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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0564.PDF
574 FLIGHT, 27 April 19 l CORRESPONDENCE... factors." True; but the point, as it appears to the uninitiated, isthis: let us assume that all the Ministries and international price rings, etc, no longer existed and that therefore fares could bearsome relation to journey costs. I doubt whether even an airline accountant would dispute that a propeller-driven aeroplane willcarry a given number of passengers from A to B on less fuel than a jet, particularly if both are "stacked" for a while at, say, 10,000ft.Therefore, assuming (and it is a big assumption) that maintenance costs are equal, the "propeller" passengers would each have to payless than the "jet" passengers. Which is likely to have the higher load factor? The answer, while the vast majority of airline passengers are onexpense accounts, is the jet, due to the thickness of both carpets and caviar. However, 1 have started from the premise that this iscommercial aviation, i.e. "safe, fast, cheap air travel for you and your family" (vide any airline advert). Under these circumstances,surely Mr Bloggs is going to take the wife and kids to the south of France for his week's holiday by propeller; and before somebodyscreams "passenger comfort!" I would submit that Mr Bloggs' greatest comfort lies in his wallet on arrival, even assuming thepropeller aeroplane to be slightly uncomfortable, which is far from the case, as anyone who has flown in a Britannia will confirm.Furthermore 1 submit he will not care whether his sandwiches contain smoked salmon or sardine. The jet protagonists are already reaching for their vitriol-dippedpens and sorting out phrases like "more journeys per year," or more likely "more airborne seat-miles per annum." 1 would refer them tothe times quoted by Capt A. S. Johnson for the Vanguard in his article in Flight dated March 3, which they are at liberty to comparewith any actual jet times (as opposed to advertised times), parti- cularly the European trips he mentions. Furthermore, each pro-peller-driven aeroplane is closing the speed gap further. The other main point of attack will undoubtedly be "assuming equal main-tenance costs," and I shall receive a barrage of "higher initial outlays" (meaning that propellers cost money), "depreciation rates"and "write-down costs"—whatever they are, but which 1 take to mean that propellers wear out. With this 1 agree, but costs aresmall compared to the fuel saved if the aeroplane is really flogged (sorry, "high utilization"). I stick to my story that the maintenancecosts of a well-developed propeller system are, or should be, negligible. It may be said without fear of contradiction(?) that if air fareswere comparable to surface transport fares over distances of, say, up to 1,000 miles, the aircraft manufacturers would be pushed tokeep up with the orders, instead of moaning about the "small home market." If someone were to design a suitable STOL turbopropaeroplane, with engines whose s.f.c. was as good as, or better than, the Tyne (0.39 approx), this day would come very much closer. Tothose who say "why turboprop; why not a turbofan?" I would say "what is a turbofan but a rather inefficient fixed-pitch propeller?" Alas! all this assumes that airlines want to make profits in realmoney and not only the annual accounts where dead losses of umpteen thousand pounds can be tactfully ignored; also that faresare related to journey cost and do not comprise an unrealistic FORTHCOMING EVENTS Apr 28 Society of Weight Engineers (London Branch): Forum on "Design, Manufacture and Operation of Aircraft." Apr28-30 Shackleton Aviation Weekend, Baginton. May 3 BritIRE: Symposium on "Computer Control of Air Traffic." May 4 RAeS: Annual General Meeting. May 5 RAeS Rotorcraft Section: "Transport Rotorcraft Design Trend," by Raoul Hafner. May 8 RAeS Historical Group: Discussion Evening. May 9 RAeS: "Structural Weight Estimations for Novel Configura- tions," by M. E. Burt. May 12 Institute of Navigation: "Airborne Weather Radar," by Capt R. C. Alabaster and P. L. Stride. May 13-22 British Gliding Association: National Championships, Lasham. May 16-18 Institute of Navigation (in conjunction with French and German Institutes): Convention on "The Avoidance of Collision at Sea and in the Air by Land- or Shore-based Aids," Dusseldorf. May22-24 Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences: National Telemetering Conference, Chicago. June 2 RAeS Rotorcraft Section: "Development of Stabilizing Equip- ment for Helicopters," by P. D. MacMahon. June 15 RN Air Station Lee-on-Solent At Home. June 17 RN Air Station Yeovilton At Home. June 17 Tenth Tactical Reconnaissance Wing. USAF, Open Day, RAF Alconbury. June 17 Opening of Bedfordshire Air Centre, Cranfield. June 24 RN Air Station Arbroath At Home. June 24 Air Day, Bristol Airport. minimum plus a surcharge which the curve shows to rise as thesquare of the thickness of the carpet (or the caviar). (My life insurance people take no risk when they insure me for flying as afare-paying passenger on any recognized airline, for this is one form of flying which 1 shall