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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0763.PDF
FLIGHT, 1 June 1961 773 ^ recorded in a note on this page, the Duke of Edinburgh formally opened theC liege of Air Training at HambleonMay 19. He is seen about to fly one o the school's Apaches. With him is Capt J. W. G. James of BEA, chairman of the college's board of governors pUCAL INAUGURATION THE College of Air Training at Hamble was formally opened bythe Duke of Edinburgh after a tour of inspection on May 19.After flying a Queen's Flight Whirlwind to Hamble, the Duke was received by the chairman of the board of governors, Capt J. W. G.j ames, and the principal, AVM E. C. Bates, then crossed overimmediately to one of the College Piper Apaches and made a 30min flight with Wg Cdr G. C. Webb, the CFI. After this aerial inspec-tion, he toured the briefing and lecture rooms, hospital and other facilities, inspected the new electronic flight procedure trainersupplied by General Precision Systems and formally declared the college open. Speaking to the staff and the 41 students on the first course,which has been in session since last September, the Duke said that this was a great day for aviation and congratulated those respon-sible for the formation of the college—even if it should have been opened five years earlier. He said that, in addition to technicalknowledge and skill, the students should be encouraged to develop those personal characteristics and qualities which made up goodairmanship. At a time when everything possible was being done by machine, the man on the flight deck had to be able to apply thosequalities which raised him above the level of machines. In contrast with other institutions, where courses in several different fields wererun concurrently, the college students would tend to be isolated. Contact with other fields, and particularly with practising airlinepilots, should be encouraged. The Duke concluded that, whoever won in the present conflict between the independents and thecorporations, the College students would still be assured of their jobs. He then unveiled a commemorative plaque and was presentedwith a college tie by one of the students. The ceremony was attended by Mr Peter Thorneycroft,Minister of Aviation, Sir Matthew Slattery, chairman of BOAC, and Mr Anthony Milward, chief executive of BEA, the last-nameddeputizing for Lord Douglas of Kirlteside, who was at the British Trade Fair in Moscow. The GPS procedure trainer at Hamble is a fixed-base unit simu-lating the handling of a representative four-jet airliner with radio aid? and navigation plotting tables. A fault panel mounted next tothe co-pilot's or instructor's console can be detached and operated from the jump seat if two students are flying as crew. The firsttrainer is installed and another is to follow. The college fleet now consists of six Apaches and 11 Chipmunks, with three moreApaches and ten more Chipmunks to come. The Apaches are fitted with airline radio and have the trim controls relocated on a smallconsole at floor level between the pilots. Standard trimmers are in the roof, but the new location has already proved very popular. ITALIAN JETS THROUGH HONG KONG? MR C. ANDO, Alitalia's regional manager for the Middle Eastand Far East, has said in Melbourne that when the company'sown DC-8s are operating into Sydney next year he hopes that the route will be through Hong Kong and Bangkok rather than theDjakarta, Pnom Penh, Karachi route to be used by the first services from June. (The Alitalia service will begin with TAIDC-8s on charter, with Alitalia cabin service.) Alitalia is very conscious of the tremendous growth in trafficbetween Japan-Hong Kong-Manila-Sydney. There is no direct Australia-Hong Kong-Europe service at present, but Swissairand Cathay Pacific join to sell all-through tickets at the same fare as the direct Sydney- London service. It is understood that Australiawould not object to giving Alitalia rights for Sydney-Hong Kong, but the British attitude is not known. Alitalia will not, however,ask for Singapore at any stage. NO FRYING TONITE AMONG the problems of supersonic transport, as expressed byMr Beverley Shenstone of BEA, are "how not to fry the passengers" and "how to prevent non-passengers from going deaf."The corporation's chief engineer was speaking on May 25 as guest of honour at the annual dinner of the Canadian AeronauticalInstitute. Referring to IATA's recent supersonic symposium in Montreal he said: "The airlines did not call this symposium becausethey were mad keen to get into the supersonic transport business. It was indeed rather the opposite." He thought everybody wouldhave agreed that there are more problems than solutions; in his own opinion, "the difficulties now seem greater than they were beforethe symposium took place, and I am rather glad that my own air- line, being a short-haul airline, will not have any interest in super-some airliners for many, many years to come." At the moment it did not look as though Mach 3 aircraft couldtechnically be available before 1975. Should airlines be thinking about this step now? Some said that there should never be super-sonic transports but "the word never in aviation is a stupid word." Mr Shenstone noted that it took the aircraft industry 20 years tolearn to fly three-and-a-half times as fast as the DC-3, and in that progression there were several steps. It was now being suggestedthat in 15 years we should, without intermediate steps, increase our speed three-and-a-half times, an increase not of 430 m.p.h. but of1,500 m.p.h. The likelihood of technical difficulties needed most careful con-sideration. "I think I can say clearly," he went on, "that every jet flying at more than 500 m.p.h. has had major teething troublesranging from the disastrous to the merely expensive." Three major manufacturing firms had faced or were facing serious financiallosses and a number of airlines had lost a great deal of money. Mr Shenstone concluded his address by saying that the con-sequences of "pulling a fast one" might be the disappearance of some airlines or, alternatively, the forcing of others into combin-ations that could exert "complex and difficult travel restrictions of a type hitherto unknown." This could be a real danger to the publicwho would have to bear not only such restrictions but probably also higher fares resulting from the scramble. INDIANS AND AMERICANS DISAGREET ALKS between the Indians and the Americans about trafficrights have ended in breakdown. According to Mr B. R. Patel, Air-lndia"s general manager, the US attitude has been"fantastic." He says the Americans refused "even to consider" Air-India's request for a daily 707 jet service from Bombay to NewYork starting in April 1962. Present 707 frequency is five flights per week; Pan American and TWA operate six weekly services throughIndia. The Americans are said to argue that Indian-originating traffic isinsufficient to justify the increase in frequency. The Indians are, says Mr Patel, prepared to exchange for a daily 707 flight 10 or 14"or whatever number of flights that US carriers want." He adds: "We are prepared to go further: we would depart from the principleof predetermination on which we have insisted so far. But we must have daily frequency from next year because we cannot stabilizeAir-India's operations in the United States without that." (This probably means that they will not be able to keep their ends up inthe BOAC-Qantas-Air-India pool.) The civil aviation agreement between India and the US is one ofthe few "non-Bermuda-type" to which the Americans are a party. In other words, capacities of the carriers of each country arepredetermined, and not related to the principles of "fair and equal opportunity" (see next note). AND BERMUDA PRINCIPLES AT STAKE SOME foreign airlines were criticized in Congressional testimonyreleased on May 16 for using alleged "illegal and restrictivetactics" in competing with United States airlines. Mr Alan S. Boyd, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, said that many countrieswere "very unhappy" about their air agreements with the United States, which were patterned after the Bermuda agreement concludedwith Britain in 1947. The principles of the Bermuda agreement were, he said, subjectto serious criticism, "and it is questionable in our minds whether we can hold on to these principles."
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