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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Aviation changes so rapidly that one is virtually compelled to acquire wings oneself in order to keep up with it. Moreover, there is a scarcity of accurate information on many matters in which the economist is particularly interested. Nevertheless it is worth while to outline some of the economic aspects first of air transport in general and, secondly, of airplane transportation in Canada. The analysis is necessarily incomplete but it is hoped that it will serve as a basis for further discussion.
Air transport can best be dealt with under its most important characteristics—speed, reliability, safety, cost, scheduling, completeness, and comfort. Speed, of course, is the greatest single advantage of airplanes over competing forms of transportation. The characteristic of speed arises both from high speeds per hour while in motion and the fact that the planes can fly in a direct line without much regard to the underlying terrain. Scheduled aviation maintains an average of 180 miles per hour in the United States. On the San Francisco-New York fast sleeper service, however, the average speed is 165 miles per hour compared with 161 miles per hour on Trans-Canada's Vancouver-Montreal service. As these figures include stops, flying speeds are more than 200 miles per hour. Because air resistance increases as the square of the speed there would seem to be definite limits to still higher regular speeds except, as in military service, where costs can be ignored. On the other hand, past experience with prophecy in aviation indicates the dangers of prediction. Moreover, sub-stratosphere flights at upwards of 400 miles per hour are an immediate possibility. Speed is significant mainly in the longer hauls for in the shorter distances the time involved in going between the terminal airports, which are usually on the outskirts of the city and downtown business sections, offsets any reduction in travelling time in the line haul. The terminal difficulty may be overcome by taxicab services to and from the fields or by higher line speeds or by the expensive process of locating terminals near down-town areas.
1 For invaluable assistance in the preparation of the latter part of this article the author is indebted to Mr. R. W. McRae.
2 These factors follow those outlined in Mr. J. B. Eastman's exhaustive analysis of freight and passenger traffic in the reports of the U.S. Federal Co-ordinator of Railways.
3 Scheduled aviation refers to transport companies which attempt to maintain regular services over specified routes. It is distinguished from both military aviation and civil aviation of an unscheduled nature—private flying, “barnstorming,” and occasional flights to mines, etc., as weather conditions or volume of traffic permits.
4 As an antidote to the enthusiasm of the journalists see, for instance, the careful analysis of the aviation industry in Fraser, C. E. and Doriot, G. F., Analyzing Our Industries (New York, 1932), pp. 152–82Google Scholar; also Warner, E. P., “Commercial Aviation—Illusion or Fact” (Yale Review, 06, 1931, pp. 706–26).Google Scholar The present prosperity of the manufacturing end of the business is the result of re-armament and war orders.
5 Preliminary tests of these airplanes have yielded satisfactory results from an engineering standpoint.
6 The average flight for scheduled planes in the United States is 436 miles: on Trans-Canada, 450 miles.
7 In England the difficulty of travelling to airdromes from the “City” made air competition with railway transport between London and provincial towns harder (The (London) Economist, Aug. 31, 1929). As the actual flying time was reduced, this difficulty was offset.
8 La Guardia Field in New York cost $40 million, of which $25 million was borne by the Works Progress Administration. Autogiros going from an airport on the outskirts and landing on the roof of a down-town building may solve the outlying terminal problem as it appears to have done with mail in Philadelphia.
9 In early years the companies cancelled flights entirely if weather conditions were not favourable and “schedules completed” figures referred merely to flights actually started and then completed. At the present time a schedule is considered completed when a departure from any point reaches its destination before being overtaken by the next following departure from the same point of origin and destined for the same terminus. Because of much less frequent service in Canada than in the United States, Trans-Canada figures are not as favourable as they appear on the surface.
10 The completion of a full year's operations in the United States without a passenger fatality first by trains and then by scheduled planes is evidence of this. Neither experience can be said to be typical. The figures, for what they are worth, are set forth in the Civil Aeronautics Journal, U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority, and Civil Aviation in Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics.
11 “Terrain Clearance Indicators” (Aviation, May, 1939). Briefly the indicator, a highly sensitive short wave radio broadcaster and pick-up, shows the altitude of the plane with reference to the ground almost immediately beneath it.
12 The best description is in Lyon, Thoburn C., Practical Air Navigation (U.S. Department of Commerce Coast and Geodetic Survey, Special Publication no. 197, 1935).Google Scholar The Morse code symbol for “A” (dot-dash) is transmitted by wireless into one quadrant of a circle, the symbol for “N” (dash-dot) into another, the line between the quadrants coinciding with the line of flight. Along this line the two signals merge so as to produce a steady drone which when picked up by the plane indicates “on-beam”: either signal heard individually shows off-beam and in which direction.
