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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1175.PDF
BUT Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 International THURSDAY JULY 4, 1963 Number 2834 Volume 84 Editor-in-Chief MAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. GU NSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Managing Director H.N.PRIAULX MEE ' In this World News Air Commerce Postscript to Paris Straight and Level Salute to the Mosquito Rotorcraft Ply-in The Big Gap Letters Missiles and Spaceflight Industry International issue 2 S 6 IS IS 17 18 25 27 31 Service Aviation 32a lliffo Transport Publications Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London, SE1; telephone Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137). Telegrams Flightpres London Telex. Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s, Overseas £5 5s. Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Mall privileges authorized at Hew York, NY. Branch Offices: Coventry, 8-10 Corpora tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham, King Edward House, New Street, Birmingham 2; telephone Mid land 7191. Manchester, 260 Deansgate, Manchester 3 ; telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow, 62 Bucha nan Street, Glasgow CI; telephone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1963. Permission to reproduce illustra tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement. Concorde Comment T HE Anglo-French SST programme is no mere fringe affair, aimed at expense-account travellers. As is well known, the Concorde is to be built in medium-range and long-range versions, and will seat |p to 106 economy-class passengers. As the brochure tells us: "If ci il airliner development is to continue it must lead to an increase over prest it high-subsonic cruise speeds," and "for technical reasons such an increase must be substantial." Doctor A. E. Russell, technical director of Bristol Aircraft, remarks: "Justification for the project depends upon good pros pects for satisfying the needs of international airlines in the 1970s." Another statement has recently been made concerning transport in the 1970s, and this should be set against the foregoing. It rutti^ "There is a growing belief in the feasibility of much cheaper air travel to normal public transport standards of comfort. Most airlines, concentrating still on the wealthy or expense-account traveller, do not share this view; but the experience of those which do seems to support it. If this movement gathers force there will be a demand for new types of aircraft designed to provide the cheapest rather than the fastest possible air transport. . . ." There is much of interest in these related statements. Not least that the last one comes from Dr E. J. Warlow-Davies; and Dr Warlow-Davies is technical director of the Concorde Engine Direction Committee. The Big Gap DISCUSSING our recent survey of world air safety in an interview with Lord Brabazon, the BBC's air correspondent saw fit to remark that "personal experience is worth a hundred surveys of this kind." He declared (whether with pride or relief we know not) that in five years of flying he had experienced only one crash-landing and one engine failure. At this incident rate his future appears likely to offer few dull moments, but we trust that his nerves will be steady enough for him to take note of yet another "survey of this kind" which appears in the present issue. This particular study deals with airport, navigation, passenger and fuel charges and taxes, and it is one of a series which, whatever their value in relation to personal experience, do, to our certain knowledge, render a service. We recall that in a Lords debate during 1961 Lord Ogmore said that he had tried to compare the various charges throughout the world, by consulting the ICAO manual Airport and Navigation Facility Tariffs. Not having a computer available, he was unable to make the necessary calculations. These surveys of ours do the job. The treads indicated by that which appears this week are summarized by the corrtpiler on page 18, and on that same page one stark fact is printed in the form of a sub-title. We repeat it here, because it needs to be repeated on every fitting occasion:— The world is spending nearly £900 million a year on airports and facilities; the airlines, through I ATA, contribute £78 million; the taxpayer pays most of the rest. Not only should this little sum be frequently re-done as a salutary lesson in the economics of air transport, but all aspects of those economics must be periodically scrutinized. This we ourselves shall do; and, whenever appropriate, the "personal experience" factor adduced in the BBC interview mentioned earlier will be applied. In the context of airport charges this derives from the experiences of this journal's staff, totalling rather more than five years, and involving travelling to airports, waiting at airports, freezing at airports, baking at airports, losing things at air ports, marvelling at airports, and getting furious with airports. In brief, using airports—and contributing to that £900 million a year.
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