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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1980.PDF
FLIGHT International, 2 July 1964 5 HALABY ON THE CONCORD ASKED to comment on the Minister of Aviation's estimate that the Concord will be in service four or five years ahead of the American supersonic airliner, Mr N. E. Halaby, administrator of the FAA, told Flight International in Washington on June 18: "I don't care who flies first. The Concord does not phase our pro- gramme. I do not know when the Concord will be ready for safe scheduled service, which is what matters—the first safe, confident, regular service. In my judgment the timing of that is the most important thing." Mr Halaby thought that both efforts would be close together, and "nowhere near five years apart," provided the Americans went ahead with the project. If they did not, of course, the time difference would be infinity; but he had "an intuitive feeling that we will ultimately decide to do the aircraft." Added Mr Halaby: "We are not racing, because we really don't care about that. Some of my efforts to persuade Congress and the public to approve the pro- gramme may sound like race talk, but I think of it as a healthy competitive effort for the first safe service. We are proceeding towards this." If the programme did go ahead, he said, the two efforts would not in his opinion be more than "a couple of years" apart. He was advised that the Concord target dates and cost were both extending. Asked whether he thought that the gap would be less than that estimated by Mr Amery because the Concord would be late or the US project early, he replied: "I thought the Concord was going to be in service in 1969, but now you have told me 1971 so there's a two year slip already. If it slips a year every year I guess it will not be in service until 1977." But, said Mr Halaby, "I don't assume that. I assume that the Concord is going to be a resounding success, though the airlines could probably do with a couple of years delay." He added that the following day he was going with the President to Edwards Air Force Base with senior air force officers to see the A-ll. "We are," he said, "learning every minute from actual and not just theoretical experience." This experience, to which must be added the TFX and the B-70, could not, he thought, be matched. 'Whatever decision-time the British and French have gained can, I think, be counterbalanced by the much deeper reservoirs of US knowledge. Without being invidious the 727 and the One-Eleven indicate the relative problems that can occur." Asked why the US go-ahead decision scheduled for May 1 had been postponed, Mr Halaby replied: "The manufacturers' proposals did not reach range-payload, boom and economic expectations. One combination [understood to be Lockheed/GE—Ed] came pretty close. It would have been possible but it would not have been prudent to proceed. If I were President I would want addi- tional design proof—what the military call programme definition." Of his visit to the Soviet Union Mr Halaby said that they had got the impression that two competitive groups were building a supersonic airliner for service in the early 70s. They were not shown any models but they got the impression that the Russians were inclined toward steel or titanium. Footnote Mr Halaby's comments on the sonic boom were the subject of a leading article in last week's issue. Now carrying out inclusive tour work for Swiss travel agents, this Britannia is operated by the Swiss independent Globe Air from Basle. It is a 313 acquired from El Al. Globe Air also operate three Heralds and have one more on order see page 7) BOOM OVER BRITAIN—1 REPORTS that the Ministry of Aviation and the RAF are to carry out Oklahoma-type boom tests over Britain were denied by a Ministry of Aviation official on June 26. "No programme has been decided" he said. Mr Eric Lubbock, MP, has tabled a question of the Minister asking "what study has he made of the sonic boom tests carried out over Oklahoma City by the FAA and if he will estimate the maximum over-pressures likely to be measured below the Concord flight path, taking into account the variability which atmospheric effects have been shown to cause." A further note appears on "World News" in this issue. BOOM OVER BRITAIN—2 OF BEA's top five routes four are domestic trunks. The busiest route, London - Glasgow, reports Mr Anthony Milward, BEA's chairman, carried more than 500,000 passengers in the year ended April 8, 1964. It is thus the first route on which BEA have ever carried half a million passengers in a year. The second highest traffic flow was between London and Manchester, on which 383,000 passengers were carried in the same year—slightly more than the 379,000 passengers carried between London and Paris which, though the busiest route ten years ago, is now third on BEA's list. Bearing in mind the effect of these figures on BEA's arguments against competition—limited British Eagle competition is licensed on London - Glasgow, though London - Manchester is still a BEA monopoly—Mr Milward says that two out of every seven seats were flown empty (i.e., a load factor of 71 per cent). This year, he says, BEA is increasing capacity to Glasgow and Manchester by a further 25-30 per cent. "There is," says Mr Milward, "still a large amount of spare capacity not being taken up on domestic trunk routes, where BEA's problem is to balance the conflicting needs of an adequate public service and economic load factors." Four BAC One-Elevens pose together at BACs Wisley fight test centre in a brief respite from the intensive fight test programme, which is aimed at FAA and ARB certification in the autumn
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