MUDKOKU 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.
But helicopters thus far have
proved notoriously expensive to
operate.
Likewise, the so-called "com
pact" jets like the DC9 and BAC
111 do not appear to be replace
ments for the DC3. They are too
expensive ($3 million) and too
big (carrying at least 60 pas
sengers). The CAB frinkly concedes
that it may be necessary for the
federal government to under
write part of the development
costs for a jet-age DC3, just as
its doing for the supersonic
transport. A lot of aviation ex
perts would rather sec the $750
million federal investment in a
supersonic airliner going instead
toward an aircraft for which
there is an obvious crying need.
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