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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1509.PDF
614 FLIGHT. JUNE II, 1936. on the ideal location of a London airport. He stamped heavily on the idea, often put forward by "unintelli gent people," that there might some day be an air port in central London. He did not even mention the suggestions so often made in recent years of an aero drome on top of a railway station or on a platform con necting two bridges over the Thames. There was only one possible aerodrome in London, he said, namely Hyde Park, and he poured scorn on the possibility that people might ever become so unaesthetic as to tolerate the cutting down of all the trees to make the park into an airport. His final decisive " It will not come" may be taken as putting an end to that unprofitable discussion. Cost and Fog It may, however, comfort the said "unintelligent people" to know that the committee which reported to the City of London on the Fairlop site did make care ful enquiries into the possibilities of a roof or bridge aerodrome, and also into the chances of using autogiros for getting to central London. The cost of the roof and bridge schemes they found to be prohibitive, while they were advised that the autogiro was not yet sufficiently developed to offer a solution. Obviously, if an autogiro is to lift a very heavy load, it must have a large wing area, and the span of the rotors would then become so great as to introduce new problems. The autogiro will doubtless solve other difficulties, but not this one. Even if the schemes for a central London airport were more promising than they are, such an airport would not get rid of the problem of London fogs, and pilots cannot yet be provided with infra-red spectacles. One of the chief merits of Gatwick, and also of Gravesend, is that both these aerodromes lie outside that fog belt. Local fogs they may have to endure at times, but the London fog is the worst thing of its kind, and it has not yet been mastered by science. The ideal is to have airports out side that belt and to provide very quick transport be tween them and central London. Croydon depends on road transport; Gatwick on the Southern Railway. Lord Swinton reminded his audience that trains are not subject to the 30 m.p.h. control, and they are, in fact, the fastest means of ground transport. It is a good thing to see co-operation between a great railway and an air port ; and doubtless the present hopeful beginnings will be developed into something much more elaborate as air transport increases in importance and in volume of traffic. To cut down the time spent on ground transport is now the best way of shortening the travel time of aeroplane journeys to the neighbouring parts of the Continent. THE WATCH FROM ABOVE: Four Hawker Osprey IV fleet fighter reconnaissance seaplanes with 600/640 h.p. fully super charged Kestrel V engines over Alexandria Harbour. Machines of this type are carried by a number of warships of the Mediteranean fleet; with wheel undercarriages they are operated in large numbers from aircraft carriers.
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