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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0577.PDF
, 22 April 1960 577 sen woi pro nt so far this year. The day of reckoning has come for thisipy airline, whose yiscount order did so much to boost tal's competitive position as well as Vickers' exports.11 Capital get the requested subsidy? Not if one Democrat or, Charles Vanik, gets his way. He considers that approval' i constitute "an unwarranted dissipation of public funds and de a reward for stupid management." LA1-K OF IDEAS T iE problem of jet noise is not so much lack of money as lack;£ ideas, the Minister of Aviation told the Commons onAp.'l 11. Very little was known about the fundamental cause of jet -'oise, and there was a limit to the amount of money that couldbe ievoted to basic research. But he had very great sympathy w those who were disturbed—"I heartily dislike noise and On. jrstand the feelings of these people." But he had to make it c|ta that "I cannot promise that aircraft noise will decrease in thisage. What we can and what we must do is to try to keep it within bounds." An exhaustive study of the whole problem was to be under-taken, but he could not promise that an answer could be found that would be satisfactory to "people who live on the edge ofaerodromes." [See "Straight and Level," page 569.] RAIL/AIR TO CALAIS ON April 11, British Railways (Eastern Region) in conjunctionwith Air Charter's Channel Air Bridge inaugurated a new rail/air service for no-passport day trips to Calais. The railwayprovides fast electric traction to Rochford, from where a bus takes passengers to Southend Airport. The cost from the Londontermini, Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street, is £4 6s 6d. The journey is completed in approximately two hours, of which about30 minutes is spent in the air. On arrival in Calais the trippers have the choice of spending their time in the town, on the beach,or participating in coach tours. For those who prefer it Air Bridge will still run their normalcoach/air no-passport trips from London, a service which carried some 20,000 passengers last year. Speaking in the Calais TownHall to a party of journalists and railway officials, who were passengers on the inaugural flight, D. A. Whybrow, manager,Channel Air Bridge Division, Air Charter, hinted that this new rail/air combination was only the beginning of much bigger thingsand suggested that although the joint fare was already low it could be made still lower. He hoped for the institution of longer—twoor even three day—no-passport trips. Asked whether the service might not be overwhelmed by passenger numbers, he said thatwith their present fleet of five DC-4s and nine Bristol 170s he felt that the demand could be met. Similar rail/air services are also available to Ostend andRotterdam, at £4 18s 6d and £8 7s 6d respectively, but for these day trips passports are required. COMET 4 TECHNIQUES (OPERATING techniques of the Comet 4 have been "reviewed^-' and amended," according to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Aviation, Mr Rippon. Answering questions aboutBOAC Comet 4 incidents, of which he noted that there have been five, including four in the landing or approach phases, he sa.d thatthese techniques would be "furtner examined when we hear the report of the fifth accident in Madrid." Of the four accidents so far investigated, said Mr Rippon, nonehad been attributed to defects in the aircraft or in its engines. Mr Goodhew (Con, St Albans) asked Mr Rippon whether he wasaware that his statement would be welcomed "by all those who think that the Comet 4 is the greatest aircraft in the world todayfor civil purposes." REPRIEVE FOR LIVERPOOL AIRPORT A FTER seven years of sporadic negotiations with the Ministry**• of Transport and Civil Aviation and the MoA, Liverpool City Council have at last decided to take over the airport at Speke. The Minister's conditions for the take-over are: (1) LiverpoolCorporation should undertake to manage and keep open the airport for a period of seven years; (2) during that time the Ministrywould help by providing technical services free of charge; (3) fixed assets, other than electronic and other equipment used by thetechnical services, would be handed over to the corporation; (4) the corporation would receive all revenue from landing fees,rents and other charges; (5) it would bear operating costs apart from those of technical services; (6) it must safeguard the State'sinterest if it should ever be necessary for the State to acquire the airport; and (7) it must operate the airport directly and notthrough a third party, and must keep it licensed for public use. These conditions are not as advantageous to the city councilas those rejected in 1953, when the Ministry also promised financial assistance for capital development. Those then plannedhave since been carried out, so that the Ministry's forecast that "no appreciable capital development can be foreseen in the nextseven years" may not be as important to Liverpool as it would have been to Manchester.Paradoxically, the decision to make Speke a municipal airport may be the result of a proposal last February that the airportshould be closed and the land used for housing. This aroused a storm of protest both from those who were directly connected withthe airport and from the ordinary citizens of Liverpool. Thou- sands signed a petition opposing closure. But it would be unfairto imply that the city fathers, with the municipal elections a month away, were guided only by public opinion. In May 1959 Alder-man John Braddock, chairman of the finance and general purposes committee, stated with some justification that, while he did notwant Liverpool to lose what could be a valuable asset to the city, he did not wish to saddle the ratepayers with "a costlyburden which at the moment is an airport only in name." Now The Royal Aeronautical Society's Fifth Annual Air Transport Course took place at Oriel College, Oxford, from March 20 to April 9. Students and lecturers were:— Front row (I. to r.): M. Fountain, Vickers; W. C. Leech, Rolls-Royce; R. R. Griffiths, BOAC; A. R. Barrowclough, lecturer (air law); S. F. Wheatcroft, lecturer (economics); Dr A. M. Ballantyne, RAeS; Miss E. B. Croad, RAeS; D. C. Tennant, lecturer (operations); F. C. Pike, Esso Export; G. A. G. Morris, DH Aircraft; Dr F. Leccese, Alitalia; R. Birkett, Skyways. Second row (I. to r.): A. G. Edwards, BOAC; W. C. Wigmore, Esso Petroleum; S. A. Worthy, East African Directorate of Civil Aviation; A. J. Geraghty, Rolls-Royce Canada; R. A. Howell, English Electric; R. E. G. Davies, DH Aircraft; R. I. B. Tavener, Rolls-Royce; P. D. Stewart, BOAC; R. G. Thorne, RAE; N. Tommasi, Air BP; B. N. Basic, Yugoslav Air Transport; L. Fredrikson, Air BP, Sweden. Third row (I. to r.): Copt D. A. Samant, Indian Airlines; O. B. Tomkins, TCA; K. Bentley, Vickers; T. A. Gawade, Westland; G. Jump, Rolls-Royce; J. P. Armstrong, Rolls-Royce; Dr A. Gross, Swissair; E. G. Barber, BOAC; K. C. Hopkins, Lloyds; Capt R. H. Tapley, BOAC; J. G. M. Williams, Hawker Siddeley (Advanced Projects); V. Schiro, Alitalia. Back row (I. to r.): D. 1. Masters, Fairey; H. W. Hedges, BEA; K. T. McKenzie, Fairey; E. M. Barbosa, TAP; M. F. Costa, TAP; D. N. Ker, CPAL; B. Mellor, Jersey ATC; R. W. Simpson, DH Canada; A. J. Smith, Bristol Siddeley; B. J. Watson, Blackburn Aircraft; J. A. Lorenz, Varig. (Not in the picture: K. G. Wilkinson, operations lecturer; B. H. Heafford, Napier '* began on April 77: air and rail linked on a com- mon passenger ticket—the Wferprise of BR (Eastern «g=9n) and Channel Air triage (see story above)
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