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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2228.PDF
FLIGHT International, 13 August 1964 239 I going to take a VC10 to Africa with a Rolls-Royce on board as a I "sales promotion effort for British goods," and he was sure that I in Africa, they would be seeing their first 600 m.p.h. Rolls-Royce car As for the One-Eleven he was "quite convinced that Geoffrey Knight here [BAC's commercial sales director] will come along with a contract for One-Eleven 500s or 800s, drop it on my desk, and that we'll fall for it." At least 150 people had claimed that they were the originators of the One-Eleven, "and now I am going to be the 151st." He told the story of how Geoffrey Knight came to see him one day on another matter, and had asked him "How would you like to buy the One-Eleven ?" "I wouldn't," he replied. They talked about it over lunch and Geoffrey Knight had made notes on the back of a cigarette packet, coming back some time later with the One-Eleven. "Anyway, that's my story." British United would not like to claim that they were "the only ones in the countryside" who had supported the British aircraft industry; but they had bought 100 new British aircraft since the war and he thought they had bought "a small latch lifter" to enter into British air transport. He believed that the One-Eleven "wouldn't exist today but for some very willing Air Holdings shareholders who put money down at the drawing board stage, and who deserve to be congratulated." Answering questions about the size of BUA's investment in VClOs and One-Elevens (and after the quick first answer of "too much") Mr Laker estimated that the total investment in the VC10, including DIAN, spares and new hangars at Gatwick, was about £6£m. Total investment in the One-Eleven was about £11 fm. He was asked how much DIAN would save BUA, and he oblig- ingly ran through the following sum: "We'll save two minutes on every landing. Over ten years say that's 30,000 flying hours. Take an average flying time of five hours—that's 6,000 landings, right ? Fourteen times 6,000 is £84,000 per aircraft." Though there was, he added, a bit more to it than that. Asked about BUA's One-Eleven plans he said that the first One- Eleven would go into service on January 8, though they were hoping to slip in some One-Elevens instead of Viscounts just before Christ- mas. They were talking to BAC about a l.OOOhr route proving programme on one aircraft. One-Eleven deliveries were contrac- tually on schedule. First service would be to Genoa—"our flag route"—where traffic was now very good. "We have been through the hard first winter, when we lost our shirts. A new route takes three or four years to make." They had taken on with Viscounts a national carrier, Alitalia, operating Caravelles, and they had to sell everything themselves—even against BEA in this country who were UP GO THE FARES FOUR months after the Air Transport Licensing Board was told that the Ministry of Aviation's new airport technical service charges —first outlined last September—would in fact come into force on November 1 next, the non-State aerodrome owners finally gave their decision, at the beginning of July, to follow suit. Now that the total additional costs to be met by the airlines flying UK domestic ser- vices are known, the ATLB has announced, as expected, its decision to approve the applications for fare increases by the airlines affected. The fact that the privately owned airport increases are compar- able with those of the State airports means, according to the ATLB's reasoning for its decisions, that there had not been any over-estimation of the cost increases by the airlines and therefore the Board has decided to grant the majority of applications as they stand. When last February the airlines with one voice asked for the increases, amounting to around five per cent, Flight International, February 20), the only protest came from the Jersey and Channel Islands Holiday Bureau, who were "at a loss" to understand how some of the independents were losing money. Ironically, just after the hearing, at which it was not expected that the Channel Islands airports would increase their charges, Jersey Airport announced that it would have to put up its prices to meet airfield improvement expenditure. This led in May and June to some 31 applications for further increased tariffs on Channel Islands routes. These too have been granted. Though Guernsey and Alderney airport charges are to remain at their present levels, because of the longstanding prac- tice of common-rating Guernsey and Jersey tariffs, the increases are being applied on routes to both islands to produce, in total, the revenue needed to meet the extra costs at Jersey as well as at the mainland end of the routes. selling Alitalia against British United. Despite all this BUA had got 40 per cent of the traffic last winter and 80 per cent of the freight. In all the circumstances, said Mr Laker, "I think we have put up a pretty good show. That's not to say we didn't lose a lot of money— we did, but there is nothing free in this business." This summer they were carrying 65 per cent of the traffic from Genoa though Alitalia were doing better than they were out of London. Asked to say which routes the One-Eleven would serve he asked a member of his staff to recount them. They were given as follows: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Malaga, Gibraltar, Canary Isles, West Africa and Accra, all within four weeks (i.e. by mid-February) when four aircraft would be delivered. "We have let the cat out of the bag on Amsterdam," said Mr Laker, "but then you blokes only come here to see how many clangers I drop." Mr Harvey Schwartz said the VC10 deserved the best navigation system. Decca were glad to have the backing of BALPA, IFALPA, and IFACTA on the Harco system, though in an obvious reference to the Americans he added, "Most of you know that we have suf- fered from pressure groups." The application of the digital com- puter technique to navigation took the workload off the pilot, the Omnitrac computer of BUA's VClOs being driven by Harco and Doppler. "We think Decca Harco is the only system which meets the Eurocontrol specification," said Mr Schwartz, and he thought that no other such system was likely to do so within the next ten years. After the press conference BAC gave a luncheon at their Wisley airfield (at which Sir Dermot Boyle of BAC made appropriate birthday remarks and presentations—including an iced cake inscribed "Buy British Fly British"—to Mr Laker). During the afternoon the Press was again shown Decca in action in the com- pany's Ambassador demonstrator (see Flight International for June 25). This aircraft is off next month on a tour of the USA. Footnote: Maximum passenger payload planned by British United for their convertible VClOs is 16 first-class and 93 tourist-class passengers and 4J tons of dead-load, making in round figures a total passenger-configuration capacity of between 15 and 16 tons. Capacity payload in the all-freight role is between 19 and 20 tons. The uplift out of Nairobi on 85 per cent of occasions will be about 13 tons, and 15 tons in the other direction (southbound flights terminate at Entebbe for traffic reasons). According to one estimate, the special BUA modifications—leading edge, flaps and cargo door— are worth about 4 tons of payload. Flying time on these first-ever Nairobi-London (4,000 mile) non-stop services will be 8Jhr. That the Board went further than simply listening to the advocacy of the airlines before making up its mind to uphold the increases is clear from a poignant statement in their decision report: "It emerged from our study (of actual and estimated costs, revenues and passenger load factors on all the UK domestic scheduled services of the airlines concerned) that the general situation of unprofitability persisted on all but a few of the domestic routes and that this situation was likely to continue. While marginal profits were fore- cast on some routes by a minority of operators, these were not substantial enough to justify imposing heavier losses on others." UP GO THE WAGES A WAGE increase of up to £8 a week has been offered by BEA to their engineering workers in a move to "buy out" the bonus incen- tive scheme which has become too expensive. BEA's engineers originally asked for £6 a week on top of their basic pay to compen- sate for loss of earnings (highest take-home pay is about £28) and negotiations reduced this to £4 per week. Inevitably, however, BO AC became involved. BOAC do not have a bonus incentive scheme and their chief engineer, Mr Charles Abell, has strong views on its undesirability, as expressed in his evidence to the Select Committee. It may be recalled that Mr Corbett's consultants, AIC, recommended the introduction of an incentive scheme in BOAC's workshops, but this was not accepted by the corporation. The arguments for and against bonus incentives are finely balanced and keep the experts arguing for ever. Briefly, the efficiency expert says that the improve- ment in productivity which it achieves reduces costs; the practical engineer says that the extra amount of inspection required to avoid "skimping" vitiates the economic benefits of higher productivity.
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