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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0824.PDF
Engineering mock-ups of the One-Eleven are now well advanced; typical of the detail work is this mock-up of the wing AIR COMMERCE . . . where operators were expected to place their orders for the next generation of airliners this November. He thought that the One- Eleven's chances were pretty good. Referring to the Douglas 2086, Mr Greenwood said: "You just don't get left alone in a market of this size." Mr Arthur Summers, One-Eleven project co-ordinator, said in this context; "The further ahead we get with this programme, the less likely it is that a com petitor is going to sink the large sums that are necessary to catch up." By the time One-Elevens were delivered, Mr Summers said, about £20m would have been spent on the programme. Rigs and testing alone would cost about £l£m. Testing of the structure and How Many Are BRITAIN'S independents are complaining that while they are subject to all the rigours of the ATLB licensing procedure and of the air operator's certificate, foreign carriers are not. As a result, they say, British travel agents are booking business with foreign carriers that would otherwise have gone to British independents. This is undoubtedly so in a number of individual instances; but looking at the situation as a whole, it appears that foreign airlines have access to a smaller, not a larger, share of the traffic this year. Capacity this summer will be shared between British and foreign operators in the ratio 74 :26. This ratio would have been more heavily in favour of the independents if they had taken up all the seats granted to them by the Air Transport Licensing Board. The ratio last year, in terms of passengers actually carried, was virtually the same. Total number of seats authorized to foreign carriers by the Ministry of Aviation for flights out of the UK this summer, as listed in the table on page 816, is in round figures 139,000. (In addition there are just over 4,000 for foreign tourists coming into the UK.) The number of seats actually offered by foreign carriers in 1961 was, as listed in the table, about 76,000 (say 68,000 passengers). The increase is big—more than 80 per cent; but British indepen dent IT charter licences have increased substantially also. About 515,000 IT seats would have been granted to independents this summer by the ATLB, though this was reduced to 390,000 by the financial disability of certain carriers. In 1961 nearly 400,000 IT seats were granted to British carriers, though the actual passenger carryings in the event were 200,000. It is true that the foreign slice of the IT charter cake has increased enormously, especially when the 1960 picture is considered; in that year less than 20,000 British holidaymakers were picked up in Britain by foreign carriers—14 per cent of the number due to be carried by foreign carriers this year. But it is not true that this increase has, overall, been at the expense of British independents. The relative share of the total market remains the same. Independent airline protests that British traffic has been diverted 822 FLIGHT International, 24 May 1962 systems was aimed at a life of 30,000hr, 100,000 flights averaging 40min, and the programme would take two years to complete. On the matter of whether a competitor could produce an aircraft that was better in minor details, Mr Summers said: "All that we can say is that we have taken every possible step and I cannot see anyone beating us on reliability of details." He was sure that the programme would not have been as far ahead as it was without the combined effort of BAC. Design of the primary structure was completed, as also was a large part of systems design. More than 50 per cent of the drawings had been issued to the shops and pri mary structure jigs were virtually complete. Other items of interest were: (1) If orders for standard aircraft were placed the programme might break even with sales of 70 or 80 aircraft, though this might increase to 100 depending on the number of non-standard orders. There was, however, a trend in the airline industry towards ordering the "shelf" aircraft; this was very different from the situation five years ago. (2) On the ques tion of finance, and the British industry's competitive position v. the American industry, there were no longer really many complaints that ECGD requirements prevented British manufacturers from offering competitive credit terms. "We can get seven and a half years or even more if necessary," said Mr Greenwood, and there were signs that this could if necessary be stretched further. The problem was to help customers to raise finance and to secure it, and to finance building while programme payments were being made. Where the British industry did suffer was in the case of new countries who were able to call on the largely US-financed World Bank. (3) The Spey powerplant would be exactly the same as that of the Trident; it was "no fun doing a green aircraft and a green engine, as we know from experience." The One-Eleven was not tied to the Spey though studies of US engines had confirmed thoughts that the Spey did the job best. Another engine could be fitted if there was an over-riding reason. (4) Mr A. J. K. Carline, chief designer, Hunting Aircraft, pointed out that brake capacity was almost twice that of the Viscount so that fast turn-round times (15min) would not be prevented by the requirement for brake cooling. Flying^Foreign ? to foreign operators may have validity in individual cases but, over all, the protests are not well based. Similarly invalidated is BEA's suggestion, made at the recent European routes appeal, that British travel agents are going more and more to foreign carriers because of their better reputation for safety and reliability—an assertion that Mr Gerald Gardiner, QC, counsel for BUA and CEA, asked to be withdrawn. In the House of Commons on March 23 Mr C. M. Woodhouse, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Aviation, told Mr Cronin that in considering applications from foreign carriers for permits to operate into the UK, his Ministry applies "exactly the same criteria as are applied by the Licensing Board to British opera tors." Mr Woodhouse really should have said, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, that his Ministry considers exactly the same criteria. It clearly cannot apply the same criteria (which include demand for the service, the operator's financial resources, equip ment, organization and staffing, etc). It is believed that the Ministry has rarely, if ever, refused a foreign operator's application for a charter permit—though in future it will probably be asking for the six months' notice, as agreed by the European Civil Aviation Conference's multilateral agreement on non-scheduled services. To sum up, foreign operators' IT traffic will go up substantially this year, and some of this traffic may have been booked by British travel agents with foreign carriers in preference to British carriers. But, overall, British carriers have been granted access to a share of the market that is the same, vis-a-vis foreign carriers, as it was last year. Foreign airlines' share of the market is bound to increase any way, purely on the grounds of reciprocity. So far as this year is concerned, however, protests about ATLB restrictionism towards British carriers on the one hand and Ministry liberality towards foreign carriers on the other hand do not appear to be too well founded. j. M. R.
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