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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1372.PDF
M Georges Hereil left), president and director-general of Sud-Aviation, hands over to his successor. Gen Puget. Note the Caravelle Horizon —which appears to be a shorter-fuselage, straight-wing variant of the aircraft. Sud could release no details as this issue went to press, though reference is made in their annual report to a Caravelle 20. believed to be powered by two Rolls-Royce Conways AIR COM MERCE . . . LEEDS-BRADFORD'S NEW RUNWAY BOTH the Bradford and Leeds city councils have now approved the expenditure of £600,000 on a new 5,000ft NW-SE runway at the Leeds/Bradford airport, Yeadon. Tenders are expected to be issued shortly and it is expected that the new runway will be completed by the spring of 1964. Provision is made in the original plans for the runway to be extended to 7.000ft by tunnelling or diverting the Bradford-Harro gate road at the north-west end of the runway. At the other end the ground falls away and considerable banking will be necessary; because of this the Ministry of Aviation have given permission for the over-run to be narrowed at this point. Commenting on the decision Mr A. B. Blackham, the local manager of Silver City, now part of British United Airways, said: "We are very pleased to hear this news. The runway will now be big enough for anything we plan to operate from Yeadon." It is understood that Heralds will be introduced on Silver City's Yeadon - Jersey route next spring following the integration of operations with Jersey Airlines. It is reported that the Silver City northern division is to be wound up in September. JP.4 v Kerosine THERE have been few reactions by official air transport bodies to the Ministry of Aviation's report, published last March, en the relative safety of JP.4 and kerosine fuels (Flight International, March 22, page 423). The conclusion of the report, it will be re called, was that kerosine is the safer fuel. Now the British Air Line Pilots Association has issued a state ment which comes down solidly in favour of the Ministry's con clusions. "The Association strongly recommends," says the BALPA statement, "that the Ministry of Aviation should follow up the investigation by taking steps to ensure that the safer fuel is used by all British operators of turbine-powered aircraft. "This might be achieved by making one of the requirements for issue of an Air Operator's Certificate an undertaking by the operator to use kerosine at all regular refuelling points, and to take all rea sonable steps to ensure availability of this fuel wherever operations are conducted. "On those exceptional occasions when an aircraft is operated from an airfield where kerosine is not available, the circumstances of the uplifting of the alternative fuel should be the subject of a written report to the appropriate department of the Ministry of Aviation. "BALPA further hopes that Britain's influence in international aviation will be used to promote maximum usage of the safer fuel. "The Association warmly welcomes technical investigation of this kind, but feels that there is little purpose in them unless legis lation is subsequently drawn up to implement the findings of such investigations." Soon after the report was published Flight International sought 186 FLIGHT International, 9 August 1%: THE MOTOR CAR v THE AIRLINER TWO traditional competitors for air transport are the railways and the private motor car. The medium and long-distance railways are in general losing the fight, while the motor car is now emerging as a major competitor. In the United States, where so many air transport trends begin. the history of inter-city passenger travel in the last ten years has been one of expanding airline passenger-miles, declining railway passenger-miles, declining motorbus passenger-miles, and a verv large absolute and relative increase in private automobile passenger- miles. The US common carriers—that is to say the airlines, railways and buses—account for barely more than 8 per cent of the total travel market, compared with 14 per cent ten years ago. The airline share has gone up from 2.4 per cent to 4.1 per cent. But nothing seems to be able to check the motor car. Passenger-miles generated by private cars in the United States, the Drive-In land of super expressways and two-car families, have nearly doubled in ten years, and now account for more than 90 per cent of total pass enger travel. The share was less than 90 per cent ten years ago. The surprising thing is that no US airline has yet tried to join what it cannot beat by operating vehicle-ferry services. The story is told in some recent figures published by the US Air Transport Association, as follows:— INTER-CITY PASSENGER TRAVEL IN THE UNITED STATES (Passenger-miles in millions) Common Carriers Airlines Railways Mqtor Bust Total Air Share (%) Private Automobile Total Common Carrier and Automobile Common Carrier Share (%) Air Share(%) 1951 10.501 29,750 21,499 SI, 750 17.0 379,324 441,074 14.0 2.4 1956 22.276 23,380 16,409 62,065 35.9 617,700 679,765 9.1 3.3 1957 25.246 21,550 16,377 63,173 40.0 644,800 707,973 8.9 3.6 1958 25,256 18,479 15,083 58.818 42.9 629,496 688,314 8.5 3.7 1959 29.151 17,522 14,300 60,973 47.8 659,435 720,408 8.6 4.0 I960 30.375 17,065 14,900 62,340 48.8 660,000 722,340 8.6 4.2 ISS 30,i I5.i 15,! i 5 685,1 746,i * Estimated, t Regular insterstate route operations only. Sources: CAB Recurrent Reports, ICC Transport Economics, NAMBO. : A Postscript reactions from a number of interested parties. Some reactions were prompter than others; in one or two cases no reply was received. Lord Brabazon, as a result of whose efforts the Ministry investiga tion was instituted, replied promptly: "Naturally I am pleased at the findings of the Ministry of Aviation's report, but nothing was ever more convincing than my challenge to stand in the middle of 40 gallons of spilt kerosine if some advocate of JP.4 would stand in the middle of 40 gallons of spilt JP.4 [a lighted match then being thrown into the two pools]. "I quite agree that the safety factor is a narrow one when occu pants survive impact, but it is not one that can therefore be dis missed." Mr J. T. Dyment, chief engineer of Trans-Canada Air Lines, a JP.4 user, also replied fully and promptly, though he did not wish to become involved in any public discussion, as in his view "this would only do a disservice to aviation." KLM stated that they used only kerosine. Mr Knut Hagrup, executive vice-president of SAS—who has always said that there is nothing to choose between the relative safety of the two fuels —declined to comment. Air France stated: "Kerosine has been chosen for all Air France fuel contracts for jet aircraft during 1962." Sabena and TWA made no comment, but Air-India said: "Ever since we have started operating Boeing aircraft we have used only kerosine. . . . We have not up to date used JP.4." Pan American made no comment, except: "Pan American is open to any new findings on this matter. The Ministry of Aviation's report has been forwarded to our technical people for study." For IATA the director-general, Sir William Hildred, in a Flight
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