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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0376.PDF
fUGHT International, 13 February 1964 233 BOAC HEDGE THEIR BETS BOTH BOAC and Air France have now booked six delivery positions with the FAA for the American supersonic airliner. This was announced on February 7. BOAC's positions are 17, 24, 41, 66, 71 and 78; Air France's positions are 35, 36, 51, 62, 73, 79. Each airline has paid $100,000 for each place, these deposits being returnable (with interest) up to November 1, 1965. Events have moved fast since January 20, when it first leaked out that BOAC wanted to secure six places in the American SST list. This news, with all its implications for the Concord, dismayed Mr Julian Amery, Minister of Aviation, and his French colleagues. Mr Amery told Sir Giles Guthrie of BOAC that he would be well advised to make a gesture of confidence in the Concord. This led to the announcement on January 28 that BOAC and Air France were now "executing contracts" for the Concord, and for eight aircraft instead of six. This cleared the way politically for both airlines to secure positions on the FAA's list. BOAC are emphasizing that the American SST will be "comple- mentary to the Concord." This is obviously said with a wink, because without knowing what the American pseudosonic aircraft will actually do BOAC cannot have decided that it is commercially necessary to operate both types of aircraft. The word complement- ary is obviously the current gentility for "we're hedging our bets"— just as Pan American and TWA are hedging theirs with orders for the Concord. BACK TO SQUARE ONE IN BERMUDA AS forecast in Flight International for December 5, 1963, Mr Harold Bamberg, chairman of British Eagle, has formed a new airline in Bermuda. The company is registered as a Bermudian company in the name of Eagle International Airlines (Bermuda) Ltd, and applications have been made to the Bermudian licensing authorities for scheduled Britannia services to London and New York. BOAC-Cunard are certain to object to this application, which brings Mr Bamberg once again into conflict with BOAC in this area. AS YOU WERE? IN Hansard'for February 5 is published the full text of a letter from the Minister of Aviation, Mr Julian Amery, to Sir Giles Guthrie, chairman of BOAC. Dated January 1, the date of Sir Giles Guthrie's first day in office, the letter is intended to give guidance on the boring question of when the national interest should prevail over BOAC's commercial judgment. Key passage in the letter is as follows:— "If the national interest should appear, whether to the corporations or the Government, to require some departure from the strict com- mercial interests of the corporation, this should be done only with the express agreement or at the express request of the Minister. How losses, if any, resulting from such a political decision should be presented in the accounts will depend on circumstances in each case." Significantly, the word directive does not appear in the letter. It is within the statutory power of the Minister to issue directives to the corporations; and if these directives are now to be known as "express requests" it is important that they should be made public so that everyone knows where responsibility for losses lies. The letter reproduced in Hansard does not really change the situation that has always existed; when, for example, BOAC were asked some years ago against their better judgment to carry Kuwait Airways, they were allowed to mention this fact in their accounts. Caravelles for China Reports persist that the Chinese airline CAAC is discussing with Sud an order for ten Caravelles. It is also reported that Air France have been negotiating for a service to Peking. plA Trident Postscript The terms of PIAs letter-of-intent to Purchase three Tridents are understood to call for the part-exchange °f the airline's three Viscounts, which until surplus to requirements would be leased back to the airline by Hawker Siddeley. ?°eing Cracks The FAA has ordered an inspection of all Boeing '07 and 720s following the discovery of fatigue cracks in the rear *jn spars of two high-time 707s and in the tailplanes of another. 0 discovered have been "slight" cracks in the wing spar of a 1 720. Lake Central and the Nord 262 The board of Lake Central Airlines has decided on the purchase of five or six Nord 262s in the near future. The airline sent a technical evaluation group to Nord in December. BOAC-Cunard Objects to Eagle British Eagle's licence for UK- US transatlantic all-cargo services could be revoked if a BOAC- Cunard move is successful. BOAC-Cunard have applied to the ATLB for revocation of the licence. BOAC DC-7C Sale The New York dealer F. B. Ayer has taken two more of BOAC's surplus DC-7Cs. Like the three purchased by Ayer last year, these aircraft are to be leased to the US charter operator Saturn Airways. BOAC have three more DC-7Cs for disposal. PIA Delays Atlantic Return Pakistan International Airlines have announced that their London-New York service will not be resumed until early 1965. The service was initially suspended in October 1963 for a short period to allow for the block overhaul of the airline's three Boeing 72OBs, but it has been decided to delay the resumption in order to concentrate available capacity on the routes to Russia, Afghanistan, and China. Douglas's DC-3 Replacement According to Aviation Daily Douglas have been showing to the Association of Local Service Carriers a brochure on their proposed new short-haul transport. Powered by Lycoming engines, presumably T55 turboprops, the aircraft has a maximum cruising speed of 300 m.p.h. and a range (undefined, but presumably maximum stage length) of 700 st miles. Dimensions: span, 67ft; length, 56.5ft; and height, 23.5ft. Weights: take-off and landing, 22,5001b; zero fuel, .19,0001b; empty operating, 14,3001b. Princesses for Aero Spacelines? According to Aviation Daily Mr J. H. Overholfer, chairman of Aero Spacelines, Van Nuys, California, has confirmed his interest in the purchase of the three Saunders-Roe Princesses. Mr Overholfer is not the party to whom the aircraft have been sold, and whose identity is being kept a secret by the Ministry of Aviation, but he is contemplating taking an option on the aircraft to enable Aero Spacelines—the company which did the "Pregnant Guppy" conversion of the Boeing Stratocruiser—to obtain a missile carriage contract with NASA. BOAC Concord order Mr Eric Lubbock, Liberal Member for Orpington, asked the Minister in the House of Commons on Febru- ary 5 whether he could "explain why it is that BOAC should now fork out £680,000 to safeguard its delivery place in the queue when previously we had been given to understand that already the corporation had aircraft allocated to it in the series?" The Minister replied that he thought that Mr Lubbock was sufficiently familiar with contractual procedures "to realize that this is a 'staircase' and that every now and then one moves from one step to another." YS-11 modifications Reports that the Ninon YS-11 is delayed by technical defects have been answered by the company in an inter- view with Interavia. The aircraft will be ready for certification tests this June following completion of the following current modifica- tions: (1) Ailerons lengthened 20in with a consequent shortening of the flaps; (2) Fuselage-wing fillets deepened; (3) Upper contour of the engine nacelles, which previously tapered off to the rear, remodelled to be parallel with the fuselage; (4) Wing dihedral increased 2°. The question of increasing rudder area will depend on results of these modifications. Trek's Lockheed L.1649AS The South African independent Trek Airways is due to take delivery of the first of two Lockheed L.1649As from World Airways, the US supplemental, on February 16. The second aircraft is due for delivery on March 2. This will enable the airline to resume in its own right the South Africa - Europe charter work which had to be subcontracted following the banning of South African traffic rights last year. Services will be routed to Luxembourg via Angola and Cape Verde. Maintenance of the 1649s will be done in Hamburg by Lufthansa, original owners of the aircraft before they went to World Airways for MATS work.
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