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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0254.PDF
254 FLIGHT, 19 February AIR COMMERCE GREEN LIGHT FOR THE ROTODYNE THE £4 million Government development contract for theRotodyne, announced in Flight last week, was the direct result of Fairey's merger with Westland. It will be recalled thatthe original offer (by the MoS as it then was) of a £4 million development contract for the Rotodyne was wholly dependentupon BEA's contract to buy the aircraft. Lord Douglas said that this was a situation he "very much disliked." Since no firmcontract has yet been signed by BEA it seems that the £4 million became, on Duncan Sandys' succession to the Ministry, moredependent upon an industrial regrouping. It can be no coincidence that the Minister announced his approval to the contract only sixdays after the announcement of Fairey's acquisition by Westland. Thus ends the long-drawn-out and much discussed controversyabout Government support for the Rotodyne. Fairey's chairman, presenting his annual report last November, said: "Within thepolitical context of the Government's insistence of company's merging, it is difficult to decide . . . whether to proceed with aproject as large and complicated as the Rotodyne . . . without a sufficiently large Government order." The way now seems clear for BEA to finalize with the manu-facturers their provisional contract for six Rotodynes, plus an option on a further 14. A military order, believed to be for aboutten aircraft to be operated by the RAF, is likewise approved in principle; and New York Airways are in no doubt about theirrequirements for the Rotodyne. One matter still remains in the air: this is a question of a Government development contract forBEA, to defray operational development costs of the Rotodyne. There were reports last December that the Ministry had promisedthe corporation a sum of £1.4 million for this purpose. No mention of this was made by Mr Sandys in the House last week. THAT LATIN-AMERICAN UNION towards the formation of an "Air Latin America"—a consortium mainly of non-IATA carriers of five South American nations—has aroused deep interest amongst observersof the turbulent South American air-transDort scene. If the birth- pangs of Air Union can be taken as a reliable guide, many monthsmay pass before differences of economy, traffic and temperament can be sufficiently resolved to weld the participants into a homo-geneous airline consortium. But the first steps have been taken and the reactions of other carriers to such a powerful bloc arealready under review. An initial account of the first tentative steps towards an Air Latin America was given in Flight forFebruary 5; it is supplemented here with an on-the-spot appre- ciation of the present situation. The embattled South American continent, writes an observer,is at present more or less split up into two rival camps so far as the various national carriers are concerned. Five countries—Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru—started it all last November when they met in Panama City to work out the basisfor a sort of Latin-American Air Union. It is as yet too earlv to make any definite predictions about the eventual success, or lackof it, which this project will have; but there is no doubt that the other South American carriers—and probablv the internationalcarriers as well—are awaiting developments with deep interest not unmixed with apprehension. This anxiety is not based on fear of what mieht be termedmechanical competition, as even if the national airlines of all the participating countries do get together they would do so on a basis His Excellence E. O. Asasu Adjaye, High Commissioner for Q:,ano recently sampled the Hondley Page Dart Herald at Waodley. Vit/j him is E. Manley Walker of H.P. A production aircraft is tc tour Wist Africa and South America, leaving within tour week of extremely heterodox (and in most cases obsolete) equipment'in fact, not one of the five has formulated a jet-equipment pro- gramme. The obvious implication is a legal one, as there is iittledoubt that the airlines have the support of their respective govern- men:s and, among them, the five cover the whole westernseaboard of South America, including such important capital as Santiago, Lima, Bogota, Quito and Fanama. The adoption ofprogressively more restrictive policies by the governments con- cerned could considerably hamper activities by carriers from othercountries. The wording of the official communique on the Santiago meet-ing (Flight, February 5) mentioned that discussion had centred around the feasibility of grouping together a fleet which should beenabled to carry out a unified effort and a "common aeronautical policy." The implication here is obvious, particularly when viewedin the light of the growing wave of chauvinism which is regrettably spreading over Latin America—particularly in Brazil, which hasgone out of its way to make things difficult for foreign carriers, particularly those offering very modern equipment. It has, too,been considered significant that the most important countries of South America from an aviation standpoint—Argentina, Brazil,and Venezuela—were not invited to the conference and neither were any subsequent approaches made to them by the Five. At present the situation appears to be that the Five are to forma working group to be known as ALA (Aerovias Latino Americanas) to operate exclusively on regional and internationalroutes—i.e., cabotage services will not be undertaken bv ALA. At the moment, the lines seem to stack up as follows: LAN-Chile(premier equipment DC-6B and Martin 2-0-2); CEA (C-46); COPA (DC-3, C-46); FAUCETT (DC-3, -4); APSA (DC-3,C-46). The equipment threat is therefore negligible, but the legal overtones are not. It is as yet impossible to say whether the fivecountries are contemplating a joint purchase of more sophisticated aircraft; at the moment it seems that they will base their actualODerating competition on very-low-cost services, and if they do this there is no doubt that they will be successful, as the standardof living in South America (while it varies widely from country to country) is in general of such a nature as to make the potentialcustomer extraordinarily receptive to fare reductions, even at the expense of speed and comfort. As regards safety, the few smalllines which at present operate low-cost services up and down South America have a really excellent record. RENFREW AND ABBOTSINCH i " TN the three months that have passed since the idea was first•*- mooted of moving Glasgow's municipal airport from Renfrew to the naval airfield of Abbotsinch, no decisions have yet beentaken. But it is not to be inferred that the suggestion is in abeyance; it may be two years before a final decision is reachedand this will depend upon the growth of traffic, the size of aircraft then in use (or likely to be coming into use) on Scottish routesand technical considerations affecting the development and exten- sion of the two airfields. Recent comments by those most activelyconcerned have been as follows: — A Renfrew airport official: "It will probably take until 1962 atleast for everv aspect of the plan to be considered. Our runway here is only about 25 or 30yd shorter than that it Abbotsinch, butwe will be unable to extend it because of surrounding built-up areas. Abbotsinch could probably be extended for quite somedistance." An Admiralty official: "We are unable to make any statement.. . . Any information will probably have to come from either the Government or the Admiralty in London, and that will take a veryconsiderable time." Sir Patrick Dollan, chairman of the Scottish Advisory Councilfor Civil Aviation: "Technical inquiries into such a move are being carried out and have been for some time. Everythinedepends upon whether the Admiralty, the Ministry of Aviation and the Government aeree to an extension of air services forGlasgow and the West of Scotland is necessary." The question is an imoortant one, not only because Renfrew isScotland's older operational airoort, but because it vies witn Manchester as the United Kingdom's second busiest. The mostrecently published MoA statistics, for November 1959' show that in this month the number of passengers handled atRenfrew exceeded those passing through Ringway by nearly 4,000. Transport-aircraft movements, on the other hand, were35 per cent fewer—an indication of the nature of the air 'raffle carried by Scotland's busy air transport hub. More routes radiatefrom Glasgow than from any other airport in the British Isles- London included.
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