AVIATION: Spreading Wings

On the world’s airways, one fact was plain: the Air Age needed a lot of supercharging from state subsidies to maintain flying speed. Because of subsidies, free-enterprising American-flag lines, once way ahead, could now see a handful of foreign lines, state-supported in varying degrees, creeping up on their tails. On the choicest route—the North Atlantic—the American lines were still well in front. The Pacific Ocean was still an American lake. But over the land mass of Asia, the British, Dutch and French lines were pressing hard; Air France has just opened a new run to Hong Kong from French Indo-China; the British Overseas Airways Corp. has added a leg to Ceylon from Karachi.

After a bad winter and early spring, U.S. overseas airlines were in the black. A few foreign airlines were making small profits—if one ignored state services not charged to their books. But U.S. airlines’ biggest rival, Britain’s state-owned cluster of chosen instruments, was bogged down. The cluster’s biggest star, BOAC, had lost £5 million for the twelve months ended in March. There were estimates that the 1947 loss would double that.

Muddling Through. To cope with the problem, BOAC last month sent in a new team. In as chairman, replacing Lord Knollys (rhymes with coals), went 68-year-old Sir Harold Hartley, famed chemist and transportation expert who had managed Britain’s aviation gasoline program in World War II. As his managing director, Sir Harold got young (34), handsome Whitney Straight,* ex-R.A.F. pilot and commodore in Britain’s Transport Command. Born in the U.S., Straight has lived in England since he was 13. He became a British subject and in his 20s he founded the Straight Corp., ran 23 of its aviation companies, including Western Airways, busiest in the British Isles. In one season it carried 42,000 passengers between England and Wales at less than third-class rail fares, and made money.

But it would take all of. Straight’s enterprise and all of Sir Harold’s science to get BOAC through the next five years. That is the estimated minimum time it will take the British aircraft industry to perfect the jet transports with which it hopes to surpass U.S. planes. Until then, BOAC will have to make do with obsolete, uneconomic transports, many of them converted bombers, and with intermediate new models now abuilding, such as the big Shetland flying boat (see cut). BOAC bought five Constellations, was about to get more when the Labor Government forbade it to spend any more precious dollars to modernize its fleet.

BOAC’s sister company, British South American Airways, is experimenting with a new trick to speed up Britain’s lumbering transports: nonstop Atlantic crossings with midair refueling over the Azores from ‘tanker” planes. While Britain bumbles along, smaller nations with bright new U.S. planes are catching some of the cream of world air travel.

Belgian Workhorse. The first airline Douglas DC-6 to cross the Atlantic arrived in Brussels three weeks ago for Belgium’s 51% state-owned chosen instrument Sabena (Sociéte Anonyme Beige d’Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne). Tight little Sabena, run with Belgian thrift and caution—adding equipment only when justified by traffic, cannily working only high-traffic routes—is making money. It has spread its lines over Europe and Africa as far south as Johannesburg, and has earned enough to pay back $2 million of the subsidies the Government advanced it from 1923 till 1940. With its new DC-6s—two more of which are to come—Sabena hopes to do much better.

Champagne & Truffles. Air France, 60% state-owned, has recovered fast from its wartime crackup. Now it has about 185 planes in use (71 U.S.-made) and 111,677 route miles radiating from Paris over most of Europe and on to New York, Shanghai, French West Africa, Rio and Buenos Aires. Its No. 1 attraction: wine-mellowed marathon meals, which take 450 miles of flight to consume, from consommé through truffled chicken and brandy. But Air France is still heavily dependent on the state treasury.

Sweden, Denmark and Norway have combined their flag carriers (17% state-owned in Denmark, 20% in Norway) into the privately controlled Scandinavian Airlines System, Inc. S.A.S. now is in the black on its daily round trips to New York, is losing money elsewhere.

Dutch Treat. Holland’s K.L.M. Lines, restored to prewar strength, is already giving U.S. lines plenty of competition. Ex-flyer and President Albert Plesman now runs six Constellations, 24 DC-4s and 25 DC-3s on a network stretching over half the globe. K.L.M. plans to buy 30 more U.S.-built planes out of the $37-odd million loaned by The Netherlands Government, which has 51% control. The Netherlands Government claimed that K.L.M. was now showing a small profit, but, as in any state-run enterprise, the method of bookkeeping was half the battle.

In all, the major foreign airlines are now flying some 550 planes on international routes, compared to 150 for the four big U.S. international lines. So far, the better U.S. planes have enabled American lines to make up for mere numbers. But as foreign lines get their new U.S. planes into the air, the gap is narrowing. The U.S. share of the profitable transatlantic run, which was 83% last year, had been whittled down, at last count, to 75%.

* Brother of the New Republic’s publisher, Michael Straight.