Royal Bank LetterPublished by Royal Bank of Canada

Flying the WorldThis year of anniversaries calls for an appreciation of

man’s ability toffy, one of the greatest of human

achievements. The miracle of modern aviation has notbeen wrought totally on the technical side. It also entails

a triumph of international cooperation. That is what

permits us to travel almost anywhere on earth today...

It so happens that two of the great unsung events inthe history of aviation occurred the same year in twocities of the same name: St. Petersburg, Florida, andSt. Petersburg, Russia. On January 1, 1914, a pilotnamed Tony Jannus took off from the AmericanSt. Petersburg on a 23-minute flight to Tampa, whichmarked the beginning of scheduled air service as weknow it today. Six months later in Russia, a 24-year-old engineering genius named Igor Sikorsky carriedsix passengers on a test flight lasting 6 1/2 hours in ahuge (for the time) four-engine aircraft. Later thatyear Sikorsky and three colleagues flew this prototypeof the modern airliner from St. Petersburg to Kievand back on a round trip of 2,000 kilometres.

It is difficult for people living 80 years later in thefinal decade of the "Century of Flight" to appreciatejust how revolutionary was Sikorsky’s idea of a largeenclosed people-carrier. We have now become overlyfamiliar with a phenomenon which in centuries pastremained beyond man’s most distant aspirations,namely the ability to fly. The first aviators approachedthis technological triumph in a gingerly way, countingtheir speed and the horsepower of their engines inlow double digits and their time aloft in minutes ratherthan hours. For some years after the Wright brothers’Flyer One biplane first lifted off the ground for 12seconds in December, 1903, every flight was a venturewhich could end in injury or death.

At that stage, however, nobody put much stock inthe prospect of aircraft transporting people and goodsfrom one place to another. The machines werenecessarily of such light construction that they couldonly carry one passenger at a time. The first airpassengers did not want to be taken anywhere in

particular. Rather, they were on the original "joy ride,"defying danger for the fantastic sensation of breakingthe bonds of gravity.

The prevailing thinking about the future of aviationwas that it had some military potential, and wouldprovide fine sport, like horseback riding. Ininaugurating a regular passenger service (four roundtrips a day; return fare $10) the proprietors of theFlorida St. Petersburg’s Airboat Line were taking adaring step ahead of their time.

Sikorsky was even more visionary in seeingaviation as a means of large-scale, long-distancetransportation. Until the turn of the 20th century, theonly speculation on the possibility of airbornecommerce came from poets like Byron and Tennyson.Since they do not actually have to do what they writeabout, poets can write about doing anything they like.But Sikorsky was a hands-on workman with anintimate knowledge of the myriad and massivedifficulties of what he was trying to accomplish --build the progenitor of a breed of airborne giants thatwould carry passengers and cargo across oceans fromcity to city with no intermediate stops.

The outbreak of World War I soon after his epic1914 flight cast a shadow over Sikorsky’s grandvisions. Instead of going into commercial service, hismagnificent flying machine made its debut as theworld’s first heavy bomber. Seventy-three warplaneswere built according to his basic design, graduatingin range and power. They flew about 400 missionsover a distance of 120,000 kilometres. Apparently allwere destroyed in the chaos of Russia’s revolutionand military collapse.

Still, by demonstrating that a plane of that size

could be flown regularly, Sikorsky deserves the titleof the father of the modern transport aircraft. (In the1940s he would also become the father of the modernhelicopter.) Following Russia’s lead, the majorcombatant nations in World War I all developed long-range bombers. It was in a stripped-down BritishVickers Vimy bomber that two Royal Air Forceofficers, John Alcock and A. W. Brown, became thefirst men to fly directly across the Atlantic Ocean onJune 15, 1919.

Even as they braved the North Atlantic winds,commercial aviation was off and running on a practicallevel. Airlines had been formed with planes andground facilities left over from World War I, operatingscheduled services among many points in continentalEurope and Great Britain. Since the routes criss-crossed national boundaries~ it soon became clear thataviation would bring about a fundamental change inthe relationships among states.

From the beginning,a progressive andinternationalist

approach

When delegates from 33 nations took time outfrom the peace negotiations in Paris to discuss thisquestion in 1919, they proceeded on the premise thatthe traditional legal terms of reference for internationalcommerce could not be applied to the new industry.If they equated it with land transportation, then a

flight passing over acountry should be subjectto all the laws of the landunderneath it, which couldprove vexatious andcumbersome for allparties. But if they

followed the precedent of marine transportation anddeclared a kind of aerial freedom of the seas, thenthe nations being overflown would have no controlover what was being done in their own airspace.

The agreement which resulted from that meetingcontained a solution which has served the inter-national aviation community nicely ever since, tothe effect that each state would maintain sovereigntyover its own airspace without prejudice to theright of innocent passage by aircraft of other nations.The "Paris Convention" also took a broadinternationalist approach to such matters asairworthiness certification, pilot licensing, and aircraftregistration and identification. To implement theconventiom the first intergovernmental aviationorganization was launched -- the InternationalCommittee for Air Navigation (ICAN).

