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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 0412.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 29, 1932 Tulsa ; another fine-looking airport building of architectural merit. (3) Accommodation for sight seeing public, whose presence as spectators is only valuable for propaganda purposes and in so far as a small revenue is derived from their entertainment. At the present time the volume of air traffic handled at important airports has been so small that the importance of the sight-seer has occupied an exaggerated position in the plan. But as air travel becomes more popular and the spectacle of its operation more common place, the sight-seer will diminish in importance, and it seems probable that the plan originally adopted at Croydon of catering for the outside public in an entirely separate building, may offer the final solution. Details of design are particularly a matter for the attention of the aerodrome architect, and, in fact, are his greatest opportunity. The control tower, houses as it were, the eyes and brain of the airport. With radio telephony becoming more and more essential to aircraft operation and with the increase of night air traffic, the tower must be laid out to bring into convenient juxtaposition wireless, telephone, and probably public address apparatus and controls for light ing and signalling equipment. It is desirable for the meteorological office to be in close proximity. In America, where the teletype is such an important part of the weather reporting system, a separate room, housing up to eight or ten of these instruments, is required at major airports. Where passenger accommodation is concerned, on the other hand, I believe there are considerable developments to come. Originally air liners arrived singly and at long and irregular intervals. The passenger was happy to begin his air adventure by half-an-hour's wait out of doors, The Tulsa waiting-room until the blast of a propeller and showers of mud or dust heralded the approach of the monster that was to carry him into the unknown. Aircraft unprovided with brakes and difficult to manoeuvre would stop some times in one position and some times in another. As air traffic became more highly organised, however, a more regular and orderly procedure became neces sary, and today at airports such as Croydon the excellent organisation and the courtesy and efficiency of the officials conceals the shortcomings of the building designed some years ago. In America the same inadequacy was noticeable at a number of the older stations. Inclement weather condi tions made it desirable to offer some protection to the passengers, and the Americans therefore began to erect canvas covered canopies of the kind so frequently seen outside the doors of hotels and residences in New York. In order to allow these canopies to reach right up to the fuselage of the aircraft after it had taxied into position, it was found convenient to mount the outer sections of the canopy on wheels or rollers, so that they might be extended in a telescopic manner. The result achieved seems very satisfactory, for by means of these extensible loading canopies, passengers are able to proceed from the station building right into the cabin of the aircraft with out being for a moment exposed to wind or rain. This is the first stage of evolution. The second stage began when it was found that several aeroplanes had at times to be loaded simultaneously. (To be continued.) g I ^^m ^m H ^m ^v •rtfs iiWitimiiiii, In California Spanish architecture is the accepted practice, as here at Glendale. 380
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