13 Various issues of the Air Commerce Bulletin, U.S. Department of Commerce, now Civil Aeronautics Journal, U.S. Civil Aeronautics Authority, give ample evidence of the care exercised by investigators in checking every possible cause of accident.
14 The calculation of the cost of governmental assistance to commercial aviation in Canada is exceedingly difficult for it is almost impossible accurately to segregate items. On the matter of subsidy through mail pay alone, see Standing Committee on Railways and Shipping, House of Commons, Minutes of Proceedings, 1940.Google Scholar
15 In addition to routine inspection and repairs, Trans-Canada overhauls every plane at its Winnipeg base every 100, 400, and 600 flying hours. In the latter overhaul the plane is virtually re-built in so far as the moving parts are concerned.
16 At one time American companies estimated insurance at the rate of 21½ per cent of the original undepreciated cost of the flight unit. This has been reduced by the Civil Aeronautics Authority to 13J per cent in some cases (Pan-American Airways Co. (of Delaware)—Mail Rates, 1 C.A.A. Opinions, temporary, p. xxxiii at pp. xlii-xliii, 1940).
17 There appears to be a disposition to spread the depreciation and obsolescence charges over a longer period. In Northwest Airlines, Incorporated, 216 I.C.C. 166 (1935), “petitioner based its charges for depreciation of the new equipment upon an assumed 3-year life …” but the Commission, although recognizing that in a rapidly changing industry it was desirable to err, if at all, on the side of conservatism, computed depreciation on the basis of four years. In a more recent case, Pan American Airways, supra, at p. xlii, Ά#x201C;Petitioner computes depreciation on its aircraft over an estimated life of 7½ years and this appears to be conservative. Engines are depreciated on the basis of 3,000 hours and although it is believed that the engine may have a longer service life than this, no change has been made in the depreciation charge computed on this basis, especially since an obsolescence factor is introduced by reason of the low intensity of use of these engines.Ά#x201D;
18 The Civil Aeronautics Authority assigned the following causes of accident, 1939: personnel 38 per cent, material 9, structure 10, weather 7, airport terrain or water 25, other 10 ( Civil Aeronautics Journal, 05 1, 1940, p. 223).Google Scholar
19 Boeing Air School in Oakland, Cal., charges for tuition alone about $1,500 for its twenty-four monthsΆ#x0027; airline operations and engineering course and nearly $1,100 for its 18 monthsΆ#x0027; airline mechanics course. The pilot must attain a high standard of general education and of physical fitness.
20 MacLeod, N. T., Ά#x201C;Four Vital Factors in Commercial AviationΆ#x201D; (Canadian Aviation, 03, 1930).Google Scholar Also Thaden, H. V., Ά#x201C;How Much Does It CostΆ#x201D; (Aviation, 01, 1936, p. 29).Google Scholar These decreasing costs are, of course, to be distinguished from the lowering of costs associated with improvements in technology. Ά#x201C;Air transport is a business of rapidly decreasing cost during the early stages of growth and of slowly decreasing cost thereafterΆ#x201D; ( David, Paul T., Ά#x201C;Federal Regulation of Airplane Common Carriers,Ά#x201D; The Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, 11, 1930, p. 365).Google Scholar Costs per passenger-or pound-mile may be lowered by having the load in each plane as nearly as possible to the maximum, i.e. increasing the load factor. Also involved is the whole problem of the most economical size plane for a given route. The increase in passenger capacity of airplanes over the last few years indicates considerable economy in the larger sizes.
21 The early history of aviation in Canada is outlined in Canada Year Book, 1938, pp. 710-12; Wilson, J. A., Ά#x201C;Civil Aviation in CanadaΆ#x201D; (QueenΆ#x0027;s Quarterly, spring, 1929, pp. 294–312)Google Scholar; Wilson, J. A., Ά#x201C;Ten Years of Civil Aviation in CanadaΆ#x201D; (Air Annual of the British Empire, 1929, London, pp. 162Ά##x2013;7).Google Scholar
22 See Canada Year Book, 1939, pp. 703-5, for full details. A popular description is contained in Grant, J. Fergus, Ά#x201C;Trans-Canada AirwayΆ#x201D; (Canadian Geographical Journal, 02, 1937, pp. 99–124).Google Scholar
23 Similar difficulties are likely to arise in the future with even larger, faster planes. Johnson, Colonel, Ά#x201C;Our Vital Airport Problems: How Shall They Be SolvedΆ#x201D; (Air Commerce Bulletin, 09, 1937).Google Scholar The entire problem is succinctly stated: Ά#x201C;Adoption of the Indianapolis system Άlsqb;of landing blindΆrsqb; may lead to the installation of equipment at landing fields and in the planes themselves, which will later have to be scrapped if advantage is to be taken of further advances in the art. Άhellip; If such adoption becomes too extensive and widespread before the improved system materializes, there is a possibility that the introduction of the superior system may be inhibited by costs in making the change. On the other hand failure to adopt the Indianapolis system may result in too much delay in getting any system at all and in withholding immediately realizable benefitsΆ#x201D; ( Civil Aeronautics Journal, 02 1, 1940, p. 38).Google Scholar
24 This is another instance of the federal government assuming the burden of obsolescence in transportation facilities. Innis, H. A., Problems of Staple Production in Canada (Toronto, 1933).Google Scholar
