514 engines) it offers an increased all-up weight (by600 lb to 14,600 lb); an increased payload of 400 lb or an increased range of 130 miles; shorter take-off and landing; 8 m.p.h. fastercruising; two-engine climb improved by 200ft/min; single-engine en route rate of climb increased by lOOft/min; the possibility ofmaximum take-off weight at airfield altitudes 2,000ft higher; and a 10 per cent reduction in direct operating costs per passenger mileor per ton mile. The prototype Twin Pioneer 3 (which is Scottish Aviation's original prototype G-ANTP) is undergoing an accele-rated performance and certification programme and has now com- pleted over 1,200 flying hours since construction—all on test anddemonstration work. Series 3 aircraft will be available in six months. Of structural-fatigue testing the makers state: — "The fatigue testing rig continues inflicting torture on our specimenaircraft, simulating the stresses and strains of operational service experienced during repeated one-hour flights. It is interesting to notethat the cruising altitude simulated for this test programme is 3,000ft, where flight turbulence is assumed to be far more severe than at higheraltitudes. The aircraft wings, fuselage and tailplane have now completed 38,000 flying hours which is equivalent to 7,600 hours' safe fatigue life.The landing gear fatigue tests have reached 50,000 flying hours or 10,000 hours' safe fatigue life. The tests are continuing to an initial target of20,000 hours' safe fatigue life and in the meantime the results shown above are very encouraging." To date 53 Prestwick Pioneers and 68 Twin Pioneers are inservice or have been definitely ordered. B.O.A.C. STAFF REDUCTIONS TT seems that the new secretary of the union side of the National•*- Joint Council for Civil Aviation, Mr. Percy Hanley (he succeeds Mr. Jim Matthews) will experience a testing time early in hisappointment. Last week the chief engineer of B.O.A.C., Mr. Charles Abel, outlined London Airport staff-reorganization pro-posals to the union side of the airline's ad hoc management- employee committee on engineering staff redundancy. Theyinvolve the dismissal of nearly 1,100 men from the total of 5,858. These proposals—which included details of compensation pay-ments—were made at local level, but they are not likely to be accepted by the unions without stormy argument within the jointcouncil; B.O.A.C. shop stewards are reported to have already promised uncompromising opposition. A year ago B.O.A.C. visualized the ultimate dismissal of 3,000men. Attrition and the suspension of recruiting have reduced that number, but there is now little alternative to laying off a sixth ofthe engineering staff if a competitive level of maintenance efficiency is to be reached. The Corporation have given an undertaking thatalternative employment will be offered wherever possible. . A SHORT STUDY OF AIR FREIGHT IF freight rates were halved, traffic might be expected to riseby some 500 per cent. This startling estimate is contained in a survey of the potential world air freight market recently con-ducted by Mr. Frank Robertson of Short and Harland. Mr. Robertson set out to determine whether freight traffic was limitedby the freight space available in aircraft or by the amount of business being offered. He concluded that the present pattern ofcarrying freight on a part-load basis will continue unless rates are substantially reduced, when specialized aircraft would be requiredto carry the volume of traffic. Freight traffic is currently increasing at about 14 per cent annually, but less than 10 per cent of potentialBritish air freight consignors use the air regularly. Air freight is likely, Mr. Robertson's report predicts, to beconfined mainly to stage distances below 1,000 miles. Long- range freighting is only likely to be accepted when some radicalchange in aircraft design—such as nuclear power—permits a substantial reduction in costs. By extrapolation, the number of Short Britannics needed touplift all the freight likely to be carried by British operators in 1965 is 46; in the same year 1,110 Britannics would be neededto deal with the total world freight.
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