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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0172.PDF
FLIGHT. JANUARY 20, 1938. Airports of To-day NEAR-EASTERN AIRPORTT HE spread of air transport into Palestine and the factof that country's situation on the Empire route made it increasingly necessary for the Administration to con-struct an airport offering every modern facility. Gaza was, for obvious reasons, not entirely suitable. Itsposition so far south in Palestine, with inconvenient railway and road communications, ruled it out of serious consideration,in spite of the excellent organisation which Imperial Airways still maintain there. On the other hand, Jewish interests hadfor long been agitating for an aerodrome at Tel Aviv. In spite of this, however, the Government decided thatLydda—the junction of the railways running eastwards to Jerusalem and north and south to Syria and Egypt—was themost suitable and common-sense situation, plans were laid accordingly, and work started in 1935. In view of the fact that the aerodrome is even now anythingbut complete, it is difficult to write a full description; blame for this, however, cannot be laid at the door of the manage-ment, who were reluctant to hasten matters, but were pressed so persistently and importunately by transport companiesusing the aerodrome at Gaza that they were forced to give way in spite of the obvious drawbacks. Situated in a huge plain with excellent approaches, the areais in every way an ideal landing ground. The layout is good and, in fact, every prospect pleases save only those thingswhich must inevitably arise when a great enterprise is brought into existence before its time. For example, there are literallyno facilities, no ground engineers or other services other than those provided by the Shell Company. There is no provisioneven for a good, comfortable meal, although this was, of course, not the case before the restaurant and offices wereburnt to the ground. The Staff The present staff consists of Mr. D. W. Gumbley, C.B.E.,I.S.O., D.C.A. in Palestine and airport controller; Mr. T. Bucton, senior supervisor; Mr. C. P. Gilroy, radio supervisor;two lorry drivers, and a mixed staff consisting of fourteen radio operators (Arabs and Jews), and twelve meteorological experts(German and Austrian Jews). The landing area is planned with considerable forethoughtand ingenuity. Every runway crosses every other runway, thus providiBg the utmost economy in surfacing material whileoffering the maximum efficiency. The aerodrome consists entirely of its runways, for the soil surround (of the blackcotton variety) is unreliable under most extreme conditions. When hot and dry it habitually shrinks and cracks, and whenwet it swells, and the pilot who strays from the concrete is liable to run into trouble. An example of the thought put into the layout concerns theplacing of the Marconi Adcock aerials. These must be entirely segregated from any metallic fittings and have, therefore, beenconveniently placed in the centre of the racecourse to the south of the terminal building. The airport is as yet un- I8OO X ,' ILLUMINATED • WIND TEE o STAFF 'o QUARTERS sp- r«-""— A typical example of modern runway layout at Lydda. Thelighting system is interesting in that no floodlights are to be •* used, the runways being marked by white light cones, with ;flush-type coloured lights to indicate the end of each specially prepared section, and the usual red lights arranged on theboundary fences to show the take-off limits. On the left is a model of the terminal building itself. provided with night landing facilities, but the scheme of boun- dary lights, with the addition of portable white cones to complete the lane of light in whatever direction is desired, will give unrivalled service when in full working order. The racecourse, which lies immediately behind the terminalbuilding, is at present in a somewhat ragged state of incom- pletion, but the fact of its presence again shows foresight onthe part of the management in the matter of potential revenue. The terminal building itself is still under construction and theradio is temporarily housed in a wooden shed adjoining the old burnt-out building. Here the writer was pleased to meet rjiold friend in Mr. C. P. Gilroy, the radio supervisor, whom he had not seen since his departure for Australia in the MonosparCroydon. Fire Damage The story of the disastrous fire throws little light uponthe facts already published save, perhaps, to convince one of the fact of deliberate sabotage. The proximity of the conflagration, unfortunately, fired theradio station, with all its expensive equipment, and the appar- atus destroyed included all the normal D/F equipment, acouple of short-wave receivers and two teleprinters. With the cost of buildings themselves this represented a total loss ofsomething in the nature of ^8,ooo. Within three hours of the destruction radio communicationwas again established by means of borrowed equipment from the R.A.F. at Ramleh, and by next evening almost completerestoration of essential services was achieved with the help of more Service equipment which was flown from Cairo. Landing fees at Lydda are charged at the rate of ten milsfor every hundred kilograms except in the case of machines without tail-wheels, which are charged double. The hangarcharges are on the ordinary lines. As is only natural. Imperial Airways still prefer to use their own aerodrome at Gaza where,in spite of certain drawbacks, they can offer better service, accommodation and catering without the necessity of payingsuch fees. These conditions do not apply to other companies and so Lydda is the more generally used and must increase inimportance as Gaza must decrease. At present the average number of landings at Lydda works out at the figure of thirtya week in the summer and twenty-two a week in winter. Palestine, at the moment, is a torn land, seething with fearhatred, jealousy and intrigue. Nobody can tell what the future may hold but, at least, that country has the workingfoundation of one of the more intelligently planned aerodromes in the world. C. P An aerial view of Lydda airport as it appeared soon after the fire which has considerably delayed final development.
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