PIEDMONITOR
VOLUME 7 - No. 1 PUBLISHED AND PRINTED BY PIEDMONT AVIATION, INC. SEPTEMBER 19 5 5
WORKHORSE OUT TO PASTURE? PACEMAKER REPLACEMENT CONSIDERED BY PRESIDENT-
The two most important components of a
successful business are efficient personnel
and efficient tools with which to do the
job. We are fortunate in ha/ing a large
number o'f efficient people in Piedmont
but our airplanes (tools)are not as efficient
as they should be. After all, the DC -3
was designed over twenty years ago. There
fore, we have for several years been search
ing for a new airplane that would be a n
improvement over the DC-3 from a safety
and efficiency standpoint. In this connect
ion, I recently went toEngland and Holland
to see two aircraft which were designed
specifically as DC-3 replacement aircrafr.
The "FRIENDSHIP"
I want to tell you about these aircraft but
first it might be well to discuss briefly
why we need a different airplane and what
we want it to be like. Furthermore, I know
that many of you have been asked by our
passengers,when we are going to get new
equipment. So here is the type airplane
we need and when one is available we wil I
buy it.
We need a safer airplane. It is hard to
conceive of an airplane being safer than
the DC-3 but it is possible.Single engine
performance of~tfie DC-3 isn't what it
should be. Fire prevention and control
The "HERALD"
can be improved upon. Tricycle landing
gear will permit safer cross wind landings
and we need to be able to operate safely
from short runways on hot days when fully
loaded.
We need a faster airplane. Comparatively
speaking, the DC-3 is slow by today's
standards. This cuts two ways: (1) the
passengers will, when they can, ride the
competitor's faster airplane and (2) a
slow airplane is more expensive since ,
everything else being equal, the faster
the airplane the cheaper the per mile
operating.
We need an airplane that will operate
profitably reasonable load factors.
The limited capacity, fTie slowness and
the general inefficiency of the DC-3 re
quires unreasonably high load factors to
break even without subsidy at not more
than a 55% load factor. In other word.
(Continued Page 2.)
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