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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 1319.PDF
FLIGHT, DECEMBER 18, 1931 J. C. CantriU, Fit. Lt. C. and Mrs. Clarkson, Mr. J. R. Ashwell Cooke, Maj.H. J. Corin, Mr. E. t. Gordon England, Mr. and Mrs. W. Lindsay Everard, Messrs. E. B. Fielden, John Fox, Group Capt. N. T. and Mrs. Gill, Mr. H. R.Gillmau, Mrg. Hawker, Wing Com. B. L. Huskisson, Mr. M. Jackaman, Capt. and Mrs. A. G. Lamplugh, Messrs. W. Lappin, John Lord, A. C. Lovesay,Fred May, Maj. K. H. and Mrs. Mayo, Maj. R. H. S. Mealing, Mr. H. Victor Paine, Capt. L. F. Peaty, Com. H. E. Perrin, Mr. and Mrs. St. John T. Plevins, Mr. H. E. Pooley, Capt. and Mrs. J. L. Pritchard, Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Ransome.Mr. and Mrs. H. Reynolds, Capt. C. P. Robertson, Lt. A. Sala, Maj. F. P. and Mrs. Scott, Mr. and Mrs. H. 0. N. Shaw, Mr. Stanley Spooner, Miss W. E,Spooner, Mr. B. Stevenson, Maj. O. Stewart, Capt. K. H. and Mrs. Stocken, Mr. F. M. S. Tegner, Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Thomas, F/O. M. F. Tomkins, Maj.C. C. Turner, Mr. M. H. Volk, Mr. D. Whitelaw, Mr. and Mrs. D. T. Hollis Williams, Capt. C. B. Wilson, etc. ir "CITIES AS AIR PORTS• NDEK the chairmanship of Mr. R. Holland-Martin,C.B., F.S.A., Hon. A.R.I.B.A. and President ofthe club, the Architecture Club held then- twen-tieth dinner at the Savoy Hotel on Wednesday evening, December 9. The aesthetic value of airport andaerodrome buildings is now rapidly being recognised to be of great value in the establishment and popularisation ofaerial termini. England is perhaps somewhat backward in developing airports as places which will be popular forthe public to visit during weekends. Both Germany and the U.S.A. have already realised the value to aviation ofsuch a popularity and many of their airports are designed with this point of view kept well in mind. Not so long ago we were fortunate enough to be shownround several of the German ones, and the crowds which were to be seen watching the aircraft and partaking ofmuch solid and liquid refreshment in the attractive restaurants and their adjacent terraces at, for example,Templehof, the main terminal airport of Berlin, at week- ends, is a revelation. In this country only three aero-dromes have'so far studied the question of the provision of public facilities to any great extent, but there is no doubtthat in future architects will have to consider all the buildings, not only from the point of view of architecturalbeauty, but also of their attractiveness to others than air enthusiasts. Perhaps we may arrive at the day when, asMr. Nigel Norman put it, town planning people will not feel that their aerodrome must be relegated to an out ofthe way spot, but when they have a really beautiful open space they will be led to say " What a beautiful site, why,it is just the place for an aerodrome." Several speakers voiced their views on the question of "Cities as AirPorts." The first to take the platform was JOHN DOWER (Secretary of the Aerodromes Committee of the R.I.B.A.). Mr. Dower showed an interestingseries of Ian torn slides illustrating many of the better planned and more modern German Aerodromes, several American ones and two or three of HestonAirport. In a few introductory words he said that town planning experts must in future reserve sites for airports, as there was no doubt that there wasan insufficient supply of these in the country. LT.-COL. F. C. SHELMERDINE (Director of Civil Aviation), said he wouldconfine his remarks to London, and to Croydon in particular, as he knew nothing of architecture. He then sketched the history of the London terminalAerodrome, starting from the year 1919 when the war-time aerodrome of Hounslow was used. This, he said was a bad aerodrome ; bad from thepoint of view of fog and also in that the aircraft had to traverse quite a considerable section of the city ; further, he said, it belonged to the WarDepartment who wanted it back again. In 1920 therefore, Croydon was taken over ; this also was a war time aerodrome and the majority of thebuildings were temporary ones put up by the manufacturers who had been operating there, in fact he and the late Sir Sefton Brancker always agreedthat in those days the entrance to Croydon looked more like Port Said than anything in the way of English architecture. In 1923 the Civil AviationAdvisory Board after having examined the question carefully and gone into all other possible sites, advised that Croydon should be retained and re-organised. In those days it was divided by a road and really consisted of two aerodromes. This road was then closed and the whole turned into onelarge aerodrome. In 1925 the new buildings on one side were designed and these were finished in 1928. No doubt he said, many architects would saythat they were of the wrong type and had no architectural beauty, but such experts