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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 0662.PDF
385 FLIGHT International, 12 March 1964 One of the best-kept secrets in BEA during the past four years has been their new convertible passenger chair, seen here being demonstrated in a Trident for "Flight International" by the inventor, Mr R. C. Morgan, &EA's chief project and development engineer and deputy chief engineer. The chair, which is convertible from triple-seat economy-class to double- seat first-class in two or three minutes without the use of any tools, could have far-reaching effects on world airline economics. The design is covered by BEA patents. Manufacturers are Flight Equipment and Engineering Ltd of Cromwell Road, London SW7, who were responsible also for design and development in conjunction with BEA SAS v. BRITAIN SAS's managing director, Mr Karl Nilsson, has said of the British move to reduce his airline's landing rights at Prestwick: "We have absolutely not broken the current aviation agreement between Scandinavia and Britain. I would say that if the British authorities take such unilateral steps, if they dictatorially cut down the number of SAS Prestwick landings, we shall find that this is incompatible with the bilateral agreement. The British are applying a principle that has never before been used, and this action might have serious consequences for civil aviation over the whole world." Mr Nilsson gave SAS's revenues from the route in question as about £1.8m. The Ministry of Aviation, which has not yet finally ordered SAS's flights to be cut, announced last week that there will be a Ministerial meeting to discuss the matter on Mr Amery's return from the USA. The Aviation Minister will have talks with Mr Butler, the Foreign Secretary, and Mr Noble, Secretary of State for Scotland. NEW YORK AIRWAYS' BIG EXPANSION BY the end of this year, New York Airways' will be the world's biggest scheduled service helicopter operator in every respect. Stimulated by the transport requirements of the New York World Fair, in the next few weeks the airline's fleet of four Boeing V-107s is being increased to seven and three Sikorsky S-61Ns will be added. All of these helicopters have cruising speeds around 150 rn.p.h. and seating for 25 passengers, and each is powered by two General Electric T-58 turbine engines. Together with airframe and engine spares, the new fleet will represent an investment in excess of $9m. The airline's staff will also be increased during this year from 275 employees at present to about 500—including an increase from 28 to 60 in the number of pilots employed. During the past year NYA carried about 250,000 passengers, and it conservatively estimates that 600,000 passengers will be carried this year—an increase of 140 per cent. During 1963, the first full year of turbine-powered operations, NYA set a number of new traffic handling records. The number of revenue paying passengers carried grew 27 per cent, and the weight of mail lifted grew 139 per cent. Last year, passenger revenue was estimated at f 1.97m compared with $1.5m in 1962; equivalent total revenues were 52.22m and $ 1.68m, a gain of 32 per cent. NYA began the world's first scheduled passenger helicopter service in July 1953—in the New Jersey, Connecticut and New York area— with a fleet of five 7-passenger S-55 helicopters. In 1954, the first full year of passenger operations, NYA carried 8,758 passen- gers. The twin turbine-Boeing V-107s were introduced in June 1962. On April 22, 1964, NYA, operating under contract to United Aircraft International, will start a very high frequency sightseeing operation at the New York World Fair. For the duration of the fair this service will be operated daily every six minutes from 9.30 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. In addition to its present schedules between Newark, Wall Street, and Kennedy International (operated every 30min between those three points), NYA expects to resume a similar schedule to La Guardia and to begin operations from the roof of the Pan Am Building to the airports serving metropolitan New York as well as the World's Fair. With the Sikorsky S-61N helicopters and the additional Boeing V-107 machines, NYA hopes to exploit many opportunities for special contract operations. Other proposals to occupy this vastly increased capacity are for the establishment of a passenger service between Paterson, New Jersey, the New York airports and Roose- velt Field; and a night cargo service across Long Island Sound to Connecticut and between Long Island and the central and northern New Jersey areas. However, all future operations are being judged strictly on their potential for being economically self-supporting. NYA has said that with the equipment it has on order it can offer a public service capable of ultimately functioning without Federal subsidy. However, the airline has stressed that this will not happen overnight or even short of two or three years. Pan American will purchase two Boeing V-107 helicopters to NYA's specification; these aircraft will be leased to NYA who will make them available to Pan American as required. In addition. NYA has an option to purchase these two machines at their then depreciated value at the termination of the World Fair. NYA has also entered into a series of agreements with United Aircraft which provide for the purchase of three Sikorsky S-61Ns and for the operation of these on sightseeing operations at the World Fair. A third agreement is with the Kawasaki Aircraft Corporation of Gifu, Japan, with whom NYA has contracted for the purchase of a Boeing V-107 for delivery in September 1964. The machine being purchased was originally made by Boeing and used by Kawasaki as a demonstrator.
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