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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0595.PDF
MARCH 2, 1939 FLIGHT. 2CQ TOPICS of the DAY The Ha'porth of Tar WITH all the sympathy in the world for the patient, down trodden, and almost entirely unassisted aerodrome owners, one cannot help feeling that their efforts sometimes have been of a penny-wiseish nature. Their difficulties are obvious. They must first approach the ratepayers and explain how much their particular size of aerodrome will cost, and then, afterwards, when they find that the incidentals have mounted up, they are afraid to ask their sup porters for some more money. Afraid, of course, largely for political or semi- political reasons. The result is that, after spending anything up to six figures or more on an aerodrome site and layout, the air port committees find themselves un able to spend two or three thousand pounds more on the provision of essen tial additional facilities. Nowadays any kind of good landing area can always be used by the R.A.F. Reserve, but the airline operator demands a good deal more than a mere landing ground. Obviously, a municipality which does not feel that its aerodrome is likely to be used by commercial operators is wasting time and money in the provision, for instance, of full night-landing equipment. Nevertheless, without such equipment it is practically impossible for airline, orjeven charter, companies to make serious use of an aerodrome. In a general way it might be suggested that a munici pality, when it has decided that the provision of an aero drome is a good thing, should make up its mind whether to provide everything or nothing. If a mere landing area is offered, it may remain a bare and often almost derelict affair for a number of years, whereas the provision of a really good terminal building and of full night-landing equipment will encourage both operators and schools to make the fullest possible use of the aerodrome. Internal Complaints pEOPLE often complain bitterly of the uselessness of some of our internal air services. This comparative uselessness is concerned partly with time-table arrange ments and partly with the infrequency of the services in comparison with those offered by the ground transport Org ^lsat!ons. but mainly with the fact that little or no night flying is carried out. While airlines operate only unng dayhght, the more cautious or less interested pas- =engers will go by train and boat and sometimes arrive at eir destination while the airline passenger is waiting for the next morning's departure. « is all very well to criticise the operators, but how nany aerodromes in this country are equipped for night thTr and landings? Something like half a dozen, it T ?rernment-owned airports are excluded, is nn > ^ e<3uiPment is certainly expensive, but the cost .positively trivial in comparison with that of laying out befor ° ifme itsdf- And a town which- as I have said thous' A spend a sum running perhaps into hundreds of about t °n an aerodrome and then go all economical wav r +h u°dd thousands seems to me to be missing the > wtn.er badly If the local people are not prepared to go to the limit in airport development, then it will often be better, perhaps, if they, never start at all—though a site should be reserved for the future. Of course, a great deal of this municipal airport building is carried out in an atmosphere of inter-city rivalry. Puddlewick has an airport, therefore Bumbletown must obviously have one too. The fact that neither of them has the money to produce an aerodrome which is fit for use by all and sundry is overlooked, and neither, appar ently, considers very seriously that co-operation might result in the appearance of one really good aerodrome. In the meantime it is somewhat natural for the Air Ministry to increase the magnitude of their runway sug gestions in the matter of aerodrome size. It is to their advantage to have the biggest possible aerodromes in the greatest number of places, and just now the people at the Air Ministry have reason to be grateful for those njunici- palities which have spent large sums of money with very little hope of a return within the lifetime of its ratepayers. By the way, some final statement should be made as soon as possible about the Langstone Harbour and / or other air base schemes. Some quite incredibly unkind and even libellous stories are being circulated about the reasons lor the fact that the Langstone plan, for instance, has been jumped on. Nobody believes that the Admiralty's objections were anything more than a temporary cover for others of a different nature which have been found by the Air Ministry. And everybody knows that Imperial Airways would much rather operate from a place like Langstone Harbour than from a small, busy, turbulent, and bottle strewn area in Southampton Water. On the face of it there is no question about the compara tive suitability of the two bases. If some decision and statement is not made shortly there may be a large ex plosion and a good deal of embarrassing linen-washing. At least, that is how it appears to me. Expansion Incidentals QUITE apart from the fact that the expansion scheme has meant that practically all manufacturing energies are directed into military channels (with a consequent lack
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