FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1332.PDF
8 May 1959 653 B.E.A. ROUND THE WORLD BY A. H. M1LWARD Chief Executive, B.E.A. ; PART 1 I THOUGHT it might be of general interest if I tried to putdown on paper a brief account of my tour of Canada andAustralia, though I would like to emphasize that spending26 days on a 30,000 mile trip leaves one only with a very general view of the world's airlines. Anyone who is looking for a detailedtechnical assessment of operations in other parts of the world will, I fear, be disappointed. From B.E.A.'s point of view it is significant that 29,800 ofthese miles were flown literally without incident and almost entirely on time. The last 200 miles were completed in a B.E.A.Viscount which operated into Gatwick under marginal conditions. The journey from Gatwick to my home, by car, took three and ahalf hours. This leaves me with the impression that we in B.E.A. are doing the most difficult airline feat in the world, operating anintensive series of services with a tight integration of aircraft and crews in a part of the world which is notorious for its bad weather.Later on I shall be referring to my flying in Canada at sub-zero ground temperature, but nothing I found there equalled thedifficulty under which our crews operate. London/Prestwick/Montreal by B.O.A.C. DC-7C. An un-eventful flight. It was noticeable that a fair proportion of the load was taken on at Prestwick. As usual the B.O.A.C. cabin servicewas excellent. I found that my four days in Montreal were heavily occupiedin what might be called "sales promotion." Gerry Wynne, public relations officer of B.O.A.C., had arranged a lot of Press interviewsand a lunch in order to launch our new sales manager for Canada, Alan Mills. There is an enormous public interest throughout Canada, andfor that matter throughout the world, in the affairs of B.E.A. Our market in this great continent is, in my view, scarcely tappedas yet, though we have set ourselves a target of some seven million dollars of revenue in the coming financial year. I flew some thousands of miles by T.C.A. Viscount. Canadawas in the grip of a particularly cold spell, with temperatures down to minus 20 °F (52° frost) and there had also been recentfalls of snow. At no time on my flights was I delayed in any way by weather conditions, and although one cannot judge by oneweek, I formed the conclusion that weather—intensely cold though it is in Canada—does not present the difficulties weexperience in B.E.A. On Sights to Toronto and back, and across the continent to Calgary, T.C.A.'s Viscount timekeeping wasliterally perfect on every take-off and landing. Both operating staff and crews expressed the greatest confidence in this aircraftand in cold weather they considered them unequalled, engine starting for instance being practically unaffected by the tem-perature. T.C.A. Viscounts are being fitted with weather radar, asindeed are those in T.A.A., and it is significant that every Captain to whom I spoke on the whole of my world nights swears byweather radar as a means of avoiding damage to aircraft and discomfort to passengers and crew. B.O.A.C., in addition, setgreat store by this equipment for navigation purposes, and it is certainly fascinating to see one of the Pacific islands painted onthe weather radar so that the shape corresponds precisely with the map in one's hand. Our old controversy on the use of chocks was, of course, inmy mind. It is significant that T.C.A. have never employed chocks with their Viscounts; in fact, they appear almost to haveforgotten their existence. Chocks are not even used in winter on snow or ice coveredaprons, and brake failures do not seem to occur. In Australia, by contrast, nose-wheel chocks are still used by T.A.A. for no otherreason than that they had once damaged an aircraft when it rolled down a slope! I was very interested in T.CA.'s method of cabin heatingwhich, on their stopping services across Canada, is very necessary, passengers being allowed to remain on board during transit stops.Immediately the aircraft arrives at a station a power supply is attached and the captain starts up a paraffin heater which is partof the permanent equipment of the aircraft, the cabin blower distributing the heat. Vancouver/ Sydney by C.P.A.L. DC-6B. This flight was theonly one appreciably off-schedule on my complete tour. The aircraft left 3i hours late through waiting for connecting passengers THE title of this article is not meant to suggest that B.E.A. are followingB.O.A.C.'s vapour trails in a round-the-world service: it is merely an informal account by the Corporation's chief executive of a 30,000-miletrip earlier this year during which the author visited B.E.A.'s potential ticket-selling markets overseas. It was written primarily for B.E.A.'sstaff, and appears (virtually as produced here) in the "B.E.A. Magazine." and awkward freight loading (just like B.E.A.!). Time was loston the way through head-winds but the flight was extremely well conducted, the first class service and food leaving nothing to bedesired. One has to fly over the Pacific to realize the size of this ocean.In a DC-6B it is a solid 32 hours flying from Vancouver to Sydney and one certainly notices it. It takes 12 hours from Vancouver toHonolulu, 12J hours from there to Fiji (I believe that this 3,200 miles is the longest ocean flight in the world), and a further eighthours from Fiji to Sydney. It is interesting to observe how these flights are operated andthe contrast with B.E.A.'s system is sharp. The captain told me that there can be no real alternatives on the route because of thedistances involved and the absence of landing places in the Pacific. Reliance on good weather is absolute and enough fuel is held for amodest stand-off in the event of temporary rain storms over the Hawaiian Islands. In contrast to our air traffic control problem,it was interesting to hear the captain say, shortly after leaving Honolulu, that he did not think there was another aircraft in thesky between that point and Fiji, a distance of some 3,000 miles. We arrived at Mascot Airport, Sydney, three-quarters of anhour early after an extremely well conducted flight, to find the depressing dump which is their main airport. Australia. The next eleven days were spent in Australia, acountry which I had wished to visit for many years but which I instinctively expected to dislike. I find, talking to friends in thiscountry, that many of them have the same ideas of Australia and I can only think that this is because of the poor publicity in whichthat great country indulges in the United Kingdom, a point I made to the Head of the Commonwealth Society whom I met inSydney. In point of fact my wife and I both enjoyed our stay in Australia immensely. Australians are kind, hospitable andextremely Commonwealth-minded and we received a welcome of which it would be impossible to speak too highly. Considering that Pat O'Shea and his wife have only been inAustralia for 18 months B.E.A. is surprisingly well, known, respected and admired there, a point I attribute to some extent tothe part we played in introducing the Viscounts into T.A.A. service some five years ago and the subsequent help we havegiven in getting them well established. It has to be remembered that Australian airlines benefit fromtwo great gifts to aviation, a remarkably poor train service -with frequent changes of gauge, and weather conditions which areprobably the finest in the world. Once again, at no time did weather enter into our calculations at all so that "weather stand-bys" never have to be considered. To be continued) Typifying B.E.A.'s approach to sales—the primary purpose of Mr. Milward's trip—is this handsome new sales office in London, at 102 Cheapside E.C.2. It will serve the City's growing need for air travel
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
