International Civil Aviation Organization

The 40th session of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) consisted of twelve meetings held on April 27 and May 24 and between June 6 and 22, 1960. The Council examined the secretariat's draft of the preliminary study on supersonic aircraft and decided that the study should be issued on the responsibility of the ICAO Secretary-General, with suggestions made by representatives to the Council to be taken into account. The Council considered the reports of a working group on an investigation of major deficiencies in air navigation facilities and services on the main international air routes through Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Southeast Europe and the Middle East, and the Caribbean and south America. As recommended by the group, it approved for further investigation the following problems: 1) the lack of adequate flight testing of radio-navigation aids in all these areas; 2) the shortage of trained personnel in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, and 3) the lack of proper transmitting and receiving facilities in Burma. The Council further decided that the machinery for promoting the implementation of regional plans should take the form of a standing group with a permanent membership of five—the President of the Council (chairman), the President of the Air Navigation Commission, and the chairmen of the Air Transport, Joint Support, and Finance Committees—and a floating membership to be selected on an ad hoc basis by the President of the Council to act when needed after secretariat efforts had failed in the implementation of regional plans.