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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2098.PDF
518 FLIGHT, 23 September I960 new services will be operated in pool withthe corporation as will his airline's services (first-class, economy and the bi-monthlySkycoach) to Bermuda and Nassau begin- ning with Britannias next month. Thefinal agreement on this pool, which has been under lively discussion since lastMarch, has still not, it is understood, been reached. Asked what kind of equipmentCunard Eagle would use for Atlantic pas- senger services, if these are granted, MrBamberg says: "We shall buy the very best that is available."He explains that Cunard Eagle is not entirely against pooling, ^which is something that has to be accepted as "an established factof air transport life today." But he feels that the new Licensing Board must accept the fact that the principle of "two's company,three's a crowd" does not necessarily apply in a pool. The fact that two airlines are together in a pool should not, he feels, excludethe entry of a third, and it seems reasonable to speculate from this that Eagle are planning also to develop and expand their Europeanscheduled-services network in parallel with BEA. Mr Bamberg considers that one advantage of pooling is thepossibility of joint selling, though he feels that a pool is abused if traffic rights are used to exclude a third airline. So far as theBermuda/Nassau arrangement with BOAC is concerned, Cunard Eagle have made it clear that this pool will in no way mean thesurrender of their independence. He hopes that both corporations will come to accept the Minister's philosophy that Britain's airtransport should not be a monopoly. NEW YORK AND THE ROTODYNE TPHOUGH the Westland Rotodyne promises to be "the type•*- of aircraft that appears to meet New York Airways' require- ments" from 1964 onwards, and though the provisional order for15 aircraft still stands, NYA is not encouraged with the progress that is being made. Asked at Copenhagen last week about hisRotodyne plans, New York Airways' president, Mr Robert L. Cummings, said: "The Rotodyne promises to be the aircraftwe need, but what disturbs me somewhat is that in the two or three years since the prototype first flew there has been noprogress towards production." Mr Cummings appreciates that there are extenuating circum-stances as a result of the reorganization under Westland of the British helicopter industry, but he feels that by now some progressshould have been made towards putting the Rotodyne into pro- duction. He thinks that the noise problem can be solved so as tomake the Rotodyne suitable for operation by New York Airways, meeting the noise limitations of the Port of New York Authority.He is keeping in touch with BEA, and so far as Westland are concerned, it has not been suggested to him that something otherthan the Rotodyne might be more suitable for NYA. He indicates—based on the experience of his fleet of five15-seater twin-rotor single piston-engine Vertol 44Bs—a predilec- tion for twin-rotor stability in the bigger-sized helicopter, andhe says he is looking forward to delivery in May and June next year (perhaps in February of an uncertincated aircraft) of 10Boeing VI 07s (with the emphasis on the name Boeing). These twin-turbine T58 25-seaters, cruising at 155 m.p.h. and withall-weather capability, promise to bring about a big improvement in the economics of NYA's operations. Has Mr Cummings beento Moscow to see Aeroflot's expanding helicopter operations? No, not yet, though he has been invited and hopes to go. He saysthat he does not know how much information about the big Mi-6 80-seater helicopter is available—but "I can't help wonder-ing," he adds "whether it doesn't look something like the sort of aircraft that NYA might one day need." ._.•-.. >..•• .. ..-,. AIR COMMERCE . . . , lATA's executive committee and officers at Copenhagen were, seated I. to r., Gilbert Perier Sabena; Dr Walter Berchtold, Swissair Warren Lee Pierson, TWA; Charles £. Beard Branitf; Sir William Hildred, director-genera' of IATA; 1. R. D. Tata, Air-India; Gordon R McGregor, TCA; Seijiro Yanagita, Japan Air Lines; Sir Hudson Fysh, Qantas; Sheikh Najib Alamuddin, MEA; Lord Douglas o/ Kirtleside, BEA; General I. A. Aler, KLM; and Ake Rusck, SAS. Standing I. to r. are' Prof John C. Cooper, legal adviser; A. Laurence Young, secretary; Stanislaw Krzycxkowski, tech- nical director; Dr Henry J. Gorecki, treasurer and financial director; Gregorio Obregon Avianca; J. G. Grove, SAA; Max Hymans, Air France; and Ruben M. Berta, Varig. A mem- ber not present was John C. Leslie, PanAm SUPERSONICS AT COPENHAGEN TW'O airline has ever actually protested at suggestions that the•^ introduction of supersonic transports should be delayed until after 1970. The reason is simply that present aircraftmust be fully utilized and depreciated. In saying this in Copen- hagen the chairman of IATA's technical committee, Mr KnutHagrup of SAS, added that he did not think the ground faci- lities would be ready by 1970. Also IATA thought that theautomatic landing of supersonic airliners was essential, since it would be too expensive to divert these aircraft. IATA's recently appointed Supersonic Transport AdvisoryGroup was, Mr Hagrup said, "drawing up a specification so that we are not taken by surprise. We want to avoid the repetitionof what happened when Pan American ordered the 707 and everyone else signed on the dotted line virtually without seeingthe aircraft concerned." This group was, he said, composed of five very senior IATA people—all engineering vice-presidents—and IATA's supersonic symposium would take place in May in Montreal. It was expected that 600-700 people would attend.IATA's 1961 technical conference would in fact be devoted primarily to the investigation of every possible aspect of thesupersonic aircraft, and the work of the advisory group had three aims: (i) to ensure that airlines will have a clear idea of whattheir needs will be; (ii) to ensure that when a supersonic aircraft does arrive, it will be tailored to fit these needs; and (iii) to ensurethat the potential deficiencies in support equipment, aids and facilities can be pinpointed in order to avoid future bottlenecks. Asked whether IATA airlines could agree to avoid a supersonic"rat-race," Mr Hagrup did not deny that it would be hard to prevent one airline going ahead on its own—"but there is thepoint that no manufacturer could go ahead with an order for only 20 of these aircraft from one airline." POLICY ON JET POLICIES THE percentage of aircraft insurance premiums allowed as com-mission to brokers should, IATA's financial committee recom- mends, be "re-assessed." The airlines feel that the "responsibilityand workload of brokers have not increased in the same degree as the increase in premiums." Asked to enlarge on this in Copen-hagen last week, Dr H. J. Gorecki, IATA's financial director, said that airlines do not necessarily know the amount of suchcommissions, which are included in the premiums they pay to insurance companies. But if he had to "put a figure on it" hewould say that it ranged between 3 and 10 per cent depending on what type of service the broker performed. The trend towards self-insurance was also a subject of somediscussion in Copenhagen last week. It was noted that some large airlines are tending towards self-insurance "rather than pay steeplyrising premiums." But IATA has not been able to agree on the formation of a mutual insurance scheme. The reason for this,explains Dr Gorecki, is that some airlines have better safety records than others, and there is the question of agreement onindividual contributions to the financing of any IATA insurance house. Some airlines would inevitably be reluctant to contributeto the insurance of higher-risk airlines than themselves. 'We tried a similar system with the bonding of agents," said Dr Gorecki,"but it ran at a loss and there was a lack of understanding and co-operation." There is no doubt, he says, that insurance companies are losingbusiness as a result of the trend within the airline industry towards self-insurance. He feels that future experience may showthat jets are safer. The actual premium on a new jet, depending on the risks involved, might be anything between 1.5 and»|«cent. And there is the point—made by Mr Bernstrom ot aAb that amounts set aside as self-insurance are taxed by some govern-ments as a distribution of profit. Another point, he says, is that
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