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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1232.PDF
NO. 2633 VOLUME 78 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH ore FRI DAY 1 MA 1959 AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal A*ro Club First Atronautieal Weekly in the World Founded 1S09 Editor H. F. KING M.B.E. Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY IN THIS ISSUE U.S. Missile Tour 596 Army Air Support 6OO Flying from West land's Heliport 601 Blackburn Aircraft 6O2 Piaggio p.166 in Britain 614 Too Many Weapons? 615 Ilifte & Sons Ltd., Dorset House, Stam-ford Street, London, S.E.I; telephone Waterloo 33S3. Telegrams FligntpresSedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s, Overseas £5. Canadaand U.S.A. $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, N.Y. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deansgate, 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 26B Renfleld Street, C.2;telephone Central 1265. New York, N.Y.: Thomas Skinner & Co.(Publishers) Ltd., Ill Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe & Sons Ltd., 1959. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress can be granted only under written agree-ment. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Sore PointsT HE contretemps between Britain and America over B.O.A.C.'s rights at Tokyo passes into its fifth week of newspaper headlines. One month has now gone by since B.O.A.C. prematurely inaugurated their round-the-world service. The trouble goes back, of course, more than five weeks: in point of fact the Corporation's rights to include Tokyo on the proposed San Francisco - Hong Kong service can be traced back to page 15 of the 1946 U.S. - U.K. Bermuda Air Agreement, and in particular to Section IV(b) of the Annex, which says: "Other route changes desired by either Contracting Party may be made and put into effect at any time, prompt notice to that effect being given by the aeronautical authorities of the Contracting Party concerned to the aeronautical authorities of the other Contracting Party." Over the years this plastic legalese has been fairly liberally interpreted—more so, perhaps, by the Americans than by the British. It has been moulded to mean that if either party wants to add an intermediate traffic point in another country on any of the routes scheduled in the agreement it can do so simply by giving notice to the other party. This has come to be known as the "IV(b) procedure," and by it Pan American World Airways added Tokyo to their U.S. - Far East route in 1947. Much later, during talks in 1956 and 1957, it was agreed that the meaning of IV(b) had been stretched far enough, and that in future only inter- mediate points of limited significance could be added to designated routes. It was arranged, however, that Tokyo could be included by B.O.A.C. on the appropriate United Kingdom route (Route 7) of the air agreement. Challenge from Northwest This arrangement has been upheld by the State Department and by the Civil Aeronautics Board. It has since been merely a matter of awarding the necessary "foreign air carrier permit" to B.O.A.C. But, as everyone knows, Northwest Airlines challenged B.O.A.C.'s right to include Tokyo—on two grounds: (1) unlawful interpretation of the air agreement (an argument rejected by the C.A.B.); and (2) that it was against the American public interest. It is on the latter count that the C.A.B. Examiner, quite unexpectedly—and no doubt to the discomfiture of the C.A.B. and the State Department—has upheld Northwest's case. Where do we go from here? We must be very careful about accusing the American Government authorities of violating agreements, because they have not in fact done so. And we must not be tempted to plot reprisals (such as terminating Pan American's Tokyo - Hong Kong rights) because restrictions lead only to counter-restrictions. Since in the end these issues are decided by politicians (to the despair of the air transport liberalists), and because the U.S. State Department recognizes the rights for which B.O.A.C. has applied, it seems likely that B.O.A.C. will, eventually, get its Tokyo traffic rights. In the meantime, before other sore traffic points cause further strain on Anglo- American air relations (for example, T.W.A. continue to press for the right to close the Frankfurt - Zurich gap in their network beyond London), an exchange of notes about the redrafting of Section IV(b) seems to be indicated.
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