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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0281.PDF
FLIGHT, 26 February 1960 281 Straight and Level POLITICS prevail in the com-mercially imperfect world of airtransport. But isn't this world imperfect largely because politics do prevail? I share the view that the pro- posals for Britain's new Air Transport Licensing Board, reviewed in this issue, are disappointing: they are fundamen- tally the expression of the view that politics come first. If we create a body that is in all essentials a puppet of the Minister, it will not properly be able to do its job of promoting British air trans- port. And then the worried politicians will try to exercise more control, with further detriment to the industry, and so on. Isn't this a wonderful chance to create an independent executive author- ity run by professional air transport people? The politicians would, as the advertisements say, be amazed at the difference. But thank goodness our Minister isn't as "politics first" as some. How about this: "[Ghana Airways] should give special consideration to the political aspect of its activities rather than the purely commercial side, though expenditure naturally has tobe supervisee?'—Mr Edusei, Ghana's Transport Minister, on buying out BOAC'sinterest in Ghana Airways. • We helped the French a great deal to develop the Caravelle: we gave them the Comet's nose, Rolls-Royce Avon engines, hydraulic system, Redux and numerous other things. But it was a French concept, backed by the French government, and built by half the French aircraft industry. Little did we think that this elegant medium jet— a partner for the Comet, we thought— would be in competition with two generations of British jet airliners in the airliner markets of the world. It is no secret that many people in BEA would have liked Caravelles as their interim jet. And I have heard senior people in Sud Aviation deplore the fact that we didn't get together with them on the Caravelle in 1957—as they offered us the chance to do. Now the most respected name in the business, Douglas, moves in. The American firm sees an opportunity to scoop with the Caravelle at least part of the market for which the D.H.121 is intended. They judge that what the Caravelle concedes in speed—80kt— and in other technical respects it makes up in delivery date—about two years. Can the great resources of the Hawker Siddeley Group, of which D.H. are now a member, advance the D.H.121 to meet this challenge of the Caravelle? • A reader "notes with great interest" that the basic salary of an Air Marshal has now been increased to £4,124 a year. This, he feels, offers great advertising possibilities to BEA, some of whose pilots are now demanding £4,200. How about the slogan: "The equivalent of an Air Marshal driving every flight?" • I learn from Aviation Week that bizarre hallucinations may be experi- enced by operators of space weapon- systems. It seems that test subjects exposed to simulated spaceflight en- vironments for thirty hours in the School of Aviation Medicine's one-man sealed chamber ran a gamut of beliefs that they were seeing gremlins, experi- encing colouration changes, and that instruments were melting and dropping off the panel. So the dawn of spacefiight threatens to be just another morning after. • How far back does business-flying go? One business aircraft of 1928, a Gipsy Moth, was illustrated in the "then" part of a "then and now" feature on Flight's Sport and Business page recently. A contemporary extract from the Devon Valley Tribune indicates how it was used: — "On Thursday night an aeroplane fly- ing low and circling over the town brought many out of doors. It appeared as if a landing place was being sought. "This assumption proved to be correct, for ultimately it came down on a field at Blackfaulds Farm. I think I am right when I mention that this is the first time an aeroplane has landed so near to Tilly. "Information was soon forthcoming that it was the 'Camberwell Beauty' belonging to Mr Norman Jones of There is something mildly disturbing about this picture. Could it be from an "H" certifi- cate film about the perils of man's mastery of science, etc? Those limply hanging forearms— did they belong to the men on the night shift? [AWA's newly opened beryllium-machining plant at Coventry] Samuel Jones & Co Ltd, who was pay- ing a 'flying' visit from London to Devondale Mill." Was the Samuel Jones company the first in Britain to operate a business air- craft? You tell me. • "The profitability of the half-price fares that the independent airlines are seeking . . . depends not on the price of the aeroplane but on the cost of running it." With great respect I must again take The Economist to task on a point of airline economics. The cost of running an aeroplane must include the price paid for it. And the faster the rate of deprecia- tion, obviously, the higher the running cost. Unfortunately, there are a good many people who, like Sir Charles Boost, cannot grasp the point that too high a rate of depreciation, the result of too high a rate of re-equipment, keeps fares up and profits marginal. Sweepingly to assert, as The Econo- mist goes on to assert, that elderly written-down airliners are more expen- sive to fly than the new jets is, I submit, sheer Boostism. • On my desk the other day appeared a translation from the Czechoslovakian Law of September 24, 1956, on Civil Aviation (Air Law). If you are a Czechoslovak citizen, I found, you may own a civil aircraft, but only with the consent of the Ministry of Transport and the agreement of the Ministry of the Interior—and you know what dealing with two government de- partments must be like. • The Minister of Aviation, flushed with the success of a reshaped aircraft industry, has now infected the indepen- dent airlines with mergeritis. A mar- riage has been arranged between Hunting-Clan and Airwork—un man- age de raison, I have no doubt. Le raison can only be that the Minis- ter has said something like this to the two independents: "I want to give you a bigger share of British air transport. But I want to make certain that you are technically and financially strong enough to handle the jobs I want you to do. Look here, if you merge, I'll see that you get a 50-50 share of UK-Africa economy class." I do not know whether that was the carrot that was dangled. But, whatever it was, die Minister was trying to make British air transport take-oIF backwards. Mergers should be die consequence, not the condition of, a new British air trans- port pattern. • Do you know what the initials SBAC stand for? Society of Both Aircraft Constructors. ROGER BACON
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