"“™. PIEDMONITOR
VOLUME 10 - No. 3 Published by Piedmont Aviation, Inc.
NORTH CAROLINA'S Governor Luther H. Hodges (center). Piedmont Airlines Vice
President C. Gordon Brovin (left) and Voit Gilmore, President of the North Carolina
Travel Council, discuss the new Fairchild F-27. Governor Hodges, along with approx
imately 60 out-of-town members of the council, were in Winston-Salem recently for
the opening session of the meeting. The program included a tour of the Piedmont Air
lines General Office and Maintenance facility.
ROLLS ROYCE DART
ENGINE DELIVERED
(See page 4 for picture.)
The first Rolls-Royce Dart 511 turbo-prop
engine was received recently and is one of
a number of spares ordered for the F-27.
The 1600 horsepower prop-jet powerplant
was brought to Wilmington, N. C. by the
S. S. Thomas Nelson from England.
The engine, valued at $53,000. is manu
factured by Rol I s-Royce inDerby, England.
Six more engines arescheduled for delivery
prior to the inauguration of F-27 operation.
BAGGAGE WEIGHT
SURVEY PLANNED
For some time,the Air Transport Associat
ion has been studying methods for speeding
up baggage nandling and checking pro
cedures at airports.
Indications are that considerable t I m e
would be saved If an average baggage
weight could be used . Al 1 baggage would
be weighed only to determine if an excess
collection need be made and no weights
would be recorded on the baggage tag. A
count of the baggage at the destination
MARCH 19 58
would be required and a chart simllarto
that used for passenger weights would be
used to determine the weight for loads
forms.
Approval forsuch aprogram must of course,
be obtained from the CAB and the CAA
and the survey will develop the necessary
data to prove that an average baggage
weight is both reasonable and practicol.
Air carriers participating In the survey In
addition to Piedmont are American, Capi
tal, Eastern, Northeast, TWA, UAL and
Western Airl ines,
U. S. AIRLINES
ON 48 HOUR CALL
As part of national defense planning, the
U. S. airlines in cooperation with the
Department of Defense and other govern
ment agencies have estabiIshed the Civil
Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) and the War .Air
Service Pattern (WASP). The machinery
has been set up whereby the airlines can
swing immediately into domestic and glo
bal military operations in the event of
national emergency and be in full operat
ion In 48 hours.
The CRAF composed of more than 300 long-
range four engine airliners, Including 274
from the scheduled airlines' fleets, would
operate on a global basis, carrying men
andsupplies In supportof the military effort.
This fleet has an airlift capacity of 2.8
bll lion ton-miles annual Iy under emergency
conditions. All remaining four and twln-
englne aircraft In the civil fleets would
make up the WASP to serve on the home front
and provide priority airlift in support of de
fense production.
Upon alert from the Defense Department, the
CRAF planes, along with their crews, would
proceed to predetermined bases and be
operated by the alrl Ines on mil itary contract
and under the supervision of the Military
Air Transport Service (MATS).