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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1373.PDF
FLIGHT International, 8 August 1963 195 indicative of their lack of faith in the cargo business, one half of the airline believing in freight and the other half in passengers. I feel very strongly that they are being half-hearted about this business. You are either running freight or passengers. If you believe in freight it's got to ran at the right time at the the right frequency. Up to now freight has been the poor relation of passenger traffic. I dislike the suggestion that it should be a sort of compro mise. I would not be surprised if Pan American's thrift fare proposal is a policy aimed at bailing them out of a too fast freight policy. They have ordered too many aircraft." In view of the fact that the CAB is going to publish the information in due course, and assuming that it approves your CL-44 lease arrangement with Seaboard, can you say what are the financial terms of the deal? "Yes, we can tell you this." (See page 193.) From BO AC-Cunard evidence recently given to the CAB, it appears that BOAC's Boeing 707 freight holds on the North Atlantic have been little more than 25 per cent full over the last year, and that DC-7F load factors also have been less than 50 per cent. Would it not have been desirable to fill existing freight capacity before leasing an all-freighter as big as the CL-44 ? "I have no doubt that the DC-7F would have carried the loads for another year, may be even two years, but it is imperative that we should have experience of an end loading freighter, and we need this experience as soon as possible so that we can formulate our freight policy for the future. Moreover, it may well be the lack of rear loading facilities which is partly the cause of our DC-7F load factor being less than 50 per cent." Can you say why BO AC has not yet asked Vickers to convert Super VClOs to convertible passenger-freighters ? "It is not yet necessary for us to make a decision. Vickers have not yet worked out the design or the cost." What about the two big door standard VClOs for British United that are now on the production line ? "This is a half-baked idea in which we would not really be interested. Until the VC10 trials have proceeded sufficiently to enable Vickers to guarantee payloads and so on, we cannot make a decision. But one will be forthcoming, I would say, very soon. It is highly probable that we shall have several convertible Super VClOs, a minimum of three." Looking back now to the days when you were with Shorts, do you wish that the Belfast had been developed as a jet freighter ? "If we had known about the fan engine and if we had been able to get away with a completely new aircraft—rather than a developed Britannia—costing three times as much, and on a later time-scale, the Belfast could have been a jet. But it certainly would not have been worth it just for ten aircraft. Anyway, I am not convinced that the jet is the right answer. Of all the freighter projects that I have seen for all-cargo work I have not seen anything better than the civil Belfast. Its operating costs are just about where we want them. BOAC could scarcely sponsor it, requiring as we would only perhaps two or three aircraft. But for the 100,000 tons of meat a year type of freighting, that sort of thing, the Belfast is head and shoulders above anything else." Including the Lockheed 300 ? "Including that and other manufacturers' projects that I have seen." Why have BOAC been overtaken by Air France in airfreight ? "We have been slow getting into this business—I thought so when I came into it in 1960 and I have been trying to get it moving since. Why Air France have overtaken us I don't know—possibly a natural flow stemming from their economy—but we are not doing too badly." Would you care to look into your crystal ball and say what BOA C might be doing in five years'' time in the freight field ? "We shall probably be operating Super VC10 combination freighters on the Atlantic, possibly backed up by CL-44s, or possibly a civil version of the Belfast, with CL-44s on our other routes. The availability of air freight is obviously closely related to the current state of trade. If our export trade prospers so will BOAC's freight operations. We intend to be ready to seize every opportunity and will, additionally, continue to stimulate the use of air freighting in new fields. I am sure there is big business in air freight." DC-9 METAL CUT FABRICATION of the first Douglas DC-9 started on July 26— "to meet a first flight target date of March 15,1965." Assembly of the first aircraft is scheduled to start on February 15, 1964. Pro duction will build up to a maximum rate, say Douglas, of eight DC-9s per month in the latter part of 1966. First metal being cut on the Douglas DC-9 at Long Beach on July 26. Watching a spar being milled are, right, Mr Jackson McGowen, general manager of Long Beach and, left, Mr W. L. Whittier, his deputy Some of the tooling and machines used for DC-8 production will be converted to enable both Douglas models to move along the same assembly line. Mr Jackson McGowen, vice-president and general manager of Douglas Aircraft Division, Long Beach, says that this will "assure the highest quality of workmanship by using the skills of veteran aircraft workers on the new aeroplane." Production schedule calls for an output of eight DC-9s and two DC-8s a month. Total production time per aircraft will be 37 weeks in two shifts. This high rate will be achieved, says Mr McGowen, because assembly crews in each line position will operate on a two- day cycle, rather than the former ten-day plan, and thus will be required to perform fewer tasks. In other words, said Mr McGowen, job familiarity will be increased so rapidly that training can be reduced by as much as 80 per cent. There now seems no doubt that Douglas are proceeding full speed ahead with the DC-9 programme. Orders have been received from Delta (15) and Bonanza (3). Capt H. W. R. Banting We record with regret that Capt H. W. R. Banting, AFRACS, of Westpoint Aviation Ltd, one of the oldest UK airline pilots, died on July 14 at the age of 65, having been actively flying until his last illness. He had been with Westpoint since the company formed in 1961; prior to that his flying experi ence went back to RFC days and covered over 135 different types of aircraft. In the inter-war years he held various appointments as test and demonstration pilot (with Simmonds Aircraft and Vickers) and instructor; during the last war he was with Straight Corpora tion, Napier (as a test pilot) and RAF Ferry Command; and since the war he had been with Britavia, Caribbean International Air ways and Orient Airways. He formed Bantair in 1956.
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