AIRLINER DELAYS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22439, 20 September 1947, Page 5

AIRLINER DELAYS

AVRO COMPLAINT TUDOR I. CONTROVERSY “BEING MESSED ABOUT" ,(11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 19. 8.0.A.C. has denied a report that the corporation has decided that Tudor I. airliners will be converted into freighters because of their unsuitability as a commercial proposition on the North Atlantic route. Sir Roy Dobson, general manager of A. V. Roe and Company, said when B. asked Avro in 1944 to build an aircraft to certain specifications, the company said the machines as planned would not be a commercial proposition. 8.0.A.C. replied that they wanted a machine capable of upholding British prestige. After various modifications the 32seat Tudor IV was constructed with a fuselage rather longer than the original ' .Tudors. * " Air Vice-Marshal D. C. T. Bennett described the machine as the finest he had ever handled and ordered six. "V Avro at present were engaged in their construction. The first would be delivered ready for service in September. — 1 Sir Roy said the trouble with 16 Tudor I aircraft which had been built - fcraft only carried 12 passengers because 8.0.A.C. had them fitted out with beds. The Tudors which British South American Airways had ordered 'through Air Vice-Marshall Bennett tarried 32 passengers. Sir Roy said the firm had been '.“messed about” for 30 months with "."alterations to the Tudor I. Nobody had . yet given the final modifications to be made. “I am constantly being asked to get rid of these ‘blasted Tudors. 1 They are clogging up our works.” He added that the controversy was having a demoralising effect on the firm’s work people and repercussions on foreign trade.