25 Statutes of Canada, 1 Geo. VI (1937), c. 43, slightly amended 1938 and 1940.
26 The operating problems of feeder lines are somewhat different from main line service. See Aircraft Year Book for 1939 (New York), pp. 190Ά##x2013;1.Google Scholar
27 To date the payments to Trans-Canada have been:
28 Vice-President in charge of Operations, the Chief Technical Adviser, Technical Advisers on Maintenance, Meteorology, Communications, and Air Navigation, and the Flying Instructor.
29 President, Secretary, Treasurer, Comptroller, General Traffic Manager, Director of Publicity, and Counsel.
30 Initially the Company purchased ten 14 HΆ#x0027;s (10 passenger) and five 10 AΆ#x0027;s (9 passenger), each plane requiring a crew of three. The smaller planes have been sold to the Air Force and replaced by 14 HΆ#x0027;s.
31 A few of the engineering characteristics of these planes are: two Pratt Άamp; Whitney aircooled engines, nine cylinder, developing 850 brake h.p. during take-off: gross weight of plane fully loaded 17,000 lbs.; take-off at sea-level with flaps after run of 775 feet in 14 seconds; landing speed with flaps 68 m.p.h.; can stop on ground in 1,400 feet using brakes and flaps (i.e., auxiliary wings sliding out on tracks a distance of 42 inches behind and below the trailing edge of the craftΆ#x0027;s main wing, thus reducing take-off and lowering landing speeds); retractable landing gear enabling higher speeds in flight; cruising speed at 10,000 feet, 217 m.p.h.; constant speed propellers, i.e. the pitch at which the propellers thrust into the air stream is automatically regulated enabling the motors to run at optimum rate without regard to the planeΆ#x0027;s forward speed; de-icing equipment; Handley-Page wing slots forestalling danger in case of stalling; Sperry automatic pilots keeping plane stable and on course; finally, the latest radio equipment.
32 De-icers are air-tight rubber tubes or boots attached to and running the length of the leading edge of the surface to be kept ice free. When in operation, air is forced intermittently into the hollow boots causing the rubber to expand so that any ice which may have been formed cracks off and is carried away by the wind. The initial formation of ice is always along the leading edge. The propellers are equipped with Slinger Rings which are simply circular troughs of an inverted-U cross-section, bolted to the rear face of the propeller hub and fitted with short discharge tubes that open into the base of each of the three propeller blades on the thrust side. Anti-freeze solution is fed into the ring from the fuselage of the plane. The centrifugal force of the rotating propeller causes the distribution of the fluid upon the blades.
33 The snow is removed by rotary plows which throw the snow back from the runways in order to give adequate wing clearance at the sides and a clear runway in the middle. Alternatively the snow on the runway surface is compacted by the rollers to a hardness which will permit it to carry the weight of an aircraft. Compaction is cheaper than removal and makes a larger landing area available. Unfortunately it cannot deal adequately with soft, melting snow in the spring and thus both methods are often used on the same field but at different seasons.
34 Civil Aviation in Canada, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, annual, summarized in Canada Year Book, 1939, p. 711.Google Scholar
35 Canada, Post Office Department, Air Mail Services, 1939.Google Scholar Some airplane services do not carry mail for the public and are not shown on this map.
36 Wings Limited, Canadian Airways, Mackenzie Air Service.
37 This hope is, in part, the explanation of the lines to Prince Rupert, B.C., diagonally across New Brunswick and elsewhere. On the other hand, our railway builders have sometimes been Ά#x201C;luckyΆ#x201D; as at Sudbury and Cobalt.
38 Bruce, E. L., Ά#x201C;The Canadian Shield and Its Geographic EffectsΆ#x201D; (Geographical Journal, 03, 1939, p. 239).Google Scholar