should remember that in those days there was no previous experienceto go on and these buildings then fulfilled the purpose for which they were intended. Now that air transport had grown however, it was to be admittedthat they lack many of the amenities it is essential should be provided for passengers. At Croydon these have to wait upon the tarmac in the wind andrain after they have passed the Customs, before they splash out to their respective machines. In future this must be altered and we undoubtedlymust come to something like the railway station where passengers can remain under cover until they embarked. Col. Shelmcrdine then discussed theactual location of Croydon and the controversy there had been about its efficiency. Undoubtedly he said, the best way would be to have, an aerodromesuitable for all aircraft in the centre of London, but this had so far been found impracticable. The use of a small central aerodrome with a shuttle air servicetransferring passengers from the trans-continental aircraft by smaller mach- ines to the centre of the city, was not, he felt a practical proposition, for thetime lost in the transfer would be too great. Failing the large cenfal aero- drome, he therefore thought that improvement of the ground transport wasthe next step to be made. Internal air traffic in the country would grow, he thought, for distances of 200 miles and over, but only if there were suitableaerodromes all over the country and particularly around all sides of such cities as London, for at present it was palpably absurd that travellers fromthe north should have to go all round London to land at Croydon. In this respect he thought that the authorities were very much behind-hand inestablishing such circumferential aerodromes. The question of marine aircraft had also been considered, but neither the many London reservoirsnor the river Thames had been considered feasible, as it was found to be impossible to keep a sufficient aera of waterway clear of other traffic, aconclusion which had also been reached in Germany and many other countries. He had a great admiration he said, for architects, but he hoped that they wouldnot sacrifice in their future aerodrome buildings so much to their aesthetic senses as they had done at Delhi where he had been forced to live in one of theso-called " bakers-ovens " for in the bitter cold of the Punjab winter when lone of the chimneys would draw he had been constrained to think of archi-tects in a very different manner from that in which he would wish to do so. MR. NIGEL NORMAN (Director of Heston Air Port) said that aviation wasreally in the position of a beautiful young lady who had just taken to the stage and that evening she no doubt found herself somewhat embarrassed, asthis young person was not rich and she was rather in the position of having caught the eye of all the most distinguished dress designers ! As a word ofadvice to the architects present, he would like them to consider the question he said, not so much from the point of view of what was at present in existence,for fashions change and what was really wanted was a careful consideration of the line and colour for next year. Referring to his recent visit to the U.S.,Mr. Norman said that over there they were in many cases prepared to spend some £25,000 on a single hangar and under such conditions could obviouslydo very much as they liked, but we in this country were much more bound by the amount of money which could be afforded. A matter of paramountimportance was the facilities for passengers who must be protected from the weather, right from the machine to the station itself ; particularly so, as In thefuture he visualized having hundreds of passengers to deal with where at present they only had them in tens, and there would also be many moremachines and therefore he thought, that even those modern looking buildings which had been seen illustrated on the screen would have to be altered.During his visit he had seen the airport of Detroit which was situated right in the centre of the city, but it was suitable for present-day machines and onoccasions it had over 400 aircraft pass through in one day. A point which he thought had not been raised before was that in future, cities would tend todevelop round suitable airports instead of as at present, and this was a point which should be borne in mind by all town planning committees. He thenwent on to make reference to the Autogiro and the way in which such a craft might solve the question of landing in small spaces nearer the centre of existingtowns, and Mr. Norman visualized a very great increase in the number of private persons travelling by air when such machines were in immediate use.He then thought it quite possible that their numbers would become very much greater than the numbers of those travelling on long distances. He went on tostress the importance of attracting people to the