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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1823.PDF
I'LIGHT, 9 September 1960 AIR COMMERCE . In ux in West Africa as a feederliner for more than seven years, Herons are now operated on loco' services out of Accra by Ghana Airways AMERICAN SUPERSONICS \1/ILL the US Government finance theT* production of America's supersonic airliner? The answer is certain to be yes;and here is the view of the FAA as ex- pressed by Mr James Pyle, the deputy headof the Agency, to the US National Academy of Sciences last month: "In the past, major shifts to larger andfaster aircraft have characteristically in- volved lower, or at least potentially lower,seat-mile costs—a fact which helped con- siderably in meeting the many economicproblems that accompany modernization of an air fleet. It may be difficult to achieveseat-mile costs for the supersonic transport that are any lower than those of today'sjets. However, comparable costs, at least, appear possible, and attractiveness of the higher speeds to users is expected to result inthe domination of all routes of 2,000 miles or more by the super- sonic transports. This nation's airlines would therefore have toacquire supersonic transports to remain in the international market, despite possibly higher operating costs, payment still dueon subsonic jets, or even possibly the fact that the supersonic transports were not of United States manufacture. "The competition in supersonic transport development will bekeen. Both Great Britain and.France have signified a definite interest in the development of such aircraft, and governmentsupport for these programs may be taken for granted. The Soviet Union also is expected to work aggressively toward placing asupersonic transport in service as soon as possible. "The competitive success of the United States in world com-mercial aviation and the respect for United States transports as technical achievements have been very important both in prestigeand in the maintenance of export levels. However, our leadership in aviation is being challenged aggressively on both sides of theIron Curtain. These facts, together with the general responsibility of government for progress in transportation, stimulate ourinterest in the problem regarding the supersonic transport." NEXT STEP TO A MIDLAND AIRPORT DLANNING permission for the development of the northx Leicestershire airfield of Castle Donington has now been applied for by Derby Corporation. It is understood also thata firm offer for its purchase has been made to the Air Ministry, who own it. Derby Town Council have earmarked £75,000 inthe financial estimates for airport development in 1960/61 and £110,000 has been carried forward for work later. Re-opening of Castle Donington as an airport for Nottingham,Derby and Leicester was proposed some while ago, and in March (see Flight, March 25, 1960) the five town and county councilsconcerned jointly contributed £2,500 towards the cost of a com- prehensive survey. Plans for a Midland civic airport have thefull support of Derby Aviation, whose development is to some 407 extent restricted by lack of runways and hardstandings on Derby'sgrass field. They foresee that their move might be made in about two years' time when it could coincide with long-term plans tointroduce a turboprop—possibly as a member of the independent six-pool, the formation of which is still under active consideration. Because of their geographical location Derby Aviation havealways had to be unusually self-sufficient and self-contained and if they did move to Castle Donington it would be a lock, stockand barrel operation. Rather than build a new £150,000 hangar, the present building could probably be cheaply re-erected. The airline still leans towards the Herald as its future turbo-prop; Derby particularly like it as the fuselage is large enough to accommodate the spare engines which they freight for Rolls-Royce and because wing repairs and changes should be relatively simple. At one time Derby proposed to operate the first productionHerald on a charter basis. This aircraft was the one that was destroyed and its successor has subsequently been very busy withdemonstration tours. But provided Handley Page are willing to charter out an aircraft at a price that would give Derby a reason-able profit margin the airline would "still be very interested." BRITAIN'S TRANSATLANTIC TERMINALS TTOW is traffic shared between the three British airports which•*••*- cater for transatlantic jet traffic? The answers are shown below, but they require careful interpretation before a true pictureof progress at individual terminals can be presented. There was a big fall in Manchester transatlantic traffic from theUS in 1959-60, as is shown in the table below, but it is accounted for by the fact that in the previous year some 11,000 MATSpassengers were handled there. The following table shows how the three main UK transatlanticterminals have fared over the last two years: — Pass to/from UK-Canadc Percent total UKPercent rate of growth ...J ass to/from US-UK3 ercent total UK•*ercent rate of growth ... 3ass across N. Atlantic ... 'ercent total UK'ercent rate of growth ... London 1958-59 75,817 72 1959-60 81,282 69 + 7 281,286 81 + 357,103 79 377,666 85 34 458,948 82 + 29 Prestwick* 1958-59 24,715 23 1959-60 29,249 25 + 18 45,139 13 47,683 11 + 6 69,854 15 76,932 14 + 10 Manchester 1958-59 5,212 5 + 21,862 6 1959-60 6,462 6 24 15,839 4 -28 27,074 6 22,301 4 -18 + 11 +27 +23 *Main runway closed for first 2j months of year 1958-59. The Tri-Pacer in this PanAm DC-7F is one of a number that have been air-freighted to LAP from Boston in about 15hr. This gives the recipients, Grantair of Grantchester, just sufficient time to prepare for the light aircraft to be Customs-cleared on the tarmac and loaded on to a specially modified car transporter. An imported aircraft can be airborne with a hire-and-reward C of A seven days after leaving the US
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