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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1912.PDF
FLIGHT Internatonal, 31 October 1963 717 END OF THE SUBSONIC ROAD? TECHNICAL developments for improving the operating cost of subsonic jets are, in the view of Dr A. E. Russell of British Aircraft Corporation, limited. "The scope for inventiveness in subsonic aircraft is running dry," he says, "at least in so far as low operating costs are concerned." Dr Russell made this controversial statement in an address to the recent joint meeting in London, organized by the SBAC, of delegates of AICMA (Association Internationale des Constructeurs de Materiel Aerospatial). Dr Russell, who with M Jean Satre of Sud-Aviation is co- designer of the Concorde, says that current subsonic aircraft, though reliable, safe and reasonably fast, have reached or are very close to their pinnacle of technical achievement. "Future new types would be more expensive to produce," he says. "Supersonic transports will be even more expensive, but, taking into account the smaller fleet size possible, improved frequency of operation and lower aircraft-mile cost, they offer the best chance in the long run of pro viding the most efficient means of transportation on long-haul international routes." share of the £356,000 payment was £249,000—£lm in three years. No explanation of BAL's heavy loss is given in the report. There is no mention of the subsidy (about £6,500) which BAL receives from the Bahamas Government for inter-island DC-3 social ser vices, nor are any traffic figures given, nor is there any breakdown of operating costs. It is disappointing that BOAC's report could not devote a little more space, especially in view of past criticisms on this score, to a more detailed account of BAL's results—and, indeed, of Associated Companies' results in general (what, for instance, is behind the note on the last page of the report that £2 m is still invested in MEA?). Next year's report, it must be hoped, will account for the results of associates—including the new one, Air Jamaica—to an extent commensurate with their great importance to BOAC, whose invest ment in them can only be justified by the traffic and revenues they produce. As BOAC say elsewhere in their report (in the context of Air Jamaica): "The value of arrangements such as these is very great." In the past BOAC have tended to present the results of Associated Companies rather as if they have little to do with the corporation as a whole. BOAC AND BAHAMAS AIRWAYS BAHAMAS AIRWAYS hold the unhappy distinction of being the corporation's most unprofitable subsidiary. In the year 1962-63, so far as can be deduced from tantalizingly sparse information in BOAC's latest annual report, BAL's loss appears to have been substantially in excess of ££m on a revenue of perhaps £Jm. At his news conference last week Sir Matthew Slattery, chairman of BOAC, said that BOAC Associated Companies looked like breaking even in the current year—"and that includes Bahamas Airways." If this means that BAL will make ends meet in 1963-64, it will be a tribute indeed to the new management that BOAC put in charge of a sick and almost bankrupt airline in March 1961. It will be a triumph in particular for Air Cdre G. J. (Taffy) Powell, the former UK independent airline pioneer who took on the un enviable task—in which nobody has ever really succeeded—of making Bahamas Airways pay. The loss in 1961-62 to BAL was £600,000 on a revenue of £800,000, the airline having in 1960 been repossessed by BOAC following a period of private ownership which failed, more disastrously than BOAC had previously failed, to make the airline profitable. If, as Sir Matthew says, BAL are now in sight of breaking even, the recovery from the year 1962-63 will have been little short of miraculous. During the year ownership was transferred from BOAC Associated Companies to BOAC-Cunard, and a small note on BOAC's 1962-63 profit and los^ account reveals a payment by BOAC-Cunard to Bahamas Airways of a figure of no less than £356,000 to cover losses in the last eight months of the year. In the first four months (up to the date of transfer to BOAC-Cunard) BAL lost more than £212,000 on revenues of just over £250,000, the whole of this loss being borne by BOAC. It is presumed that, in accordance with the 70-30 BOAC-Cunard relationship, BOAC's MR GRANVILLE LOOKS AHEAD BRITAIN must consider her transport system as a whole, and launch a nation-wide attack on the problem of what to do in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mr Keith Granville, delivering his recent presidential address to the Institute of Transport, urges this and suggests the creation of a group, comprising the "very finest brains the country can find," to study the situation and to evolve— in conjunction with existing transport organizations, professional bodies and Government departments—"a uniform plan for the long-term development of transport in this country." This plea comes at the same time as one of the recommendations of the recent Cranfield Symposium on the future of air transport (Flight International, October 10, page 627). Mr Granville, who is a director of BOAC and chairman of BOAC Associated Companies, goes on to say: "A Beeching was found to deal with the railways—another, or perhaps several, can surely be found to deal with transport as a whole. In this way, as I see it, the development of the various sections of the transport industry could proceed within the framework of the overall plan, adopting the methods and solutions best suited to that particular section of the industry. The group's task would be essentially to evolve an overall pattern of transport designed solely to ensure that the nation as a whole does not get bogged down and choked by its own excess of energy in transport. "The group would be responsible for ensuring efficient co-rela tion between the long-term needs of all forms of transport which at present appears to be lacking. It is my view that without such a long-term plan we face difficulties in transport of immense propor tions in the next ten to 20 years for which our successors will be unlikely to forgive us." Two Hunters of 28 Sqn, RAF, taxying past the Hawker Siddeley Trident when it called at Hong Kong recently. Sending this picture, and doubtless re calling a picture printed on "Straight and Level" of April 18, a member of the squadron reports: "In case any of our friends in UK want to know, yes, we're all right." So was the Trident, which went on to make a big impression in Tokyo and Singapore. The aircraft was due back at Hatfield lastjuesday
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