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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0310.PDF
158 FLIGHT. FEBRUARY 7, 1935 COMMERCIAL /AVIATION — AIRLINES — —— AIRPORTS- MANHATTAN'S OWN "AIRPORT" DURING the summer a seaplane station was opened at the foot of Wall Street and the East River, which bids fair to alter the whole conception of airline terminals for New York and other waterfront cities. It is known as the '' Wall Street Sky Port " and incorporates a number of novel and interest ing features in the way of seaplane facilities. The base is designed to serve as a terminal for two distinct classes of water flying: organ ised air transport operations with relatively large (12 to 18 passenger) seaplanes, and small, privately owned sea planes and amphibians, for which the parking problem has been acute. In the former category would logically fall air line operations, such as those be tween New York, Philadelphia and Boston; commuting ser vices to the suburban water front communities; shuttle services to Floyd Bennett Field and the Newark Airport; and last, but by no means least from the standpoint of profit, sight-seeing flights around Manhattan Island. In the private class are in cluded the increasing number of Long Island's north shore business men, who come by air instead of by boat and who wish to leave their machines at the base for the greater part of the day, and privately owned seaplanes from more distant points whose owners have Manhattan Island for their objective and who appreciate the opportunity to fly all the way instead of struggling in from a relatively dis tant airport. Handling the big machines with efficiency and despatch was the first problem. For, in contemplating ten minute sight-seeing trips and six to eight minute shuttle services to Newark Airport or Floyd Bennett Field, it immediately became apparent that the conventional method of taxi ing gently up to a float, making fast and turning about would never prove practical. The solution was found in an ingenious 80 by 45ft. barge, with a sloping turntable, built on the off-shore end and partially submerged in the water. A 10 h.p. electric motor is used to rotate it in either direction. The largest seaplane may come up the slip, with ample control over wind or current, and run hard aground on its smooth planked surface with the keels of its floats. The gentle slope has been shown to give comfortable decelera tions, even at excessive taxying speeds. When the pilot feels his keel ground, he holds half throttle with the stick well forward, and thirty seconds later his machine has been turned completely around on the turntable and, in the same operation, is raised some two feet out of the water. The « Wall Street Sky Port " : How Private and Commercial Seaplanes are handled and " garaged " in the centre of New York : An Idea with Possibilities New York and Suburban Airways have been operating at the base for a considerable period with a ten-passenger single-engined Bellanca Airbus on floats, and it is confidently felt that the elapsed time from landing to discharge of passen gers was no more than would be found at the average airport. Of much greater interest, how ever, is the fact that the barge, in addition to serving as a load ing ramp, gives direct access by means of comfortable gang ways to an attractive waiting room, fitted with all the modem conveniences and built on the bulkhead, exactly seventy-five feet from Wall Street! Provision is made on the barge for servicing with fuel and oil, and it is equipped with an electric winch and snatch blocks and cable for emergency use. Furthermore, variable bouyancy tanks, controlled by compressed air, are built in on the lower end so that the entire slope can be raised out of water in a few minutes should there be occasion to dry dock a machine completely. Providing facilities for the small size private and commercial seaplanes proved in finitely simpler and cheaper. A floating catwalk was con structed on steel barrels—six feet wide and some four hun dred feet in length—floating a foot above water. This is strung along the northerly side of the pier and is held ofi some twenty-five feet with a series of suitably braced booms which hinge to the pier so as to be free to swing up and down with the tide. The catwalk is fitted with mooring cleats and a padded outer edge, so that machines may safely lay alongside for as long as desired. To Mayor LaGuardia and F. W. Zelcer, his Deputy Commissioner of Aviation, goes the credit for the final consummation of the oft-discussed plan. The original lay out was conceived and drawn up by the Edo Aircraft Cor poration, seaplane manufacturers, of College Point, m collaboration with engineers of United Dry Docks, Inc. In the first two months of use, the "Wall Street Sky Port " has demonstrated its value in convincing fashion. Already a daily average of some fifty people have been using it in sight-seeing or business flights. It stands ready as a door mat to Manhattan Island for machines of the Army, Navy and Coastguard whenever emergency may require, and is already being used as a background for 3 number of flying services which are to inaugurated. During November a sister ship of the Wall Street barge was placed in operation at Thirty-first Street and the Eas River, to serve the mid-town section. T.W.A. propose to move from Newark to Floyd Bennett field this year, and they may use a seaplane ferry service to transfer passenger5 quickly to the centre of the city.
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