B.A.C. Chance May Be Better

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30975, 3 February 1966, Page 14

B.A.C. Chance May Be Better

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 2.

Promotion of the British Aircraft Corporation 1-11 passenger aircraft in New Zealand—one of three contenders for the replacement of National Airways Corporation Viscounts—may have improved its prospects for selection.

The deputy generalmanager of N.A.C. (Mr L. L. Ford) said this morning the flight performances of the B.A.C. 1-11 claimed by the manufacturers had been proved by recent N.A.C. trials.

Although he declined to say if N.A.C. now favoured the B.A.C. 1-11 as the Viscount replacement, Mr Ford said: “We are busy right now in revising certain figures in our report to the Government.” The N.A.C. report and evaluation of the three possible replacement short-haul jets is now in the hands of the Civil Aviation Department. The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine) said earlier this week he hoped to put the proposals for the Viscount replacement before the Cabinet in two or three weeks. As well as the B.A.C. 1-11,

the American Boeing 737 and the Douglas DC9 are being considered.

Mr Ford said the approximate cost of each aircraft, excluding spares, was £l.l million. “There are variations in this figure but the aircraft prices are all somewhere around the same,” he said. The Treasury will also be involved in the final report to the Government.