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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0895.PDF
FLIGHT, 29 June 1961 907 The first Caravelle 6R to be built for United, but actually the second to be delivered, is seen here at Le Bourget; it was demonstrated at the Paris Salon. A point of interest is the deeper cockpit windows. (See news-item on this page) AIR COMMERCE CUNARD EAGLE WINS T-'HE Air Transport Licensing Board has decided to grant CunardJL Eagle a licence for a London - New York service, using Boeing 707-465s and Britannias. Frequency is to be once daily, and thelicence is for 15 years—from August 31, 1961, to July 31, 1976. Manchester, Prestwick, Philadelphia, Boston. Baltimore andWashington (all designated points in the US-UK Air Agreement) may be served, although passengers cannot be carried from Londonto Manchester or Prestwick, (no domestic traffic rights); nor does the licence cover the carriage of mail. Cunard Eagle was refusedrights to operate to Toronto, Montreal, Detroit and Chicago. "We are surprised and deeply disappointed by the Board'sconclusions," comments BOAC. "We shall personally appeal against them, as we have the right to do, in the strongest possibleway. The Board's decision appears to accept that inevitably there will be diversions, and probably material diversions, of traffic fromBOAC if Cunard Eagle operate successfully. If this be the case, BOAC's position on the North Atlantic will be undermined.BOAC had understood that it was the intention of Parliament, as embodied in the Civil Aviation Licensing Act, I960, that thisshould not occur." Significant—indeed, gratifying—is the fact that the Board foreseesthat the advent of another carrier will generate more traffic, but while admitting that there will probably be material diversion fromBOAC the Board does not regard this in itself as necessarily a bar to the grant of a licence. Material diversion, it seems, is not such abogy to the Board as it is to airlines, and the Board did not consider Cunard's unwillingness to bear the whole cost of replacing theQueen Mary as relevant to their ability to support a transatlantic air service. To license a second British carrier to Canada wouldlead to wasteful duplication, in the Board's opinion; nor was it thought that the US mid-west routes could economically supporttwo British carriers. Cunard Eagle proposes to start services with Boeing 707s in May1962, and theii 707 crews are to be offered terms and conditions of employment no less favourable than those of BOAC. Although without a statistical staff to make an independentanalysis of traffic-growth estimates proffered by rival airlines, the Board has nevertheless come up with some general comments onestimated traffic-growth between this country and North America. Their opinion is that from now until the late nineteen-sixties atleast, the rate of increase between the UK and the US east coast and mid-west could scarcely be put at less than 15 per cent, nor atmuch more than 20 per cent per annum on average. There would appear to be a major difference of opinion about estimated traffic,says the Board, but the essential point was that the number of passengers would be in excess of lm by 1966-67, and growing fast.The difference in the exact timing was small in relation to the un- certainties of the situation five or six years hence. "The rate ofincrease may receive an impetus by a more substantial reduction in fares than was assumed by BOAC in their evidence," the Boardadds, acknowledging that traffic-growth would be retarded by any recession. AIR TERMINAL FOR VICTORIA AT last this country can look forward to the prospect of adegree of rail/air co-operation comparable to that of France,where several SNCF (French Railways) stations sell Air Inter tickets. British United Airways and the Southern Region ofBritish Railways have reached agreement on the construction of a new £80,000 air terminal at Victoria Station, to be built over therailway platforms. It is hoped to have the terminal, which should be conveniently near the Battersea heliport, in use in the summer of1962. "Our aim is to enable people to buy an airline ticket at every railway station in Britain," said Mr F. A. Laker of BUA, com-menting on the new scheme. "This is the second co-operative venture between British United Airways and British Railways. TheEastern Region already operates a rail-air-rail service to the Continent in conjunction with Channel Air Bridge and BelgianNational Railways." Victoria's traditional role as gateway to the Continent will