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Down Fares, Up Traffic: Air Commerce ... Will The Rotodyne Be Cancelled?

The document discusses the potential cancellation of the Rotodyne aircraft. It notes that while a Westland spokesman expects contracts to be placed, newspaper reports indicate the Rotodyne may soon be abandoned due to noise and engineering issues. Previous orders from BEA and RAF have been dropped and other potential operators have cancelled due to delays. The document provides an overview of the current state of the Rotodyne project.

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51 views1 page

Down Fares, Up Traffic: Air Commerce ... Will The Rotodyne Be Cancelled?

The document discusses the potential cancellation of the Rotodyne aircraft. It notes that while a Westland spokesman expects contracts to be placed, newspaper reports indicate the Rotodyne may soon be abandoned due to noise and engineering issues. Previous orders from BEA and RAF have been dropped and other potential operators have cancelled due to delays. The document provides an overview of the current state of the Rotodyne project.

Uploaded by

dagger21
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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624 FLIGHT, 14 October

AI R C OMME R C E . . .
WILL THE ROTODYNE BE CANCELLED?
N
OTWITHSTANDING a newspaper story last week under
the headline "Rotodyne May Be Scrapped," a Westland
spokesman says that the company "fully expects contracts to be
placed for both the BEA and RAF versions." Development of the
military Rotodyne is, he said, going ahead, a tender for 12 having
been submitted.
The air correspondent of the Daily Express reports that the
Rotodyne may soon be abandoned, and that BEA and the RAF are
"convinced" that a decision will be announced shortly. According
to the story the RAF has dropped its interest in the Rotodyne on
the grounds that it is too noisy and that it presents "engineering
problems that are too expensive and difficult to overcome." Instead,
the report goes on, the RAF is to increase its order for the Westland
(Bristol) 192 Belvedere.
BEA's chairman, Lord Douglas, has said of the Rotodyne
(September 2 issue, page 327) that the corporation "would rather
have nothing than something we can't operate [due to noise]." The
president of New York Airways, Mr Robert Cummings, said last
month (September 23 issue, page 518) that he was disturbed that
"in two or three years since the prototype first flew there has been
no progress towards production." The other operator to have
placed a provisional order, Okanagan, cancelled last spring
(April 29 issue, page 610) by reason of late delivery.
THE ATAC's LAST REPORT
TPHOUGH now rendered academic by the Civil Aviation
A
Licensing Act, 1960, criticisms of "spurious" group charter
travel appear in the report of the Air Transport Advisory Council
for the year ending March 31, 1960.
This will be the last report of the ATAC, which is to be
Two new French commercial aircraft worth watching are, top, the
Breguet 941 STOL airliner, progress with which is evident from tfoj
recent photograph. Developed from the Breguet 940 Integral research
aircraft, which first flew in May 1958, the 941 is due to fly in /aril
next year in time for the Paris air show. Power plant will comprise out
Turmo HID turboprops. The commercial version will be the Breguet ?42
a 50-seat pressurized airliner with the same wing and powerplan QJ
the 941. Below is a new air-to-air picture of the Holste MH.260
Super-Broussard 30-seat "DC-3 replacement" (two Turbomeca Boston
turboprops of 960 b.h.p.) which began flight tests an July 29 ;
0
$t
superseded by the new Air Transport Licensing Board (which
came into being on October 1) probably on January 1.
More and more services appear to Lord Terrington, chairman
of the ATAC, to cater for groups "which have little or no purpose
apart from the provision of cheap travel and whose membership
is not limited so as effectively to prevent people joining merely to
secure that particular benefit." Much group charter business, in
the ATAC's view, had been to the detriment of genuine closed
group flights, and at the expense of the approved inclusive tour
services. Spurious closed group operations now appeared to be
undermining the work of the Council.
We hope to review the report more fully in a subsequent issue.
DOWN FARES, UP TRAFFIC
R
ESPONSE to fare reductions introduced by Channel Air
Bridge a year ago has been marked: on the routes linking
Southend with Calais, Ostend and Rotterdam passengers carried
in the 12 months ending September 30, 1960, were 151,322an
increase of 75 per cent over the previous year. The number of
vehicles carried was 26,435an increase of 45 per cent. Freight
nearly doubled.
Channel Air Bridge now say they expect to start operating the
new long-range so-called deeper-penetration vehicle ferry routes
to Lyons, Strasbourg, Dusseldorf and Bremen "some time next
year," though no exact date can yet be given. It is likely that the
ATL-98 Carvair car ferry conversion, which is said to be "pro-
gressing well," would eventually be used for such routes.
JETS OR TURBOPROPS FOR CARGO?
/ "\ NE of the more informative papers presented at the recent
^ SAE National Aeronautic Meeting in Los Angeles was
delivered by two representatives of the Rand Corporation. The Rand
group, whose study reports are generally neither over-optimistic
nor unduly pessimistic, used the occasion to discuss the results of
a newly completed study on the cost of cargo aircraft In a paper
entitled Low Cost Cargo AircraftTurboprop or Turbofan?, it
was concluded that a remarkable parity of costs exists between
cargo aircraft powered with the two types of propulsion. The
results were considered highly significant in light of the fact that
an earlier (1953) Rand study (Report R-249) had shown a decisive
advantage for turboprop-powered aircraft. Just why such a change
should have occurred was discussed in some detail.
Several unforeseen developments had taken place in the past
few years. Improvements were cited in aerodynamic and struc-
tural techniques, and vast gains were observed in turbine power-
plant performance. In examining the aerodynamic changes, it was
noted that there had been few changes at the lower Mach numbers.
However, at cruise Mach numbers in the M.8 to M.85 range, the
previous Rand report had limited aspect ratio to 5 because of
structural stiffness considerations, but now it appeared feasible to
employ an aspect ratio of 7 at Mach numbers of .85.
The first study work had relied upon "paper" powerplants;
these, it had been surmised several years ago, could be made
available later in the decade if their development were pushed in
the early 'fifties. It was a fact of life, however, that turboprop and
turbojet engines had not been pushed with equal vigour in the past
Seen at a recent meeting of the Air Research Bureau in Dublin is the Assembly of Presidents of this organization, which carries out market research
and economic surveys on behalf of its members, who comprise most of the leading European airlines. In the centre of the group is the chairman
and host, Mr J. Dempsey, general manager of Irish International Airlines. Others in the group are L. Lesieux, director-general, Air France; Sr Velini,
special affairs manager, Alitalia; W. A. Kittel, Lufthansa; W. Deswarte, president, Sabena; Lord Douglas, BEA (also vice-chairman. Air Lingus);
Mr Wassenbergh, foreign relations manager, KLM; Dr Tomas Delgado, president, Iberia; Mr O. O. Johnson, general manager, Icelandair;
Mr A. Rusck, president, SAS; Dr Walter Berchtold, president, Swissair; and Dr Gruberg Gore, secretary-general. Air Research Bureau
w W
f s

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