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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1383.PDF
PLIGHT, 19 August 1960 Sea-tie At Hamilton, a major industrial steel and car-making-re about 40 miles west of Toronto, three helicopter firms, Hamilton Helicopters Ltd, Western Helicopters Ltd and GenaireLtd will carry cargo and passengers between the city and Toronto's international airport, as well as undertaking ambulance wOrk aerial photography and other duties. Another company,Falcon Helicopters Ltd, at nearby Niagara Falls, Ont, will engage in similar endeavours. Most interesting of all is the extended role of Bristol AeroplaneCo of Canada Ltd, who, until late 1959 were mainly concerned with their repair and overhaul facilities at Montreal and Vancouverinternational airports. They have entered the aerial survey field hv purchasing Spartan Air Services Ltd of Ottawa; and there arealso rumours linking their name with Autair Services Ltd of Montreal. This is in addition to their recent purchase of OkanaganHelicopters for $3m. Meanwhile, some of the fixed-wing local operators, using suchaircraft as DC-3s, Cessna T-50s and 172s, de Havilland Doves and even Lockheed Lodestars, are having a difficult time bothgetting into business and staying in it. Between 1956 and 1959 six firms requested local-operations licences from the federal AirTransport Board. Of these applications, one was refused, two are pending and three others were granted. Of the three whose appli-cations were accepted only one remained active by mid-1960. All these candidates were either seeking to set up servicesbetween cities served by Trans Canada or Canadian Pacific, or to operate in close proximity to the mainline networks. As in theUSA, regional operators claim that the flying public must come to think of their limited services as allied to those of the largeroperators, not as additional transport facilities which can be con- veniently called upon at the last moment if a train schedule isunsuitable or if the car won't start. But unlike the American operators, who by and large stay in business largely because of themuch larger population potential, many Canadian companies cannot keep such services in operation. In Canada, as elsewherein North America, break-even seat-mile costs with feederline air- craft are only economical with full or nearly-full loads on everyscheduled trip. New Management Approach. Perhaps the most importantemerging trends for the coming difficult decade for Canadian aviation are those which other Canadian domestic industries willsooner or later have to face in view of dwindling markets at home and increasingly competitive imports from abroad. These are"hard-headed" management, more cost-control sense, and more sales and marketing "know-how" in commercial fields—this in anindustry which has enjoyed much of the cost-plus business that for years during and after the war, government manufacturing andrepair-and-overhaul contracts awarded it. These trends now reveal themselves in two ways: (a) a move tomanufacture products, if necessary, in basically non-aviation fields; and (b) tougher management for existing aircraft manufacturingconcerns. In the commercial fields some aviation manufacturers ase taking notice of the country's buoyant resource industries forthe first time and are now manufacturing items remote from air- craft fabrication. Nowhere is acceptance of these trends more noticeable than inthe company which suffered the most from the end of high- revenue government orders with the termination of the Arrowcontracts and on which most of the responsibility for ending it was laid by critics of the industry in Canada. This, of course, isthe A. V. Roe Canada group. Now devoid of most of the senior executives of Arrow days, (who abandoned the company in the 259 Canadair have yet to complete a CF-104, but this F-104A was flown up recently from Lockheed's California Division in RCAF markings weeks following the CF-105 contract cancellation in February,1959) and of a large and valuable number of technical managerial personnel who either drifted to the USA, returned to the UnitedKingdom, or were absorbed by other Canadian industries, A. V. Roe Canada has pulled in its horns and is diversifying in a largeway. Its five aircraft-oriented companies, Avro Aircraft Ltd (air- frames), Orenda Engines Ltd (engines), Orenda Industrial Ltd(commercial products division, representing the Brush Electrical Group), Canadian Steel Improvement Ltd (aircraft engine forg-ings) and Canadian Applied Research Ltd (navigational aids), now form A. V. Roe Aeronautical Group Ltd, an entirely new team,sales and marketing-conscious, under Harvey Smith, the hard- driving but fair-minded ex-Henry-Kaiser production executivewho is now executive vice-president of the group. A "no nonsense" type of production chief of American origin,Smith was earlier manufacturing head of the old Avro Aircraft Ltd; though it is now recognized that many of the former chiefexecutives more concerned with widening A. V. Roe's corporate interests to include a major Canadian steel mill, truck and bus-making plant did not then give full play to him or other manu- facturing experts. Today, Smith heavily beats the bushes ofcommercial markets which A. V. Roe could once afford almost totally to ignore. "All the five companies are closely integrated so that everyoneknows what outside sales prospects the others have in mind and all can work together on them," says an enthusiastic company official. [Continued on page 261 Canadair «e* the first a-44-6 on November 75 >°st. Twelve of these side- • o^mg variants are being Slivered to the RCAF under '«e military designation of CO ?06
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