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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0531.PDF
MARCH 14TH, 1946 FLIGHT 371 AMERICAN NEWSLETTER levelled at American business men, who are anything L>ut apathetic. Although there are undoubtedly some who feel that the Bill is unwise, international business as a whole, and the* aviation industry in particular, see that their future must be linked to world, and therefore British, trade, and realise the benefits that will result from its adoption. In any case, the next few weeks, however irritating to an Englishman, will be intensely interesting as the debate itself may well show the direction which American politics will take in future international problems. For this reason one hopes that the debate will be fully and understand- ingly reported in the British Press. Anglo-American competition does not seem to be con- fined to aircraft or aircraft engines. In the February 1st issue of American Aviation there is an article pointing out at unless something pretty drastic is done to push ahead he construction of the New York Idlewild airport on the south shore of Long Island, the British terminal at Heath- row will be finished first. Having seen both sites this seems to me to be unlikely, but it does high-light the fact that there is still a great deal to be done at Idlewild. Situated some four or five miles north-east of Floyd Bennett Field, which is owned by the U.S. Navy, Idle- wild is made up entirely of reclaimed land, and if, as seems likely, time is needed for the ground to settle, it may be that, by 1950, some of the runways will be as bad as, or worse than, those at La Guardia, and that rebuilding and underpinning of hangars and buildings may be necessary. Heathrow should not suffer in this respect, and although it may get off to a slower start may well be completed first and have a more maintenance-free future than its American counterpart. Terminal Communications As far as road and rail availability is concerned, theredoes not seem to be much advantage to either site. At the moment neither has direct railway communicationwith the terminal city, but both can very easily be served by extensions to existing lines. The road connectionsto Heathrow are probably the better of the two, but there Ps no question that express highways will be constructedso that Idlewild will be within 35 to 40 minutes of mid- town Manhattan. On the other hand, the British airporthas unobstructed road communication with the south, west and north-west, whereas everything coming or going to theLong Island site from the rest of the country must go through some part of New York City, where traffic tie-ups are frequent. The weather question is an open one. Both sites sufferfrom man-made haze and fog—Heathrow in an easterly wind and Idlewild in a westerly one. Long Island southshore can also produce almost unflyable weather, due to sea fog, at certain times of the year. Instrumentapproaches to both airfields are good, but Idlewild will un- doubtedly suffer because of the very close proximity ofFloyd Bennett Field. This is almost certain to delay instrument landings and to cause traffic jams when incom-ing aircraft become " stacked-up " over both points. In fact, one of the legs of the Idlewild radio range is believed;o pass right over Floyd Bennett, which is itself a large irport with very considerable Naval air traffic. Idlewild has an advantage inasmuch as it is next doorto a ready-made seaplane base, which could easily be dredged to the required depth—and part of which is evennow being used by Naval and Coast Guard flying boats. It should also be possible to run a fast motor boat servicefrom the airport, through the inland water, past Floyd Bennett, and across the outer edge of New York harbourto the New Jersey shore, or even to Jersey City itself. This would probably be a quicker journey than by road,which takes one through Queens, under the East River, through Manhattan, and under the Hudson River. Some system will also have to be found to lay the dustat Idlewild, presumably by oil spray, for a 35-mile an hour The cockpit of the Shooting Star. It is not overcrowdedby modern standards ; bomb and radio operation switches are on the right. wind, not uncommon in both summer and winter, soonturns the whole area into a cloud of sand. But even Idlewild, grandiose as it is, may be eclipsedby two new Philadelphia airports, plans for which are ill preparation; their total cost will be 15,000,000 dollars. While on the subject of airports, do not imagine that allthe aerodromes and landing grounds in the States are built on such magnificent lines. The rules and regula-tions covering the establishment of private flying fields over here, are far less stringent than they are in England.* # * Now that we have at last decided to buy American air-craft for some of our Atlantic routes, how many people realise that the basic design of the Constellation was frozenin 1939? This rather remarkable fact shows how very far- sigTited Lockheeds were. It should be remembered thatthe idea of 100,000 lb aircraft, of cabin pressurisation, tri- cycle undercarriages, water injection, boosted controls andthe like were then little more than a gleam in the designer's eye—and although aircraft had been built which embodiedone or other of these features they were more or less experi- mental at that time. The fact that it was decided to goahead with these features on a machine of this size gives some idea of the forward thinking that was current evenbefore the war. Quite naturally the purchase of these machines lorB.O.A.C. has been a topic of considerable conversation, but it should be on record that in no single discussionthat the writer has heard has there ever been any sug- gestion of an "I told you so" attitude. It seems gener-ally understood that, through no fault of our own we were in a position where we had to buy outside, and thereis a feeling of sympathy and a full realisation that this is only a temporary policy anyhow. Quite a number ofmembers of the aircraft trade here feel that, in the end, this may be to their disadvantage, as it will give us abreathing space to prepare for the next jump ahead, and that as a result of our experience of their types, we shallbe able to improve our own designs. Let us hope that this will be the case. There is, however, one thing which people here havedifficulty in understanding, and that is why we have wasted so much time on what they consider to beobsolete designs, and why we continue to build to out- of-date specifications when we could have started off witha clean slate. The feeling is that we should have purchased American aircraft straight away and not worried aboutconverting military aircraft. Whether such criticism is justified remains to be seen.
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