beenhanced by the new terminal, especially if a roof landing area for helicopters can ultimately be incorporated. Escalators will carrypassengers and their baggage up from ground level. From the other side of the terminal hall a bridge will stretch across the tracks, with stairways down to the platforms; thus, after checkingin for their flights, passengers can go straight to the trains taking them to Gatwick. This arrangement will have obvious advantageswhen "walk-on" services similar to those of Allegheny and Eastern are operated out of Gatwick on high-frequency routes. The new terminal, and the proximity of Battersea heliport, onceagain emphasizes the need for a helicopter service linking Gatwick, the centre of London and London (Heathrow). And British Unitedmay now have a powerful ally in British Railways to support their requests for new European routes. The new terminal has beendesigned by Pascall and Watson of Westminster, and will be capable of handling over a million passengers annually; it willreplace British United's Brompton Road Air Station. On the debit side, congestion at Gatwick is causing a problemat peak periods. A BE A official is quoted as saying: "The Ministry has not enough porterage and the terminal building itself is not bigenough. We are very worried about what will happen next summer." The Ministry's reply is that it is impossible to getsufficient casual labour for the summer periods; that it is expected to have students on vacation starting work soon; and that there isno evidence that delays are being caused by shortage of porters. VERTOLS FOR BEA? INTERIM" is a word that, applied to airport buildings andhelicopters, has an unpleasant habit of meaning "permanent." If BEA is allowed to buy Boeing-Vertol J07s as interim equipmentpending availability of the Rotodyne, what effect will this decision have on the latter helicopter's future? This question is sure to bein Mr Thorneycroft's mind when he discusses BEA's proposed Vertol purchase with Lord Douglas; BEA would introduce Vertolsin about two years' time, subject to Government sanction for dollar expenditure. Some dollars could be saved by specifying deHavilland Gnomes instead of General Electric T58s and, according to the Daily Express, BEA'S initial order would probably be forthree aircraft costing about £600,000 with spares. This order may well have been announced by the time these words appear. UNITED'S CARAVELLES ON June 12 the first of the 20 Caravelle 6Rs for United Air Lineswas christened Ville de Toulouse—which must contrast strangely with the "Mainljner" names of the existing UAL fleet.United's president, Mr W. A. Patterson, was invited to Toulouse by M. Georges Hereil, president of Sud-Aviation; and M. Bazerque,Mayor of Toulouse, welcomed the guests to the ceremony in the Capitol Hotel, at which the aircraft was formally handed over tothe operator. Ville de Toulouse is the 86th Caravelle to be completed, and onJune 12 it had flown 93hr 26min; the second for UAL (actually the 62nd to be built) had at this time logged llhr, and was demon-strated at the Paris Salon. Two other United aircraft will roll out this month; scheduled services are due to begin on July 14, andthe entire fleet of 20 should be delivered by January 1 next. NEVTRIGHTS FOR THE IRISH QPEAKING in Cork recently, Mr Jeremiah Dempsey, generali3 manager of Aer Lingus Irish International, revealed that his company had secured traffic rights from Cork to Birmingham and/orDerby, Leeds and Bradford and/or Newcastle, Liverpool and Haver- fordwest. Presumably the routes to Leeds/Bradford and Newcastlewill be operated in pool with BKS, who have obtained rights to Cork on these sectors. Since RAF operational requirements at Valley prevented AerLingus from operating their proposed Dublin-Anglesey coach-air service in 1959, the airline's commercial planning department hasbeen searching for an alternative airport in Wales. Now it appears that Haverfordwest is the place: the distance from Cork to Haver-fordwest is 140 statute miles compared with the 70 separating Dublin and Valley. Haverfordwest is about 100 miles from Cardiffand about 250 from London by road, and Cork is the gateway to the main tourist areas in the southern region of the Republic—thelakes of Killamey and the Ring of Kerry. Excursion return rates from Cork to Cardiff and London are respectively (with effect fromOctober 1961) £10 and £15 6s, and coach-air rates for these two destinations might well be £7 15s and £8 15s for the round trip.
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