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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2383.PDF
PLIGHT, 21 October 1960 649 Straight and Level LAST week that great man ofBritish aviation, Sir Charles Boost,affectionately known as Boostie to his many friends, called a news confer- ence in the Mayfair offices of Plummet Air Lines, of which he is chairman. "As some of you may have read in the papers," announced Sir Charles, wink- ing coyly at the air correspondent of the Daly Clanger, to whom he had leaked the story the day before, "Plummet Air Lines are now ready to enter into pool agreements with BOAC and BEA." There was a wild burst of applause. "I am glad you appear to approve," Boostie beamed. He winked at the air correspondent of the Daily Excess, to whom he intended to leak another story over a drink afterwards. "You don't need me to remind you of the value of these pools, which are the very founda- tion of Britain's proud place in the fore- front of world air transport today. "Our aim, we Plummeters, is to rely on the BOAC and BEA world-wide sales organizations to sell our seats for us. And with the great resources of these two fine corporations behind us, our financial problems will be at an end, British air transport as a whole will gain immeasurably and . . . and .'. .well, anyway, if foreign airlines have pools with BOAC and BEA, why shouldn't we, eh?" After the tumultuous applause had died down, someone asked whether the Minister of Planes approved of pools. "It's none of his damned business," snorted Boostie. "Anyway, when I did once mention pools to him he replied: 'Pool? Pools? You'd better talk to my colleague the Minister of Football about pools.'" The news conference ended in a roar of laughter. • The US firm Umbaugh, who have designed the Lycoming-engined Type 18 two-seat autogiro, claim that they have received 10,000 deposits for the aircraft, that Fairchild's Hagerstown factory will produce 240 by October and 640 by November. When "peak pro- duction" is reached, 72 Umbaughs will leave the production line every day. Let's look at these figures. Those 72 Umbaughs a day would add up to 26,280 a year. That would double the American business and touring aircraft fleet in two or three years. The rotor-blade manufacturers would have to turn out 78,840 good, safe blades per year—or nine blades per hour, 24 hours a day. Someone will have to train at least 26,280 new Umbaugh pilots each year. And there are likely to be more than 600 Umbaughs flying before the first prototype has a C of A. But then other people in aviation have been known to have problems—usually the problem of no orders. Which doesn't seem to be one of Umbaugh's problems. • "Fortunately we had backward- facing seats, and the only effects we felt were to be forced back into the seats." —Mrs Hannah Buckman, passenger on board the Falcon Airways Hermes which overran the runway at Southend as reported in The Times, October 10. "Many passengers could have been badly hurt if our seats had not faced backwards."—Mr Derek Dicks, also a passenger in the aircraft, as reported in the Daily Mail, October 10. I am tempted to remount my old backward-facing hobbyhorse, but per- haps comment is unnecessary. • United's proposed take-over of Capital Airlines is likely to lead to several more big US airline mergers. Already TWA is proposing to take over Northeast—another big fish swallowing, relatively speaking, a little fish. There are four big fish among the US domestic airlines: United, Eastern, American and TWA. There are any number of possible variations and per- mutations on who will take over who. The problem of digestion is, I imagine, tremendous: it is very nice to acquire new routes and to reduce com- petition (something which is giving the Civil Aeronautics Board concern). But there is a size in the airline business beyond which the economies of large scale can no longer be reaped, where- upon cost level tends to go up rather than down. I still think that the small airline is the one which has potentially the lowest cost level. It would be sad to see too many little fish being swallowed up. • So the Government has decided to accept the recommendations of the Chandos committee and grant a loan of up to £18m on a new "Queen" liner for Cunard. What, you may ask, has this got to do with aviation? Point 1: In 1958 North Atlantic air traffic overtook sea traffic and it will never look back. Point 2: This year, for the first time, more people are travelling to and from this country by air than by sea. Point 3: This month the Atlantic air fare was cut below the sea fare for the first time. Point 4: This month special new low "Skycoach" air fares are being introduced to British points overseas. What, if anything, did the Chandos committee report have to say about these trends? We do not know, because the full report was secret. If I had any money to invest, I think I would do what Cunard themselves did six months ago—put it in airlines. Guard That Mixer • "Milan, runway 35R/17L—Surface: Macadam with heads in concrete."— From Italian Notam 387/60. ROGER BACON Left, I'm getting quite a response to my "retired aero- planes still in service" inquiries. Here is a DC-3 doing duty as a restaurant near Paris/ Orly Right, aviation's worst structural de- sign-case—the female stiletto heel. Boeing sent me this picture to show how closely they are studying the problem
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