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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1945.PDF
748 FLIGHT International, 7 November 196S AIR COM MERCE... BOYD ON THE SST ... BECAUSE the economics of the supersonic transport depend so closely upon engineering of the aircraft, and since the engineering is still in a very early stage, the economic performances of the air craft cannot yet be realistically estimated. Saying this in testimony before the Senate Aviation Sub-committee recently, Mr Alan Boyd, chairman of the CAB, observed that his Board's role in the programme would be "anticipating and developing policies to deal with safety, public service, operating cost and financial feasibility." The primary aim of the SST, he says, "is to meet the future needs of travellers and the public interest." The commercial supersonic transport, he says, "should be what its nomenclature implies, a commercial transport," and in his view the economics of "sacri ficing some design objectives for others should be the key, rather than purely engineering judgments." . ..AND ALSO HALABY WHILE acknowledging the reluctance of US manufacturers to accept the US Government's proposed 75-25 per cent Government- industry cost-sharing arrangement on the US supersonic airliner, Mr Najeeb Halaby, administrator of the FAA, has told the Senate Aviation Sub-committee that the project should be abandoned if the industry is not prepared to contribute 25 per cent of the cost. Mr Halaby described the FAA's acceptance of deposits from US airlines for the non-existent US supersonic airliner (see last week) as a "holding in trust" of orders that would be placed with the winning manufacturer. Makers' submissions are due next January. Footnote Mr John Stack, vice-president, engineering, Republic Aviation, is reported by Aviation Daily to have said the Concorde would be "obsolete the day it flies because it cannot grow. It will not be able to take advantage of the refinements in aerodynamics and powerplant that will inevitably follow." BEA AND GENOA FOR the first time the Minister of Aviation has used his power, under Section 2(3) of the Licensing Act, to issue a directive to the Air Transport Licensing Board. He has told the Board to reject BEA's application for a new service from Manchester to Genoa. BEA's previous application for a Genoa service from London was rejected by the ATLB in favour of BUA's, and was also rejected by the Minister on appeal. The relevant section of the Act now invoked reads:— "The Minister and the Board shall from time to time consult to gether with regard to relations with other countries or territories affecting the exercise of the Board's functions; and if in the case oj any application for an air service licence the Minister so directs in writing on the ground that any air transport service proposed in the application would in his opinion involve the negotiation with the government of some other country or territory of rights which it would be inexpedient for the time being to seek, the Board shall forthwith refuse that application so far as it relates to that service." As explained in these columns for May 16, page 703 ("The Test Case"), Genoa is much more than a new place on British United's route map. For the Minister of Aviation it has been a supreme test of whether he wants the British civil aviation licensing system to work or not. Paradoxically, this ministerial power (which after the appeal machinery represents the Minister's greatest power over the ATLB), has been invoked to defeat the purposes of a corporation and not an independent. The relevant section of the Act was put in primarily to safeguard the traffic rights of the corporations against the depredations of the independents and it could never have been foreseen that it would have first been exercised on behalf of an independent. Throughout the many licensing battles fought by the independents, they have frequently said to the Board, in so many words: "Don't listen to BEA's (or BOAC's) arguments that our applications will upset their traffic rights. So far as you are concerned the Minister has not invoked Section 2(3) of the Act and told you to reject our application." The Minister has now, probably reluctantly, used this very power to prevent a corporation from upsetting an independent's traffic rights. Unless he had done so, for the reasons outlined in these pages on May 16, a nonsense might have been made of the licensing system. A BEA spokesman, commenting on the Minister's decision, said: "We are astonished that the Minister should have directed the Licensing Board not to hear our application—especially when he is allowing British United Airways' proposal to fly from Glasgow to Genoa to go forward. We do not understand this." As reported last week, British United have applied to the ATLB for permission to serve Genoa from Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham, with an optional stop at Gatwick. 250 Friendships Sold Condor-Flugdienst, a Lufthansa subsidiary, has ordered two Fokker Friendship 400s for delivery late next year. Ozark Airlines have ordered a fourth F-27 from Fairchild. and Kraffer Corp of New York has ordered an executive version. This brings total Friendship sales to 250 (151 Fokker, 99 Fairchild) to 77 customers. More Air Commerce news on pages 772-774 First air-to-air picture of one of the three Convair 990s operated by the Indonesian airline Garuda
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