airports by the help of architecture, and in conclusion deprecated the poor appearance of the lastfew slides (Heston), but this he said was entirely due to the " young lady's " poverty and not to any lack of enthusiasm. DR. RAYMOND UNWIN (President, R.l.B.A.) said that the last speakerhad showed the importance of securing an attractive appearance to aerodrome buildings. He then referred to the fact that within recent years architectshad had to adjust their technique, in the first place to cater for the whole populace taking to wheels. This technique had, he said, been disregardedby the authorities with the result that hundreds were being killed all the time ; now, he said this same populace was becoming angelic andtaking to wings, and they would have to readjust their technique once more. Town planners had, he said, been unconsciously catering for this wingedpopulace by designing more rational cities wherein the buildings were dis- tributed along a background of open spaces with open bands leading out inall directions ; therefore, the smaller aircraft to which Mr. Norman had referred would in all probability be able to use these spaces in the more moderncities. Such provision must now be made consciously, and they must also think about the design of aerodrome' buildings. In order to do so, it wouldbe essential, he said, to have some one person trained to visualise the whole when it was finished, for it was only in this way that an attractive buildingcould be produced, and that some of the haphazardness of existing buildings be eliminated. COL. THE MASTER or SEMPILL said he would like to pay tribute to thesplendid work of Mr. Nigel Norman in establishing Heston Air Park. He said that the previous speakers had placed their buildings on the edge of theaerodrome; he would, however, point out that these could also with advantage be placed in the centre, a position which would greatly decreasetaxying of the aircraft. He made reference to the possibility of using con- crete or other surfaced run-ways now that that " agricultural instrument "the tail skid, was rapidly being replaced by a tailwheel. Such run-ways, he said, prevent the mud which is so prevalent at some British Aerodromes.Col. Sempill made reference to the presence of Dr. Eckner, and said that the use of airships would in the future bring other airport problems to be solved.He also endorsed Mr. Norman's remarks concerning the necessity for making the aerodrome buildings attractive, so that not only the general public foreven the members of the Architects Club would spend their spare time there. MR. G. L. PEPLER, F.S.I. (Chairman of the Aerodromes Committee of theR.I.B.A.), referred to the work the late Sir Sefton Brancker had done, and what Col. Shelmerdine and Mr. Mealing were now doing. Sir Sefton Brancker,he said, had done a very great deal to make them airminded, and certainly their souls were in it if not their stomachs. Aerodromes, he said, deal withthe newest form of transport, and must be brought into line with the existing life of the community, for he realised that aviation was important. Airportplanners must, therefore, avoid the mistakes made, by such older forms of transport as the railways, in order that these may be worthy of their positionin that community. LADY MAUD HOARE said that in her mind two problems had not beentouched on, one was the combination station for ground and air transport that is short-distance and long-distance transport, a sort of tram and trainstation in fact, and the other was the fact that in all the slides which had been shown there was nothing to be seen of railways. She thought that itwould be a great advantage to have the railway at Croydon. She referred also to the aerodrome at Leipzig Halle, which was adjacent to several towns,and she thought that those responsible for airports might possibly widen their views, and with advantage make such stations convenient to more thanone city. MR. C. W. GLOVER then gave a short description of his solution of thecentral aerodrome for London, which had already been referred to by Mr. Norman, and which was described in FLIGHT for June 12. He showeda series of slides depicting the large run-ways, which were over half a mile long and 300 ft. wide, that is, approximately four times as long and fourtimes as wide as London Bridge, and explained that the capital cost, although it might at first appear appalling, was not really so, in that all the supportingbuildings were sectionalised and self-supp-irting, as the 76 acres of floor space could house such markets as Covent Garden and Smithfield, and, in fact, itcould become the marketing centre of London. THE CHAIRMAN closed the discussion with the hope that architects were now beginning to understand what aviation wanted, and they would, therefore, soon be able to design aerodromes worthy of it. 1241
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