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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0087.PDF
LIGHT International, 18 January 1962 SAFETY, ECONOMY, COMFORT ne time he's saved by travelling so fast. It is now becoming xiomatic, even with young executives, that a man who has just own three or four thousand miles should have at least one night's iatic rest before he can operate at maximum business efficiency in .. discussion or a competitive selling operation. A little more comfort in the air, the chance of sleeping soundly .id with reasonable leg stretch, would be well worth the extra hour •r two. We made such an enormous step forward when jet travel , as pioneered by the BO AC Comets that flying time has been cut v about half; marginal reductions in the jet age do not add up to nything so important as savings in cost or increase in comfort You are speaking more of the long-haul operation; what about the ••horter journey when you want to bring travel to the masses ? I agree that on stages like London - Brussels, or New York - Miami, when flying duration is short, the sardine-packing doesn't matter so much, and savings can be made. But I am still conscious of the fact that in relation to the price paid for hotels and holiday amenities the cost of travel is disproportionately low. If we are going to have really low fares, wouldn't it be better to have a different kind of air transport vehicle, designed specially for economy '.' As I indicated in the Air League report, we do need more original thinking. There have been only two basic design improvements in the last 20 years—one the jet engine and the other the placing of engines at the back. Otherwise the general aerodynamics of aircraft haven't altered. We have the same long cylindrical tube with a large wing at the front and a smaller one at the back. If we are really getting down to low costs on a medium stage-length, oughtn't we to consider the potential of a double-decker, a different fuselage shape, and assisted take-off so that more can be got into the air with a given engine power? If we could make advances in these matters then I'm inclined to think there is not much point in talking of mid-city airports with all the attendant noise problems. The present airports are there, the runways are in being; the solution now seems to lie in the improvement of surface connections to the airports, and then have aircraft with the characteristics of a London bus rather than of a 3.4 Jaguar. After the thoughts you've expressed about desirable characteristics of future aircraft would you care to say anything of BO AC s commit ments with VClOs and Super VCWs ? All that I can say is that I'm glad I am not the chairman of BOAC and responsible for the financial operation of these forward fleets. I would also view with considerable trepidation the task of 87 selling off the 707s in a market which will already have a very ample supply. And I shall watch with considerable interest the prototype trials and all the worries of introducing the new type into service. 1 am impressed by one point—the clean wings of the VC10 should give better landing and take-off characteristics. But whether this improvement will result in sufficient extra passenger attraction to draw traffic away from the competing airlines is something that remains to be seen. You mention your Air League report; two points arose from that about which I should like to ask questions. You pleaded in the report for "high-level planning" and, of course, you called for a Minister of Aviation. Now that we have this Minister and the possibility of high-level central planning, a good deal of the responsibility appears to have been delegated to the Licensing Board. Do you think this is the best way of planning our resources ? No, I do not. We have the ATLB, and it leans over backwards to be fair; it spends thousands of man-hours in consideration of an application, and then its decisions are smartly rejected by the Minister. What is the overall purpose of this kind of planning? Why keep a dog if you want to bark yourself? As the chairman of the Welsh Advisory Council, I am very- disappointed indeed that requests that have been put in to serve Wales should have been rejected almost wholesale, whilst on the other hand some of BEA's demonstrably useful services to the Continent have been switched to other people. My other question concerns the question of the optimum size of an operating unit to get maximum efficiency. Your report suggests that on certain routes an additional operator could mean greater efficiency, yet on other occasions you have called for the merging of BOAC and BE A on the grounds that economies could be achieved by the larger unit. Is there not an inconsistency here? When you have two British corporations already overlapping— as in the Middle East, for example—I could see, even in my day, that there were economies to be made in things like engine over hauls, sales offices and accounting procedures. A combined British Airways Corporation would be a much more formidable competi tor to foreign operators than either of the present corporations. Equally, the independent operator would be able to work much more efficiently if he had only one national corporation to work with rather than two trying to squeeze him out. I know that the national corporations are being subjected to very intensive competition from foreign operators, and the idea that other independent competitors will keep them more on their toes does not hold water. Nevertheless, I do think the independent operator should be given a chance. And not on a catch-as-can- carry basis, but as with a viable and stable operating network. PAWNEES FOR THE ARGENTINE A recent mass delivery flight of nine Pawnee agricultural aircraft from the Piper Aircraft plant at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to Argentina brought the total number of Pawnees in service in Argentina to 50. They are widely used for crop-spraying and dusting, locust and other pest control, and seeding large areas
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