never be able to afford—unless the propellermakes a come-back.) The third factor militating against me is the expense account, and so I am reluctantly forced to the conclusionthat the airlines were not so mad in their insane desire to buy bigger, faster and noisier aeroplanes which cannot but be more expensive!both to buy and to fly. Nevertheless, there ain't no justice! Stevenage, Herts S. REW IN your discussion of the operating-cost comparison in m\paper on Airline Fleet Planning, you have not made clear thatin my picture the normal formula costs (based on actual perfor- mance data where available) were adjusted to enable the comparisonbetween piston, turboprop and jet economies to be detected amongst the other interwoven sources of variation. These adjustments took care, so far as possible, of the generalview of the operating costs of any aircraft due to the following factors: (a) design seat-capacity (all cases adjusted to 100 seats.34in pitch); (b) design stage (adjusted to 1,000 statute miles): (c) prime-cost change with time (this was adjusted by the change inprice index between date of first purchase of the type and the year 1959). The Viscounts were not assumed to be written down, as yousuggested, but were taken at the original purchase price, corrected for changes in price index (factor c above). The diagram that you reproduced should, therefore, be read as acomparison of the general differences between the three families. modified by design quality between members. It does not indicaterelative suitability of actual aircraft for a specific operational task. London Airport, Middx K. G. WILKINSON THE INDUSTRY Elliott-Automation Ltd have formed a new subsidiary company inSweden, AB Elliott-Automation. Mr L. Walker, MIEI, ARAes, MASQC, has been appointed company chief inspector for the Plessey Group. He formerly held a similar post with Scottish Aviation. Now in Canada and America to discuss display models with a num-ber of airlines is Mr Ian Walker of Westway Models Ltd, whose activities in this field are referred to on pages 568-569. He hopes to beat the Westbury Hotel, New York, on April 28 and again on May 8. Mr P, Corcoran has been appointed contracts manager of W.S.Electronics Ltd. He will be concerned with exploitation of the com- pany's airborne telecommunications equipment and systems andaircraft telemetry equipment and systems. Alcan Industries Ltd announce the election of two new directors,Mr A. A. Bruneau and Mr R. J. Moyse. Mr Bruneau joined Alcan Industries (then Northern Aluminium) last year as secretary; MrMoyse was last year appointed chief financial officer and treasurer of the company, Mr W. R. Owen has been given responsibility for the Cardiff andManchester offices of Honeywell Controls Ltd, in addition to con- tinuing as Birmingham branch manager. This follows the transfer ofMr T. Jackson and Mr R. Robson from Manchester and Cardiff respectively to head office positions at Greenford. Mr Alan W. Baker has become general manager of Chloride BatteriesLtd. He succeeds Mr C. Pritchett, to release the latter for other duties jn technical management within the Chloride Group. Mr Bakerjoined Chloride Batteries as assistant general manager in November 1959. Mr J. W. Pooley has recently taken up the appointment of operationsmanager, Oxford Aviation Co Ltd, at Oxford Airport, Kidlington. He was previously with Metropolitan Air Movements Ltd at Gatwick. Hisnew position includes responsibility for the company's expanding business and executive aircraft charter operations. Mr Edwin Dunne, AMIEE, has been appointed chief inspector.Farnborough plant, Solartron Electronic Group Ltd. He joined the company in January this year, having been deputy chief inspector withde Havilland Propellers Ltd and chief inspector to A. C. Cossor Ltd and Cossor Radar & Electronics Ltd. At the first board meeting of CIBA United Kingdom Ltd, Mr J. MBaldock agreed to join the board of directors. He is chairman o( Lenscrete Ltd. The other CIBA United Kingdom directors are DrDr h.c. R. Kappeli, chairman; Sir Arthur Vere Harvey, managing director; Dr Dr h.c. A. Wilhelm (Swiss); Dr A. Brunner (Swiss); mdSir Joseph Napier. Air Cdre M. Watson, CB, CBE, has been appointed Rolls-Royce sMesrepresentative in London and will be based at the company's office m Conduit Street. His last RAF appointment, before retiring from sheService at his own request in 1954, was that of Director of Signal ai Air Ministry. He joined Rolls-Royce in 1956 and for the past five y.arshas been Rolls-Royce technical representative with Rocketdyne Divison of North American Aviation Inc in California. Maj J. Vivian Holman, director of the Adam Engineering Co td(Haesler Sales), 4 Grange Street, St Albans, Herts, has taken up residence at "Farthings," Spinney Lane, West Chiltington, Nr • ul-borough, Sussex (West Chiltington 2195), in order to increase he service of the company and assist its sub-agents in connection with hesale of its range of Continental precision machine tools. He ma; ot contacted at this telephone number, but correspondence should continueto be addressed to c/o 4 Grange Street, St Albans.
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