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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1676.PDF
780 FLIGHT. 16 November 1961 AIR COMMERCE . . . INFINITY WILL NOT BE VULGARIZED DURING the passage of the Civil Aviation Licensing Billthrough Parliament in the spring of 1960 the question ofbringing sky-writing, banner-towing and aerial advertising under some form of licensing control was heatedly discussed. OneMember objected to aerial advertising as "the vulgarization of infinity," and his views seemed to be echoed by the Minister ofAviation and by Parliament. Section 7 of the Act, which prohibits aerial advertising and propaganda, is now due to come into forceon January 1, 1962. From that date the only circumstances in which an aircraft—to quote the Ministry—"may emit or display any communication or advertise in such a way that it is audible or visible from theground" are prescribed in the Civil Aviation (Aerial Advertising) Regulations, 1961, issued on November 6. The regulations extendto gliders, kites and balloons (the Minister has even given thought to the use of toy balloons, which he has decided to exempt from theregulations). Briefly, therefore, aerial advertising is to be completely pro-hibited. There will never again be sky-writing over the British Isles, nor sky-shouting, nor banner-towing nor any advertisingexcept for what might be described as official purposes. US FARES DILEMMA A MOVE to increase domestic fares is now being made by someUS carriers. United Air Lines, tor example, has asked theCAB for permission to increase jet and propeller coach fares by 5 per cent, plus SI per single ticket, and to eliminate propellernight coach fares. In addition, the airline wants to increase first- class jet and propeller fares by SI per ticket. It is also proposedthat the existing jet surcharges shall be integrated into the new fare structure. In addition to the basic problem of excess jet capacity, US air-lines are disturbed at the inroads being made by coach fares into first-class revenues. The CAB has been encouraging the industryto reduce frills before increasing fares, and this is believed to have been one of the main items for discussion by the 11 US airlinepresidents at a meeting with the CAB last month in Washington. The result was the elimination by most airlines of drink and mealservices from coach-class flights, one exception being Continental. Meanwhile there has been widespread disenchantment with theresults of the promotional "youth fare" plan, which has been dropped by eight of the 18 carriers which adopted it. National, too, has asked the CAB for permission to raise coachfares—from the existing level of 75 per cent of first-class fares to 85 per cent. One US airline, however, is not only resistinj the all too easytemptation to increase fares when traffic is falling short, but is actually seeking approval for lower jet coach fares. ContinentalAirlines, in what it describes as "a major move to bring the cost of jet travel within the reach of millions of non-flying Americans,"is planning "drastic reductions" in jet fares from December I. Fares would be 25 per cent lower than present jet coach fares.They would be descri'-ed as economy class and would be available The Sikorsky S-6IL became the world's first twin-turbine helicopter to be certificated when, at Stratford, Conn, on October 31, Mr Najeeb £. Halaby, administrator of the FAA (right), presented final certification papers to Mr Lee S. Johnson, Sikorsky's general manager (left). Looking on is Mr Fred W. Milam, vice-president of Los Angeles Airways, which is putting the new helicopter into scheduled passenger service next month D.H. Comet 4Cs of MEA have been airlifting 1,500 Scandinavian troops of the United Nations Emergency Force in the Middle East from Beirut to Oslo and Copenhagen, and bringing back 1,500 fresh troops to take their place. The homeward-bound troops were flown from El Arish in the Gaza Strip to Beirut by three RCAF D.H. Caribous assigned to the UNEF. The number of troops carried by three Caribous makes up one Comet load of 98 officers and men on all the company's "Golden Jet" 707 services. There would beno change in existing first-class or coach ("Club Coach") services. The interior of each Golden Jet would be revised to accommodate75 economy seats, of special lightweight Teco design, in addition to 36 coach seats and 28 first-class seats. Present configuration is44 first-class and 76 coach-class. There would be no meal service to the economy passengers. It seems likely that the CAB will be disposed to approve Conti-nental's plan to boost revenues rather than that of those carriers who are choosing the shorter-term expedient of increasing fares.Mr Robert Six, the president of Continental, says: "We believe that jet economy fares will generate enough new air travel to increasethe industry's profits." BO AC'S SURPLUS PROPELLERS A NEW feature has appeared in BO AC News, entitled "Fromthe Managing Director's Desk." In the first issue, datedNovember 3, Sir Basil Smallpeice announces a plan—unprecedented in BOAC's recent history—deliberately to reduce capacity nextyear on the western routes. The reduction will be only small, but it represents a major reappraisal of the corporation's policy,evident during the past two or three years, to make its greatest production efforts on western routes. For example, during the12 months ended June 1961 (the latest 12-month period for which figures are available), BOAC increased its western-routes outputby no less than 53.6 per cent, while traffic went up by only (relatively speaking) 30.3 per cent—load factor being 51.5 per cent. In themonth of June itself an increase in available capacity of no less than 65 per cent was recorded, for a traffic increase of only 17.2per cent. Obviously the corporation cannot continue to over- schcdulc on this scale. As recorded last week, some 707 capacity will be redeployed onthe eastern routes. On these routes capacity and traffic have been more successfully related, capacity increase during the 12 monthsending June 1961 being 18.7 per cent, with traffic going up by 15.6 per cent. Overall load factor was 63.1 per cent, compared with 51.5per cent on the western routes. Boeing 707s will operate to the Far East, linking with the trans-Pacific 707 services at Tokyo, andthe surplus Comet hours that are thrown up will be redeployed on the West African routes to Nigeria and Ghana. This will, in turn, inevitably increase the corporation's surplus ofpropeller capacity; and Sir Basil Smallpeice announces that the fleet of eight DC-7Cs will be retired in April and the 13 Britannia102s (another is leased to Malayan) in about 12 months" time. Efforts to sell DC-7Cs have been made for a year or more past,and these efforts have been intensified in recent months. The news that Riddle Airlines of Miami is purchasing ten more DC-7Cs tobring its fleet of these aircraft up to 20 inevitably raises the question of how hard the corporation has tried to dispose of its DC-7Cs.Seven years ago, when the corporation ordered ten of these aircraft as an insurance against late delivery of the Britannia 312s, it gavethe Minister an "express undertaking" that the aircraft would be sold when the Britannias were in scheduled service on the NorthAtlantic. This condition was later relaxed so that the DC-7Cs could be retained until the corporation's 15 Boeing 707s weredelivered. The fifteenth and last 707 was, in fact, delivered in January 1961. Meanwhile, not only Riddle have bought 20 used DC-7Cs but
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