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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1196.PDF
164 FLIGHT, 29 July This was the scene at Ciampino Airport on js,/y 79 when three Aerofkt ll-18s called at Rome Qn their way from Moscow to contribute to the United Nations air lift to f/,e Congo. The operation goes on, with airlines, the RAF and the USAF contributing AIR COMMERCE BOAC's YEAR VESTERDAY, July 28, Sir Gerard d'Erlanger performed hisA last duty as part-time chairman of BOAC: he presented the corporation's report and accounts for the year ended March 31,1960. The new whole-time chairman, Sir Matthew Slattery, has already been acquainting himself with his new job, and hisappointment is official as from today, July 29. It is expected that the BOAC accounts will show a net 1959-60profit for the parent corporation of about £J million, though this becomes a loss of rather more than £| million when BOAC Asso-ciated Companies' results are taken into account. These figures are rather better than the preliminary estimates (Flight, May 6).We hope to publish full reviews of the report and accounts in subsequent issues. BEA's annual report is expected to be presented during theweek beginning August 22. THE LICENSING REGULATIONS being circulated within the aviation industry is a pre--L^' liminary draft of the Regulations that will implement the Civil Aviation Licensing Act which received the Royal Assenton June 9. Comments should be sent to the Minister by September 16. Except for the question of aerial advertising and of fees to becharged by the Air Transport Licensing Board, all outstanding points in the Act are covered in these draft Regulations, whichare built up around the concept of six classes of licence. Class A deals with scheduled services; Classes B, C and D dealwith charter services; Class E deals with general services not between specified points (Classes A to D cover specific routes);and Class F is a sort of ministerial pig bin into which will go any types of service which don't belong anywhere else. Interest is concentrated on Classes B, C and D, which embracethe various types of charter service—in particular Class D, which covers genuine group charter services. This category comprises(a) groups supported by voluntary contribution; (b) spontaneous groups (this virtually refers to flights organized privately on a non-profit basis); and (c) affinity groups in which all passengers must have belonged for at least six months to a bona fide organizationwith not less than 15,000 members. In this class the fares are not controlled except in so far that "the operator's reward" forcarrying out flights for spontaneous groups shall not be less than the aggregate of the amounts paid by the passengers (i.e., leavingnothing for any middleman). In the case of Class C charters the Board may dispense with tariff provision. Other charter flightsnot coming under Classes C and D will come under Class B and in this case tariff will be controlled and—as with scheduled servicesunder Class A—advertisement of applications and the conduct of hearings* will be the rule. Much of the draft Regulations cover the precise form to befollowed in making application for representation to the Board. Three particularly important points emerge: (1) The Board willissue a regular publication, Civil Aviation Licensing Notices, in which will be given full details of its activities and its decisions;(2) all holders of licences will be required to furnish "statistical, financial and other information" in respect of their operations; *The Regulations confirm that "every hearing shall be held in publicunless the Board shall otherwise decide." Seen here in a new 141ft water tank at Montreal is the front section of a Canadair CL-44 fuselage which has been instrumented for measurement of loads, deflections and stress levels. The tank has a side extension to permit action of the swing tail (3) parties aggrieved by the Board's decision may appeal to theMinister who, in turn, will appoint a commissioner to hold public hearings and then report back to him. The Minister's decisionwill then take the form of an order to the Board, which will be required to carry out his instructions and to publish both thecommissioner's report and the Minister's order. SUPERSONIC STATEMENT THE future of Britain's supersonic airliner was the subject ofa brief statement in the Commons on Monday. No comment is forthcoming from the parties concerned; but the gist of reportsis that both groups—the British Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Siddeley—have agreed to contribute one-quarter of the estimatedccst, but are unwilling to contribute to any excess—which in a project of this kind could amount to many millions. In a Written Answer the Minister of Aviation, Mr DuncanSandys, said: "As the House knows, the principal airframe and aero-engine groupswere asked last year to make a general assessment of the feasibility of developing a supersonic airliner. The Government have examinedthese reports and are now ready to consider proceeding a further stage. This will involve selecting one of the two airframe groups andone of the two aero-engine groups to pursue the work of detailed design. My department is discussing with the four companies concerned thefinancial and other terms on which the project might be undertaken. The decision to proceed further will depend partly upon the outcomeof these discussions. Assuming that agreement is reached, design con- tracts will be placed with the chosen companies, which will be askedto explore further with appropriate foreign firms the possibilities of collaboration."No one has given a firm estimate of the cost of designing, developing and bringing into service a supersonic airliner: thepopular figure for a Mach 2.2 design (the "light alloy" design- speed projected by BAC and, it is believed, by Hawker Siddeley)is £150 million. If costs escalate as they have done in the case of practically every previous Ministry-sponsored project, eventhose with fewer "unknowns," this figure could eventually rise to over £200 million. The Treasury—inevitably cautious as a resultof its past experience of the unpredictability of aviation industry development costs—evidently wants to limit supersonic airlinerfunding—especially as the Chancellor is being pressed also to finance a British space programme, and at a time when there isserious Cabinet concern about the extent of Government spending. However, Britain's supersonic airliner is not marking time, evenif it is not progressing speedily.
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