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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0860.PDF
3I2 FLIGHT. MARCH 24, 1938. NORTH of IRELAND TERMINAL Belfast Harbour Airport Officially Opened : A Dual-purpose Base IN many ways Belfast's new airport, which was officiallyopened by Mrs. Neville Chamberlain on Wednesday of lastweek, is the most interesting in the British Isles. Not on.lyis it extremely near, as airport distances go, to the city centre, but it has been laid out on reclaimed land and is admir- ably arranged as a base either for landplanes or flying-boats. Less than a hundred years ago, in fact, the area was entirely ft *WW. / \ A plan of the airport as it is to-day. under " shipworthy " water; in 1847 the Belfast Harbour Com- missioners, who own and have both laid out and financed the airport, were given a lock to provide a deep water channel, and since that time the dredged silt and mud has been steadily applied to the area, which is, so to speak, held together by a retaining wall. Obviously, therefore, the new airport is quite flat, and, in addition, the majority of the approaches are en- tirely free of obstruction. The difficulty, of course, was to make the surface of this reclaimed'land sufficiently firm, and the experts were insistent that no grass could ever be grown on salt mud. However, the town rubbish was dumped to a depth of about a foot over the entire surface, with cinders and sand above. The surface was then sown with rye and other coarse grasses. In time, whea the foundation is suitable, it may be possible to returf the entire area. Drainage was one of the obvious major difficulties, but these have now been overcome and the aerodr6me is claimed now to be one of the driest spots in Belfast. - At the present moment the runways in any direction are from 800 to goo yards long, and further areas may be reclaimed, as required, to increase the present 365 acres to a matter of 800 acres. There is a 1,400-yard obstruction-free run for bad weather approaches. Fog records show that the average visi- bility is 50 per cent, better than that of Croydon, and any fog clears quickly. At present the buildings consist of a large double hangar with a temporary control buildiag from which an unobstructed view of the landing area is possible. Floodlight and boundary light equipment is already installed, and when the permanent airport buildings, which are to be started at once, have been completed, D/F and blind approach equipment will be in- stalled. Tests have already been made by Air Ministry inspectors. In the meantime the airport will be in telephone and teleprinter communication with the radio station at New- townards. Incidentally, there is no suggestion of competition between the two aerodromes, since Ards, now owned by Lord Londonderry, is essentially a club and social centre, while the Belfast Harbour Airport has been laid out almost entirely for commercial purposes. The new Short and Harland factory, which is itself built on piles, is nearby, but separated by a channel which is now bridged to permit the passage of large machines from the works to the aerodrome. R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve training will be carried out in due course. Plans are well in hand for the development of the marine base and it is intended that the same terminal buildings, which are on the side of the airport backing on to Musgrave Channel, shall be used. The areas of water clear of the dredged ship- ping channel are already ample for flying-boat work, and, whiie thinking in terms of shipping, it must be admitted that the action of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, in developing this site at their own expense, has been both broadminded and far-sighted, since they are at present essentially interested in the shipping with which air transport may eventually compete. Railway Air Services, incidentally, are already using the airport. Among the firms which havj played a. part in the developmentof the airport are: Harland and Wolff, Ltd., and McLaughlin and Harvey, Ltd. (respectively contractors and sub-contractors for thebuildings); British Insulated Cables, Ltd. (cables); The Cardiff Foundry and Engineering Co.. Ltd. (boundary lights); the GeneralElectric Co., Ltd. (floodlight and obstruction lights); G.V.D. Luminators, Ltd. (reflectors for the luminated wind tee); GeneralAircraft, Ltd. (smoke wind indicator); The Walter Kidde Co., Ltd., Charles Reynolds and Co., and Foamite Fire Protection (fire extin-guishing appliances); and Samuel Burns and Co. (drain pipes). The French Transatlantique Base TX7ORK is proceeding at Biscarosse, in the Landes, France, V V on the new flying-boat and landplane base for Air France Transatlantique. There is still, however, much to be done before the base can be ready for the coming season's North Atlantic trials. There are still about a million and a half cubic feet ol earth to be shifted, thousands of trees to be uprooted and about fifty yards more land to be reclaimed from the lake. The roaJ to the new base is practically finished and work has been started on the all-metal hangars. The aero- drome will have two prepaied runways. A Real VeteranR ENfi CHARPENTIER, an Air France pilot, has just goneon a six weeks' holiday from his job on the Lyons-Geneva leedei service, ^his does not appear very exciting news, butafter ten years Charpentier can quite justifiably claim this ser- vice as his own, for he started it in June, 1927, and has run itas a one-man show ever since. But he is not likely to see it grow much older as a regularline When the direct service from Paris to Geneva is made permanent at the end of this month it will probably fade out.There is, however, talk of an aerodrome being opened at Lausanne, which would be greatly welcomed by ViUars andother winter sports resorts. Charpenrier, who first flew in 1915, was one of the very firstO'lota an the London-Paris service of the old Air Union. Looking Into the Future A LTHOUGH the subject of Mr. Nigel Norman's lecture, -ii read in his absence abroad by Mr. R. F. Lloyd-Jones before the Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors last week, was the airport of the future, some interesting statements in this lecture concerned future developments in aircraft design. Mr. Norman's deputy mentioned, for instance, the tenders which had been put out by Pan American Airways for ioo-passengei" machines with a cruising speed of 225 m.p.h.. and said that with a machine of such large dimensions it seemed probable that the thickness of the wing would be such that this wing will automatically be made to take most of the payload, the fuselage being merely a structure for carrying the still necessary tail. In the matter of present-day airports he said that in 1936 Croydon was the busiest, and that this was followed in order by Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. Speaking of a future land- water airporr he said that there was justification for the view that no form of transport terminus presented quite such an intricate combination of engineering and architectural works, and that the proper co-ordination of its features would demand the concentrated attention of specialists. Needless to say, ne mentioned the new Templehof station at Berlin, which em- bodied cantilever structure 137ft. in depth to form a rooj for part ol the landing area. Provision, he thought, wouia need to be made in me immediate future for machines witn a wing span of 300ft.
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