In the meantime, the airlines themselves had cometo the conclusion that commercial aviation wouldrequire extraordinary international cooperation to meetits full potential. So, in August, 1919, representatives

of the British, Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegianand Swedish carriers came together in the Hague toform the International Air Traffic Association (IATA),a non-political organization dedicated to coordinatingoperating and business practices on international airroutes.

It was clear from the beginning that, as a quasi-public service, commercial aviation would have morecontact with governments than other industries. Atthe time IATA was founded, the finances of itsmembers were heavily dependent on airmail, theindustry’s original financial mainstay. It successfullylobbied to win for its members a regular share of theworld’s mail.

It was also clear that the organization representingcommercial carriers would have to work closely withthe organization representing governments. IATA andICAN formed a common front to persuadegovernments to standardize the ground signals whichinformed pilots of wind direction, cloud ceilings, etc.When these were replaced by radio, the twoorganizations made sure that commercial air trafficwas allotted its own fixed frequencies. Their jointefforts in developing navigation and landing aidsenabled instrument flying at night and in murkyweather. They also joined in successful efforts totalk governments into eliminating needless red tape.

As traffic grew, the operators cooperated amongthemselves to establish many of the distinguishingcharacteristics which today make international aviationan industry like no other. IATA meetings resulted ina continuous exchange of technical, operational andstatistical information which formed the basis for thecoordination of schedules, documentation, and legalprovisions.

In the all-important setting of standards, an IATAcommittee decided that all dial instruments shouldturn clockwise, and that all throttles should be madeso that pushing on them would increase speed andpulling on them would reduce it. Through IATA, theairlines developed arrangements whereby one airlinecould book passengers on others through a single setof tickets, the precursor of the impressivecommunications and financial system which nowallows "one-stop shopping" for multiple-airlinejourneys. As far back as the 1920s, members werelaying the groundwork for the modem travel industry,agreeing on uniform baggage allowances, travelagents’ certification and commissions, round-tripdiscounts, and terms for inclusive tour packages.

The 1930s ushered in a new era of internationalflight, dominated by tri-motor transports and flyingboats. Using a combination of both types of

equipment, Pan American Airways opened up routesfrom the United States to points throughout theCaribbean and Latin America as far south as BuenosAires. Later it launched its famous China Clipperservice to the Far East. Not to be outdone, Britain’sImperial Airways used flying boats to fly fromEngland to South Africa, India and Australia. Fuellimitations necessitated a number of overnight stopsalong the way. A person travelling from Britain inthis fashion would take 8 1/2 days to reach Singaporeand 12 1/2 days to reach Australia. That may seemlong until one recalls that it took six weeks to getto Australia by ship.

Oddly enough, the last ocean to be flown by airlineson a regular basis was the narrowest and most-travelled one -- the Atlantic. True, the German-builtlighter-than-air craft, the Grrf Zeppelin, had crossedbetween Europe and North America with 20passengers in 1928 at a leisurely 100 kilometres anhour. But the airship experiment was short-lived: itended with the last of several fatal disasters when theGerman Hindenberg burst into flames on landing inNew Jersey with the loss of 36 lives in May 1937.Two months later the first pathfinding commercialflights by the flying boats of Imperial and PanAmerican Airways opened up a transatlantic routeusing jump-off bases in Ireland and Newfoundland.

The logistical imperatives of World War II madeintercontinental flights commonplace, although theywere generally in uncomfortable military aircraftstripped to the bare essentials. The exceptions wereIgor Sikorsky’s new line of flying boats, which in thelatter stages of the war carried 38 privileged passengerson flights as long as from New York to Rome.Sikorsky had emigrated to the United States andfounded a flying boat company. In middle-age, hesaw his youthful dream of non-stop transoceanicpassenger service come true.

From the very beginning, the development ofcommercial aviation had been notable for theremarkable foresight of everyone concerned, fromdesigners to manufacturers to airlines to governmentregulators. There was perhaps no greater act offoresight than the convening of the International CivilAviation Conference in Chicago in November, 1944,when World War II was still very much under way.

This gathering of 52 nations recognized that therewould be an irresistible surge of commercial aviationactivity in the aftermath of the war, which wouldtransform the world as people then knew it. In this"new world order," international cooperation wouldbe more crucial than ever. The Chicago Conventionpromulgated the "freedoms of the air" by which

multilateral relationships in aviation have been ruledever since.

Out of the conference was born the InternationalCivil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is nowcelebrating its 50th anniversary. The Montreal-basedUnited Nations agency is dedicated to maintainingorderly and safe commerce on the world’s airways,on which it regulates operating practices and trafficcontrol. Governed by an assembly and council ofnations, ICAO sets standards for the licensing andinfrastructure of world aviation, provides technicalassistance, keeps track of key statistics, and mediatesinternational disputes.

The UN establishesa ’new world order’

on internationalair routes

As in pre-war days, there was a need for a parallelorganization of commercial carriers to work with that

of governments. ThusIATA, which had becomea casualty of the war, wasrevived in 1945. The neworganization, this timenamed the InternationalAir Transport Association,

also has its headquarters in Montreal, in closeproximity to its governmental counterpart. It has sincegrown vastly to embrace 224 member airlines whichfly to 133 nations. Today, ICAO and IATA workclosely together on many matters of mutual concern.

