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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 0383.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 22, 1932 An unusual structure is the station building at Alhambra, California. It conforms to the general architectural design of that part of the world and is thus in keeping with its surroundings. If,the expense of the doors, which may include addi tional heating cost, can be borne, there is good reason for the " through " hangar with doors at two opposite sides, as at Roosevelt Field, New York. I regret to say, in most of the American aerodrome work which I have had the opportunity of examining, one misses the vigorous seizing of the essentials of structural form that is typical of Con tinental work. It is in engineering inventiveness that the Americans lead, of which the hangar at Burbank may be taken as an example. The door opening is, I believe, a " world-beater," being rather over 300 ft. clear ; and the doors themselves neither slide nor fold, but are counter- weighted to open outwards and upwards in sections under electric power. This is a " through " hangar, with doors at each side, but the 300-ft. space is not clear through. The trusses are cantilevered out from four internal stanchions, which break up the floor space. A really large aircraft could be put in for the night—backwards!—but couldn't be run right through. The larger of the two hangars at Hamburg, with the more modest provision of sliding doors on one side only, has a clear span of 260 ft. to its full depth of 130 ft., and may per haps dispute Burbank's title to world pre eminence. One more large hangar—that of Munich—must be shown for the magni ficence of its engineering form. Europe here is not outdone by America, for there are doors on three sides—two 200-ft. and a pair of 110-ft. spans. The naked steel frame has an infilling of glass bricks, which helps to make the interior splendidly light. The main hangar of Heston Airport uses reinforced concrete in bow form with strik ing effect for a door opening of about 100 ft. But the bow form, natural to re inforced concrete, tends to extra overall height (here used in part for offices) ; and steelwork has this great advantage, that it is easy to alter, to adapt and expand, if necessary to dismantle and re-erect else where, while reinforced concrete is almost impossible to alter in any way short of complete destruction and is notoriously one of the most difficult of all materials to destroy. I must now turn to the more complex problems and needs of the aerodrome station. At Croydon the essentials of the building are fairly clear ; so much covered space for halls and offices, with, first, a thorough provision of ways in and out at each side for different kinds of traffic, and, secondly, a room at the top with a clear all-round view of field and sky from which all flying operations can be controlled. The Croydon control tower is admirably equipped and soundly planned ; the Croydon traffic circulation is scarcely so satisfactory. The main booking hall, entered direct from the road, is well arranged with the counters and offices of the various air lines at either hand ; its appearance is symmetrical and decent, but very dull. From the hall forward to the field, how ever, everything goes wrong. The only restaurant accom modation is a ridiculous little coffee stall badly lighted from one of two light areas which only a far too great depth of plan makes necessary at all ; the passenger traffic routes are needlessly long and circuitous. _> r *u „*„* fr.r exnandibilitv : it has already been twice extended and Berlin has been designed ^^"^^^Sr' expansion, with much smaller and less the architect s most ^^^P^P^thfXle of tf e ground floor is given up to sightseeing accom-dangerous wireless ^^ ' ?^y^£g would include a cinema lecture^ room and a hotel of panied by eating and dnnking , the bundg^ 359
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