The British Are Coming

The British aircraft industry, still reeling from the heavy blows of successive Comet crashes, last week bounced off the ropes and back into the center of the ring. After negotiations in London (TiME, June 7), Capital Airlines President J. H. ("Slim") Carmichael, 47, flew back to the U.S. with the news that he was buying a whole fleet of British turboprop transports, expects to start operating them by next April. He bought three Vickers Viscounts, has an option on 37 more, to replace most of his Constellations, DC-3s and DC-4s. Total price: $45 million.

To towering (6 ft. 4 in.) Slim Carmichael the Vickers-Armstrongs Viscount seemed custom-made for Capital. It is powered by four Rolls-Royce turboprops (i.e., gas-turbine engines that drive propellers), can carry 48 passengers at a cruising speed of 335 m.p.h. In service with British European Airways, Air France and Air Lingus, the Viscount has proved an economical operator over medium-distance routes such as Capital has from New York and Washington to the Midwest. On European routes its vibration-free performance and relative silence have lured many a traveler from piston-engine planes. While operating cost per hour will be slightly higher than for Capital's DC-4s, the actual cost per seat-mile will be less owing to the Viscount's 115-m.p.h. greater speed. Sample new schedule: 1 hr. 31 min. between Cleveland and New York compared to the present 1 hr. 50 min. run. Says Carmichael: "The Viscount will be the most profitable plane we ever operated."

Carmichael found it easy to finance the deal through Vickers since the British are eager to break into the U.S. market. By 1957 Viscounts should completely retire Capital's Constellations and a good part of its fleet of DC-3s and DC-4s. One big advantage: the Viscount can operate from all but three of the 51 fields on Capital's routes, whereas Capital's Constellations cannot operate from 15, and its DC-4s cannot operate from ten. Says Slim Carmichael: "This plane puts us close to the airline operator's ideal. . . . to serve the entire route with one type of plane and one type of engine."

Carmichael, who got a flying start as a barnstormer years ago and was a commercial airline pilot and airline executive for years before becoming president of Capital in 1947, will be the first to fly British planes over U.S. commercial routes. But Slim Carmichael is not scared by innovation. Six years ago, he launched the first air-coach service. It has not only helped pull Capital out of the red (to a net of $1,652,289 in 1953), but has since been copied by every other major U.S. airline.

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