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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0847.PDF
No 2 6 7 6 VOLU ME 7 7 Editor-m-C hief IAURICE A. SMITH DFC FRIDAY 24 JUNE 1960 AIRCRAFT, SPACECRAFT, MISSILES Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded 1939 Editor H . F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GUNSTON Production Editor ROY CASEY IN THIS ISSUE From All Quarters 856 Missiles and Spaceflight 858 Middle East Argosy 860 Big-League Gliding 861 Flight System Survey 864 Desert Display 865 Talking on Ice 867 Cushioncraft 868 Straight and Level 871 Apron Planning for the Jets 872 "Open Skies" for Air Transport 874 Progress with the ATL-98 875 Correspondence 876 Ups and Downs 877 The Industry 878 Air Commerce 879 Service Aviation 884 Ilitfe & Sons Ltd, Dorset House. Stum-ford Street, London SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333. Telegrams FlightpresSedist London. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s. Overseas £">. Canadaand USA S15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, NY. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora-tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House. NewStreet, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man- chester: 260 Deansgate, 3; telephoneBlackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 359f>. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street, C. 1; tele-phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner, A ('o(Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway, 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe & Sons Ltd, 1960. Permissionto reproduce illustrations and letterpress can be granted only under written agre»-ment. Brief extr<u tw>r < omniwiN IUA> IM made with due acknowledgement Airline Captains' PayR ECENT letters from readers have confirmed what the general secretary of the British Air Line Pilots Association has described as "the anomalous position which exists in connection with airline captains' pay." It is distressing to find that the latest of these letters—in a tone of professional banter—has in some quarters been taken seriously. It is timely, therefore, to remark that though a captain's remuneration may vary with his employer—corporation or independent —any suggestion that professional standards are allowed to be compromised by differences in pay is, of course, entirely false. Nor do the standards of today's independent operators invite any such criticism, and there cannot be any suggestion that British airline captains, whether corporation or independent, are given to comporting themselves in a manner alien to their calling and responsibilities. Pooling: and the Public MONTH by month the list of world airlines operating in pool growslengthier. The past two years, in fact, have seen the negotiation of aphenomenal number of agreements, and only one great nation of air commerce— the USA—continues to repudiate the practice of pooling. American anti-trust laws, framed to protect the consumer's interest, would quickly haul into court any US airline that shared its earnings with another, whether domestic or foreign. The Minister of Aviation has told Parliament that a pool is a "commercal matter" and that its terms therefore cannot be disclosed. It might be doubted whether Mr Sandys knows the terms himself. The former deputy managing director of BOAC, when interviewed on this subject two months ago (Flight, April 29, page 609) said that the details of BOAC's pool agreements with the UK independents were not necessarily known to the Minister, and that it was unlikely that he would call for details. "If I tell you that I have washed behind my ears," Mr Granville added good-humouredly, "you don't have a look to mak: sure, do you?" Agreed. But what are we to make of Lord Casey's little revelation in the House of Lords the other day? He disclosed that a section of the BOAC/Air- India/Qantas tripartite pool "contains a stipulation by Air-India and by Qantas to the effect that they will regard the agreement between them as valid only so long as BOAC remains the only United Kingdom airline authorized [on the routes concerned]." Closer ties with Commonwealth airlines are of course to be warmly welcomed, and it may be right that the British independents should be excluded from the eastern hemisphere. We know that the Minister endorses Commonwealth pools; but might it not now be asked whether he endorses the right of Commonwealth airlines possibly to clip the wings of Britain's independents? Pool agreements do not infringe the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956, which applies only (Section 6) to the supply of goods and not to services; and they are protected by Section 2 of the Civil Aviation (Licensing) Act, 1960, which protects any "commercial agreement reasonably entered into" by any existing licence holder. But it will be disappointing if our new Licensing Board is frustrated by operators who feel that they have only to wave a secret pool agreement at the Board to ensure that their operations will be protected. So extensive now is pooling that this sort of thing could lead to stagnation as sterile as the old so-called associate agreements.
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