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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0161.PDF
PLIGHT, 29 January 1960 Visiting A. V. Roe at Chadderton recently to discuss the Avro 748 were Capt L B. Greensted (left) and H. B. Cundall, respec- tively Hunting-Clan's operations director and chief develop- ment engineer. They are pictured here with E. S. Greenwood and also E. Galitzine of Hawker Siddeley transport or other movements will be permitted during these times.Most aircraft crossing the Sahara follow Advisory Direct Routes 446 to Niamey—through the Blue area—or ADR 251 to Kanothrough the Green. Among the latter are BOAC, who say that "there should not be much dislocation" and that they will probablychange their times of service to avoid overflying the Green area during the periods that it is closed. .Failing this, they wouldexpect to re-route aircraft as it became necessary. GROUND ENGINEERS' GUIDE JUST issued by the Air Registration Board is a new section Lof British Civil Airworthiness Requirements which deals with licensing and the duties of maintenance engineers. Along withit are reissued two important notices to licensed engineers and to owners of civil aircraft: No 3, dealing with the overlap of engin-eers' responsibility; and No 10, Ratings of Categories of Aircraft Maintenance Engineers' Licences. Contained in the latter isnotice of the Board's intention to withdraw from holders of appropriate ratings in category "X" authority to certificate over-hauled equipment: from June 30, 1960 this work will come under the authority of approved inspection organizations. 161 "STRONG AND UNMISTAKABLE SIGNS" THERE will, after all, be another IATA traffic conference. TheA Honolulu conference last October was not the first in the turbulent history of these meetings to break up in disagreement,but it was the first to break up in the knowledge that unless there were "strong and unmistakable" signs of a settlement (Sir WilliamHildred's words at the time) there would be no further meeting. There would, indeed, be an open rate on all routes except intra-European and between North and South America. The prospect has evidently been too much for most airlines, and in any case, theroot cause of the disagreement—BOAC's desire for the extension of economy class—has been removed by HMG's approval ofBOAC's plan to introduce economy fares on British cabotage routes. (BOAC want to do this from April 1.) No date or place for the meeting has been announced, but oneof the delegates' first decisions will be to extend present fares and standards for a period of 30 to 60 days from March 31, whenpresent agreements in the "unresolved areas" expire. Not only price chaos is feared by the airlines: no agreementwas reached at Honolulu on such thorny questions as jet seating densities and sleeping berths. Though most operators did notwant berths, some wanted first-class seating to be four-abreast at 40in, with no foot rests; others wanted it to be five-abreast at 42inwith foot rests ("sleeper seats"); others wanted it to be something else, with or without a "de luxe" surcharge for the ability to putyour feet up. The question of sleeping berths is particularly delicate: mostbig jet operators say that jet speeds render berths pointless on North Atlantic routes, yet these airlines do not want propellercompetitors to have facilities for putting passengers up for the night. And so it goes on, with a regulation required to cover everyquality-competition loophole. BOAC, of course, have two "misfit" aircraft in the big jet arena—the Comet 4 and the Britannia—and to attract passengers to these aircraft the corporation will no doubt seek special con-cessions for them—such as berths in the Britannia or de luxe service and 52in-pitch sleeper seats at first-class fares in theComet 4. In theory BOAC could quite easily be as much of a nuisance on standards as they were on fares. On one thing all the airlines are agreed—the North Atlantic jetsurcharge is to go on February 29. It remains to be seen whether a propeller discount will take its place. Almost certainly, too,tourist class will disappear from the North Atlantic route. BATTLE OF THE BAHAMAS THE brief note under the above heading in Flight last weekcan now be amplified. Behind the short announcement that President Eisenhower has approved the applications of two Britishindependents to operate scheduled services from the Bahamas to Florida—one of the world's richest air traffic markets—lies afascinating story of independent airline rivalry and US-UK political air transport competition. There are two British airlines registered in the Bahamas, eachof them related to a UK independent. One is Bahamas Airways, in which Eric Rylands of Skyways, London, has a substantialinterest. The other is Eagle Airways (Bahamas) Ltd, an associate of Eagle Airways, London, and a Colonial sister of Eagle Airways(Bermuda) Ltd. Bahamas Airways used to be a wholly owned subsidiary ofBOAC. In 1958 one of the first actions of the newly formed BOAC Associated Companies was to dispose of 80 per cent of itsshareholding, this being taken up jointly by Eric Rylands and David Brown. The corporation retained a 20 per cent interest,the new arrangement becoming effective from April 1, 1959. Bahamas Airways had not been doing too well, having lost £90,000on a revenue of £268,000 in 1958-59. But its prospects for develop- ment were considered to be good. Among the services which for seven or eight years had beenoperated by Bahamas Airways on BOAC's US foreign carrier permit were those between Florida and the Bahamas, whosebeautiful islands are highly favoured by the many American holidaymakers in Florida who like to make the "sidetrip" to theislands. The routes concerned are defined by the UK-US Ber- muda Air Agreement as "Route 6," and UK airlines enjoy theright to operate from points in the Bahamas to Miami, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa with Havana as an inter-mediate point. Unfortunately, Bahamas Airways' DC-3 operation came undera "cease and desist" order from the CAB about two months ago, as a result of an American legal quibble about the airline's rightsto operate on BOAC's foreign carrier permit. There had never actually been a written agreement between Bahamas Airways andBOAC on this point. But when the majority ownership of Bahamas Airways passed out of BOAC's hands the new BahamasAirways applied to the CAB for its own foreign carrier permit. At the same time, BOAC made it clear that they did not want tosurrender the permit granted in their name. (Obviously, the day may come when BOAC will want to re-enter Florida.) The next move was the Bahamas Government's approval of an Competitors soon to operate into the rich Miami market (see text) are Bahamas Airways' 76-seat Hermes 4s—two ex-Skyways aircraft luxuriously fitted out—and Eagle Airways Bahamas' Viscounts. This one (right), an 800, was recently swapped for two Aer Lingus VJOOs, in which Eagle will seat up to 63 on the short Bahamas - Florida run. For this new operation they will be chartered from Eagle Airways Bermuda
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