Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989, September 12, 1963, Image 33

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Medford mail tribune., September 12, 1963, Image 33

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Newspaper Page TextMUDKOKU MAIL 1K1BUNE. MhUruKU, OKEliON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1963 D 3 Good $500,000 Airliner Needed in Country Today, CAB Reports By ROBERT J. SERLING t'PI Aviation Editor WASHINGTON (UPD- Forty years ago the nation was told that what it needed was a good five cent cigar. Today, its being told it needs a good $500,000 airliner. The need is not academic. On its fulfillment depends quite a few million of dollars in taxpay ers funds the money the fed eral government shells out to the local service airlines for serving unprofitable communi ties with planes that couldn't make money anyway. This is the basic problem: The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) this year is paying 13 local service carriers more than $80 million to bring air service to smaller communities which do not provide sufficient traffic to be profitable. And one of the ways the CAB believes it could cut this subsidy bill is to have those airlines operate a trans port that would be cheaper to buy and cheaper to fly. Serve Small Cities The so - called "airlines of main street" serve the small city market with three basic types of equipment, each inher ently unsatisfactory for the job. They fly modern prop-jet F27's, postwar twin - engine Convairs and Martins, or the beloved but obsolete DC 3. The trouble with the F27's, Convairs and Martins is that they are too big for many of the cities they serve. It makes little economic sense to operate a 52-passenger Convair or a 40 passenger F27 or a Martin into a community that is lucky to board five passengers daily. A recent CAB study of more than 88,000 local service flight departures showed that the small communities seldom need a plane capable of carrying more than 24 passengers. One statistic was startling: 76 per cent of the departures had 18 or fewer passengers. The trouble with the smaller DC3 is simply its age. It costs 71 cents a mile to fly. Mainten ance and spare parts for a plane designed in 193S are expensive, just as they would be for an "orphan" automobile no longer being manufactured. Would Like New Plane What he local service airlines would like is a modern plane about the size of a DC3, selling for around a half million dol lars. The Association of Local Transport Airlines (ALTA) even had a special committee draw up specifications for a DC3 replacement. Number of Fires Caused by Man on Forests Decreases The number of man-caused fires on lands under the juris diction of the Oregon depart ment of forestry dropped from 157 in 1962 to 86 in 1963. The number on Rogue River National Forest dropped from a five-year average of 30 fires per year to 7. These figures were reported by Curt Nesheim of the state forestry department and Rob ert Torheim of the national for est at the recent meeting of the Southern Oregon Conservation and Tree Farm association. The total fires from all caus- th statu forests dropped from 176, burning ' over 2,096 acres in 1962; to 120, miming over 361 acres in 1963, Nesheim said. Fires caused by the lum ber industry dropped from 12 in 1962 to 5 in 1963. Constitute Fire Hazard Nesheim said that the tracer bullets being imported and used in the forests constitute a de finite fire hazard. All efforts to regulate or control the use of this ammunition, he added, has imciipressful. The improvement in the na tional forest's fire record is re flected in the total number, also, Torheim stated. The total i m i,ino lishtnine strike fires) dropped from a five-year aver age of 67 fires per year to 38 in 1963. Only two tires were iiing j ik. lnmhor industry and each of them was confined to r....h aoro nr less ue- cause of alertness of the crews." tko Rnnup River National for est would have had an even more outstanding year '" ,: Tirhnim said, if re- cent lightning storms had not changed the situation. Officers Commended Ed Branchfield, state repre sentative, addressing the meet i mmonHnd the officers of the' Southern Oregon Conserva tion and Tree rarm a.--tion for their prompt action in .u. t ottpmnt bv the Pub lic Utilities Commission to put into effect a limitation on um, u, fr lne truck drivers, "which would have been a crip pling blow to the industry aim especially to the independent OE irucM-i , . Branchfield also discussed the current controversial tax refer endum and answered quest'""'; He point"1 out t0 thc poup people need to keep their rep resentatives informed on the ef fect various bins woum Onlv through communication -.u .u. ir,id!iinrs he contend ed, can the peoPle at home do an adequate Jod oi us- -representative in assuming his . ,;Kiiiiio in ihem. It is al- so the responsibility of various persons to appear peiuie w.c legislative committees w no tify regarding important issues, The committee called for a plane that could carry 18 pas sengers and baggage plus 1,000 pounds of cargo, operate on a 3,500 - foot runway, fly 500 miles non-stop or through three stops with a full payload without re fueling, have an approach speed of only 60 miles an hour, cruise at least 300 mph and cost only 40 cents a mile to fly. Not a single U.S. manufactur er has such an airliner on the drawing board although the market potential is enormous. The local service airlines alone still operate nearly 200 CD3's. In fact, the gallant old lady car ries 25 per cent of their traffic and is responsible for 45 per cent of their total plane miles flown. French Have Airliner The French have a smaller airliner with many of the char acteristics cited in the ALTA "dream plane" the Nord 262. But it also has a direct operat ing cost of 60 cents a mile which does not meet a prime requisite of both ALTA and the CAB: a transport so inexpen sive to fly that it could break even or make a little money serving low-traffic communities. The CAB itself has been con ducting serious studies of the DC3 replacement porblem. It has talked with more than 25 manufacturers both here and abroad. Boeing and Douglas supplied special reports on the particular requirements for a short - haul transport and the design diffuculties involved. United Air Lines had its engi neering staff prepare an evalua tion of all existing aircraft and how they would fit into local service operations. From all these studies the CAB got the sad news: Taking into consideration all factors un der a manufacturer's control such as development costs, fuel consumption, maintenance and overhaul intervals, the price of parts and depreciation, there is no present way to build an 18-24 passenger airliner that would sell for less than $500,000 and still have direct operating costs even as good as the DC3's 71 cents a mile. The lowest figure given the CAB was 93 cents and the highest $1.36. Been Some Predictions There have been some predic tions that the helicopter eventu ally will become the real DC3 replacement. The optimists point out that a 200 - mile - an hour 'copter could beat a pure jet on a short-haul flight be cause the former could take pas sengers into the heart of a city. 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