CIVIL AVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 7

CIVIL AVIATION

PLAN FOR BRITAIN

A CENTRAL JUNCTION

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, January 30.

■Restriction of competition,' increase of average hours flown annually by airliners, ; and economical regulation of services are keynotes of the eagerlyawaited report of the Maybury Committee, which was appointed in 1935' to consider the development of ■ civil aviation in Great Britain. The. chief recommendation in the report is a plan to organise an experimental- system of aerial services between ■ specified and widely-separated centres of population.

Tlie plan, which, is styled the ."Junction Aerodrome Scheme," envisages- a network of air routes connecting Belfast, Glasgow-Edinburgh, Newcastle, London, Southampton-Portsmouth, and Bristol'by,, way of a central junction aerodrome in the Manchester-Liverpool area.' It/would serve; an- aggregate population of 14,000,000, or approximately one-third of the total population of the country. Its aggregate route milage' would be relatively low at96o. Highloadfactors .should be obtained early in the experiment because an aeroplane flying .to the junction aerodrome on any route might carry loads destined for three areas and on its return carry loads -from, .those areas. On the assumption that 14-seat aircraft were employed and that each aircraft carried three people for each of three destinations, the load factor, in the view of the committee, might reach 64 per cent., , permitting passenger fares as low as 3£d per mile to be charged. Direct non-stop services, without intermediate halts at the junction aerodrome, could be run where sufficient demand existed. STATE AID FOR NIGHT FLYING. Adequate ground • organisation, is a grave lack in British;civil flying.. The committee recognises, that, important extensions of night' flying installations and radio apparatus to'assist landings when visibility is bad are needed. It recommends . that . all, radio facilities and a, comprehensive air traffic control organisation adequate to ensure the safety and" regularity of air communications at all times within Great Britain should be provided, maintained, and operated by the Government, and combined with the meteorological organisation that is at present. immediately concerned with internal flying. The capital cost of these recommendations is expected to be about £320,000 and the total annual cost about £240,000, of which some £40,000 is already being incurred or in prospect. The committee links provision of full night-flying aids with extension of air mails, pointing out that there is only limited scope for development of inland air-mail service's as long as regular night-flying is impracticable. Night air-mail ■ s~rvices recommended for early experimental working would run between London and Belfast and London and Glasgow-Edinburgh. Later services might run to an aerodrome at Crevve, which is the headquarters, of a large travelling post-office system.