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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0188.PDF
188 FLIGHT, 5 February I960] Air start carts: That on the left is the Atlas Copco Air Partner drawn up preparatory to starting the engines (or air conditioning the fuselage or de-icing) of a Sabena 707. On the right, in front of a Boeing 720, is a new model of the Turbo-Starter developed by Boeing Industrial Products and by GEC. In addition to the pneumatic supply, a 60kVA alternator supplies ground electric power . . „ . AIR COMMERCE DC-8 "AS FAST AS THE 707" /COMMENTING on reports that the Boeing 707 is faster than^-' the Douglas DC-8 (see Straight and Level, page 175), J. A. Herlihy, senior vice-president engineering of United AirLines, says that "a check of point to point flight times of all major transcontinental airlines shows that the speed of United's DC-8swas the same as that of the Boeing 707." Actual figures for the six- week period ending December 26, covering 200 parallel flights,show that the time difference between the 707 and the DC-8 equipped with the same engine [JT3C-6] has been "negligible."It has averaged two minutes for California - New York flights. Mr Herlihy, speaking recently before the Yale EngineeringAssociation of New York City, warned that people must not expect too much from the turbofan engine as an aid in noiseabatement: while exhaust noise was improved, compressor noise might be aggravated. He also warned against "a facile optimism"about the development of supersonic airliners. "My opinion is that it will be at least the early 1970s before such an operation isfeasible." With an investment of more than $l,500m in subsonic jets the airlines, he said, were "most reluctant" to begin any earlylarge-scale planning for supersonic flight. United had estimated that the development cost of Mach 3 transports could well reach$l,000m compared with $300m for the DC-8. The difference between this airline viewpoint on supersonicsand that of the aircraft salesman is neatly highlighted by a recent statement attributed to J. R. McGowen, vice-president commercialof Douglas. He foresees the advent of supersonic transports by "about 1970," cruising at Mach 3. He added, according to aDouglas news release, that it was conceivable that this step would be eliminated "in favour of rocket power and speeds of aboutMach 10 by about the same time." (See "Supersonics At The IAS," col. 2.) To add to the confusion, another United official, Robert E.Johnson, senior vice-president sales, apparently disagrees with his colleague Mr Herlihy about supersonic timing. He says a super-sonic transport will replace the subsonic jet transports "but not until late in the 1960s." This, he said, would make it possible forthe airlines to amortize their $2,000m investment in subsonic jets over a useful life of at least ten years. r - AIR LATIN AMERICA A TENTATIVE second step towards the formation of a con-sortium of Latin American airlines was taken last month when the airlines of five nations decided to hold a second meeting.The first, at which Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador and Colombia participated, was held last autumn in Panama City; thesecond, to take place in Santiago this month, will be attended by airline representatives of Peru, Chile, Panama, Bolivia andEcuador. As yet it is not clear which airlines are the pace setters, althoughthe carriers principally involved are believed to be AVIANCA (Colombia), LAN (Chile), Compania Ecuatoriana de Aviacion(Ecuador), Aerolineas Peruanas APSA (Peru) and Compania de Aviacion "Faucett" (Peru). Of these five, LAN is the only IATAmember and its intentions within a union of carriers who other- wise operate at sub-IATA fares on inter-America services mustbe a matter for speculation; the union would presumably not par- ticipate in the Association, if only to remain untrammelled byIATA fare rates. The inter-Americas fares and traffic picture, writes a corre-spondent, is undoubtedly chaotic. Each and every airline operating through Brazil will be allowed to carry only 10 per cent morepassengers than it carried in 1959, and only should exceptional circumstances favour it will another 10 per cent be authorized bythe Ministry. The Argentine Government would also like to take some definite action but Argentina's position as a creditor countryno doubt discourages it from adopting unpopular attitudes towards air travel. "On services to North America in 1959 there were1,000,000 seats chasing 460,000 passengers and the increase in passengers this year will in no way serve to fill all the new seatsavailable. The conclusion is gloomy but inescapable; the ratio of seats available to seats booked worsens steadily instead ofimproving." However trenchant the economic issues and problems ofnational sovereignty may appear to the South American airlines, those of replacement of heterogeneous equipment may fairly beassumed to transcend all others. Certainly the announcement of this second meeting brought a noticeable quickening of interestin this previously difficult market by British and American jet and turboprop manufacturers. If nations as diverse in tempera-ment and persuasion as France, Germany, Belgium and Italy can combine to form an economic and equipment union, the argumentseems to run, are prospects for Latin Americans not at least as hopeful? ROYALTY BLAMES PANAM PRINCE BERNHARD of the Netherlands told a press con-ference at Schiphol on January 26 that he considered Pan American the main stumbling block in KLM's negotiations inWashington to obtain west coast traffic rights (see Flight, January 22). The Prince said: "It would be unprecedented if landing rightswere again refused under the pressure of one single company. It is only PanAm that resists, and it does so because it fears itsDutch rival. In aviation it is a very unusual situation that one cannot go to every port that one desires to load and unloadpassengers and cargo, as in shipping. It is just that airlines are afraid of KLM. That is because of its excellent service. I do notknow whether you have had the bad luck but I have travelled enough with American companies to know what the difference inservice means. . . ." Prince Bernhard added that the Netherlands were a good allyof the USA, and economic relations with California were very firm, especially in aviation. Many other airlines had obtained landingrights in California, and he could not imagine "that any American, judging objectively, would place KLM in an exceptional position." SUPERSONICS AT THE IAS A SUPERSONIC airliner in the Mach 2-3 range could be inservice in 1965 and with operating costs of less than 3d per seat mile. This is the considered view of North AmericanAviation in a paper read before the second annual "supersonic symposium" of the US Institute of Aeronautical Sciences in NewYork last week. We hope to summarize this and other papers in an early issue. North American are developing the B-70 Mach 3 bomber, andtheir absence from last year's symposium was the subject of much comment. They have now shown their hand, and their studiesfavour a delta-wing canard arrangement with buried re-heat turbo- jets. A first flight in 1963 was feasible, North American havingalready performed no less than 14,000 hours of tunnel testing on
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