Louis Blériot's epic first flight across the Channel in 1909 was the inspiring inception to a new era of travel. Man's imagination was stirred by the fact that a tiny aeroplane had crossed the sea barrier, thus showing to the least thoughtful that no longer were oceans an obstacle to international communication.

With the subsequent rapid development of aviation the Channel crossing became a matter of course, but it was nine years before a long ocean crossing was made, when, in 1918, Alcock and Brown flew a Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Ireland, and it was thirteen years before Lindbergh again captured the world's imagination by his lone flight across the Atlantic.

There is no doubt of the value of pioneer flights such as these in stimulating aircraft development towards greater performance, reliability and suitability.

In recent years it has grown customary for aircraft firms to put increasing effort into the prediction of flutter during the design stage. This design work, however, is chiefly related to wing flutter in which the control surfaces play little part, whereas the cases of flutter which most commonly occur in reality are those involving control surfaces. The reason for this is that the wing stiffness, and hence the wing weight, is often determined by considerations of main surface flutter. Control surface flutter, however, can often be prevented by methods which do not have a serious effect on the aircraft weight and which are often postponed until after the design stage. This paper will discuss what steps can be taken, both in the design stage and during the flight testing of a prototype, to prevent control surface flutter.

Progress of any organisation may be related either to an assumed basis within the organisation itself, or to some other organisations, preferably competitors in the same business. The second method is more realistic and by relating the corresponding data in ratios, it helps to eliminate to a great extent the influence of price changes, which distort yearly comparisons of revenues and expenses.

In the United States the trunk lines represent over 95 per cent. of the total revenue ton-miles flown on the domestic routes and in international aviation, the largest system with the highest quality of service. Therefore, by comparing in Part I the domestic services of Trans-Canada Air Lines (T.C.A.) to corresponding services of the U.S. trunk lines, the most severe criterion was chosen.

Part II contains an investigation of trends of particular expenses in relation to the total expenses for T.C.A's North American Services.