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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 3363.PDF
Flight, 11 December 1959 Hands up all those who thought the aircraft in these two pictures were Boeing 707$ AIR COMMERCE . . . IMPROVING THE BREED /"WER a year ago Flight forecast that the next round of airliner^-^ financing would be the new technical advances such as turbo- fan conversion kits, super circulation or flap-blowing, and arearule (October 3, 1958, page 543). The turbofan conversion pro- gramme is now well and truly launched, and it is conceivablethat most of the operators of big jets will sooner or later convert to turbofans, the improved economy of which is estimated tooutweigh the cost of conversion by a considerable margin. It is also likely that new customers will specify powerplants of thedivided flow type, either the P. & W. or G.E. turbofan conversions, or the Rolls-Royce by-pass jets. Now it is reported that Pan American intend to convert alltheir 23 Boeing 707-320 Intercontinental to turbofan power by 1961. And Mr. Don Finlay of Boeing says that he expects all707 carriers eventually to switch to turbofan engines. Meanwhile it seems that flap-blowing may not be so far off.Boeing have already fitted the "Dash Eighty" 707 prototype with a boundary layer control system for flap-blowing. An estimated10 per cent improvement in take-off performance is claimed, the system being supplied by air bled from the engine compressors.Boeing will not yet commit themselves to talking about a "retrofit" programme until tests have been completed, but it seems reason-able to prophesy that such a device, conferring high lift benefits to ease weight-limited take-offs, may prove as attractive to opera-tors as the turbofan programme. No doubt Douglas and Convair are studying flap-blowing systems also. Area rule is perhaps not likely to be offered as a "retrofit,"though the Convair 600 is a good examnle of an area-rule modifica- tion made on the production line, and which has so far temptedfour Convair 880 customers to switch to the faster Convair 600s. Though the Boeing 720 "speed wing" is hardly an area-rule modi-" fication, it is a change which confers higher speed, and which can be made (and is being made by American Airlines) retrospectively. We are seeing now the beginning of a trend towards improve-ment of the breed. Today's 707s and DC-8s will be developed just as was the basic DC-4 into the DC-6B. The airline industrywill find the financing of these improvements worthwhile so long as it remembsrs the lesson of the DC-7 and the later Super Con-stellations. These were manifestations of "quality competition" and of the demand for higher performance rather than improvedeconomics. A NEW AIRPORT FOR IRELAND ... T'HE Irish Department of Transport and Power has announced•* that a contract for the construction of runways, taxiways, apron and terminal buildings at Cork Airport has been awarded toa Dublin civil engineering firm. The new airport will be built on a ISO-acre site at Ballygarvan,seven miles south-east of the second largest city in the Rerjublic. The project is due to be completed in 1961 and will cost£1 million. It is proposed to lay two runways, the main one 4,500ft long and the subsidiary 3,800ft long. QANTAS PAYS ITS WAY CO much has appeared of late about last year's sad performance^ by B.O.A.C. in the economic sphere that it is interesting to see how the Corporation's even longer-haul partner, Qantas, faredover the same period. The only feature common to both carriers was a sharp fall inload factor, in the case of Qantas this figure having dropped from 58 to 56 per cent. But whereas B.O.A.C. cut their costs sharply,the Australian airline only managed to shave a small fraction of one per cent off its cost level. Yet the curious thing is that Qantasexperienced only a slight fall in profit compared with B.O.A.C.'s heavy losses. The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact thatwhereas the Corporation's average revenue rates were reduced by the inroads of low-fare economy-class traffic, Qantas enjoyed sub-stantially improved revenue rates. Indeed the increased rates virtually compensated for the fall in load-factor. This revenueimprovement was partly due to increased passenger fares, but another important factor was a sharp increase in mail rates (from124 to 139 pence per l.t.m.). Although this company's reports do not refer to mail payments, there are few airlines which do so wellout of their local post office. If Qantas mail rates were reduced to the level obtained by most other airlines, then there would belittle possibility of showing any profit. It is a moot point whether or not Qantas should be considered to be on subsidy. Although the Qantas route network of 73,000 miles is almostas extensive as that operated by B.O.A.C., in terms of operations the Australian airline is about one-third of the Corporation's size.Revenue in 1958 reached almost £24 million (compared with £60m-odd for B.O.A.C.) while staff strength stood at 6,000(B.O.A.C., 19,000). In one final respect, Q.E.A. compares very favourably with theCorporation: no additional capital is being raised to finance the purchase of new equipment. Rather more than half the £29 millionrequired for seven 707s and four Electras will have come from the airline's own reserves, the balance being in the form of short-termloans. This means that Qantas will not be burdened by a top- heavy capital structure once the jets come into full operation. INDEPENDENTS' IRISH ASPIRATIONS DURING the recent Aer Lingus grounding U.K. airlines con-tinued to operate into Dublin, and the strike highlighted the recent independent applications to operate new services there. B.K.S. Air Transport propose to operate a vehicle ferry service,using Bristol Freighters, between Liveroool and Dublin at a frequency of up to ten flights daily. B.K.S. estimate that theywould carry 3,000 cars into Dublin during the first year of opera- tions and that flight time would be 50 minutes between :hc twoairports. The project, which has been studied during the last six months, has the full approval and encouragement of the IrishTourist Board. Starwavs are proposing to start a service between Liverpooland Dublin using Douglas DC-3 and DC-4 aircraft in direct competition with Aer Lineus, which has hitherto had a monopolyof the route. During 1958-59, the Irish airline, which operates Fokker Friendships on this route, carried 37,632 passengers be-tween Liverpool and Dublin. Four other independents—Derby
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