For more than a decade after the war, shipsremained the dominant form of overseas passengertransportation. In 1952, the SS United States sailedfrom New York to Southampton in three days, 10hours and 40 minutes, an incredible 10 hours fasterthan any vessel had ever before crossed the NorthAtlantic. Its achievment was clouded by the fact thata four-engine Constellation could make the run fromNew York direct to London or Paris in under 12hours.

In the summer of 1957 came the fateful day whenmore people crossed the Atlantic by airplane than byocean liner. As John Maxtone-Graham put it in hisbook, The Only Way to Cross: "Over the postwarfleets that sailed the North Atlantic flew aircraft thatwould cripple the ships as no storm ever had."

The passenger flying boat also became obsolete,thanks to a wartime expansion in the number ofairfields worldwide and enhancements in the rangeand size of ground-landing aircraft. The war alsogave rise to radar and powerful new radio systemswhich permitted airplanes to navigate safely overvast distances. And just at the end of the hostilitieshad come the most far-reaching development ofall, the jet engine, which was briefly used to powersmall German and British military planes.

In 1952 British Overseas Airways Corporation,now British Airways, inaugurated the world’sfirst scheduled jet passenger service between Londonand Johannesburg. By the end of the decade theBritish deHavilland Comets had yielded pride of placeto the much bigger American Boeing 707s andDouglas DC-8s.

By carrying twice as many people twice as fastas propeller-driven passenger planes, the jetssparked their own particular aviation revolution. Theyshrunk the world by bringing distant points closertogether in terms of travelling time. For instance,Montreal and London became six hours apart,compared with 13 hours 10 years earlier. (Thesupersonic BAC/Aérospatiale Concorde wouldlater render London and New York less than threehours apart.)

Mammoth machinesmore wonderJitl thanJules Verne’s dreams

Not only did the jets slash the time spent on themore familiar routes, they made it feasible to go to

places that were oncedauntingly distant. Aperson in Toronto, forinstance, could contem-plate without a shuddercatching a plane forTokyo. By bringing

business people from different countries face-to-face, the jet delivered the kick-start to today’sglobal economy. Among other things, it transformedthe arts and international politics. Now, city dwellersin any western country could enjoy live per-formances by the world’s top musicians andentertainers. "Shuttle diplomacy" brought a morepersonal touch to relations among world leaders, withhistoric results in settling differences among states.

But the heaviest impact of the jet engine on humanaffairs came in 1970 with the introduction of theBoeing 747. That first jumbo jet carried 385passengers; the basic design has since been takenthrough a succession of changes, so that the latestmodel has a capacity of over 575, plus crew. Thesemammoth machines surpass in wonder anything thatcould have come from the imagination of Jules Verne.They are like flying hotels, carrying all the facilitiesnecessary to feed and otherwise care for multitudesof people while cruising far above the clouds at aspeed of almost 1,000 kilometres an hour for up to15 hours at a stretch.

The combination of size and efficiency of theseand similar giant-sized planes has generated economiesof scale undreamt-of by airline people a few yearsago. The effect has been to drive down the cost of airtravel relative to average incomes and the cost ofother services. An economy return ticket betweenVancouver and Ottawa in 1959 cost $400. Adjustedfor inflation, that same amount today would take youhandily to Hong Kong and back.

Whereas overseas travel was previously thepreserve of a small economic elite, low air fares havedramatically opened up the world to ordinary people.Three generations ago, the hidden rose-red city ofPetra had been viewed only by the most intrepid(and well-off) adventurers. Now a secretary fromWinnipeg can see this ancient marvel on a stopoff inJordan on her way to view the Taj Mahal.

Jet aviation is directly responsible for creating whatis now the world’s largest industry, internationaltourism. Hundreds of thousands of travel agencieshave opened their doors to serve pleasure travellers,and resorts, hotels and other tourist facilities havesprung up almost literally from pole to pole. Thoughmany would argue that this is not altogether a goodthing for the host nations, there can be no doubtabout its enormous economic impact. It is estimatedthat tourism is directly or indirectly responsible forone out of every nine jobs in the world.

The potential despoliation of cultures andenvironments on the tourist circuit is only one featureof the inevitable dark side of progress in internationalaviation. If the jet plane has spawned a new class ofworld traveller, it has also spawned a new andparticularly vicious class of terrorist. As well, theextreme competition which has made overseas airtravel such a fabulous bargain has spread financialdistress throughout the industry, causing many airlines(including the historic Pan American) to succumb bankruptcy. Most others are surviving by the financialskin of their teeth.

But the industry no doubt will overcome its presentproblems, just as it has overcome so many others inthe 75 years since the forerunners of ICAO and IATAwere founded. In those years it has been throughsocial upheavals, depressions, recessions, and warsboth hot and cold. Throughout it all, civil aviationhas remained a model of pragmatic internationalcooperation in the interests of the convenience,comfort, and safety of its users everywhere. If allhuman affairs were conducted in the same spirit,mankind would have a lot less to worry about.