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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0823.PDF
APRIL 25TH, 1946 FLIGHT LONDON AIRPORT allowed for hangarage. The area south of the Bath Roadwill be fully developed as rapidly as circumstances allow, so as to provide six runways in all. Development of thearea north of the present Bath Road, which will have to be diverted to the north of the new boundary, will not.start for at least five years. This phasing of the work will fit in with the need tominimise demolitions while the present housing shortage continues, and to keep the maximum amount of agricul-tural land in cultivation for the next few years. The *H»Government is aware of the anxiety which has been felt,and expressed, by residents in the area, and will endeavour to mitigate hardship, and in the event of a continuance of110using shortage in this area in five years' time, the Government will arrange with the local authorities con-cerned to provide houses in place of any which have to be demolished. One of the reasons which led to the sitingof the London Airport in this district was that it could be done with the minimum disturbance of householders.Compensation will, of course, be payable for houses and other buildings demolished, on the basis prescribed in therelevant Statutes. Steps will also be taken to mitigate the ioss of agricultural land, and to make as good use aspossible of available land during the conduct of the opera- tions. The area contains some buildings of archa^logical orhistoric interest, and the plans for the development of the airport have been so framed that there will be theminimum disturbance of such buildings. The airport at Heston has become completely out ofdate and, owing to its proximity to the new London Air- port, will have to go out of use as an airfield. The land thus made available will do much to compensatefor the loss of the building and agricultural land which will be absorbed by the new airport. The buildings atHeston will prove of great value to the British airline operators for various non-flying purposes, such as theaccommodation of stores and motor transport. Following the Minister's statement, further questionswere asked by Lord Strabolgi and Viscount Swinton, as a result of which Lord Winster emphasized that both he andthe Minister of Transport were fully alive to the necessity for developing access to the airport in parallel with thework of completing the airport itself. The question of road access was at present under the greatest detailedconsideration, while rail transport was being examined in conjunction with the main railways and the LondonPassenger Transport Board. Finality on the matter could not be reached, the Minister declared, until there wasa decision on the ultimate location of a terminal building in London for our airlines. For airport employees accesswould probably be provided by extending the Underground railway beyond Hounslow West to the airport itself. The Minister added that Commonwealth and trans-atlantic services would be able to use Heathrow this sum- mer, as soon as the first three runways were completed. When Viscount Swinton was speaking he stated that hehad no doubt that Heathrow was the one and only pos- sible site for a great London airport. It had been con-sidered by the R.A.F. really as a civil aviation prob- lem long before the Ministry of Civil Aviation had beencreated. Viscount Swinton said that when he went into office he considered it his duty to go into the matter afreshwith an entirely open mind and to view all possible sites. He continued: "Not only did it appear to me quiteconclusively that Heathrow was the best site, but I say it without the least hesitation that it was the only possiblesite on which a great airport for London could be built." HELICOPTER RESEARCH TDESEARCH and experimental work on helicopters is being•£»- carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Supply by three aircraft firms. Each firm is producing designs which, it ishoped, will lead to the production of small helicopters of the four-seater class for both civil and military use. This informa-tion was given by the Minister of Supply in the House of Commons in a written answer recently. The reply addedthat helicopter research was also in progress at the Royal Air- craft Establishment and at the Airborne Forces ExperimentalEstablishment. SKY "BLUE TRAIN" IT is now possible to fly from London to the Riviera in oneday. Air France has reopened its through service, and passengers leaving Croydon at 9 a.m. reach Nice by 3 p.m.the same afternoon, a call being made at Le Bourget en rout- . As the California Airport at Nice has been extended and isnow able to take large aircraft, the pre-war practice of opera- ting a shuttle service of small aircraft between Marseilles andl_annes in order to connect with the main service from London, which was routed via Paris and Lyons to Marseilles, is no longernecessary. Thus, the new service is an all-round improvement over the pre-war line to the Riviera. The single fare for thejourney is £14 10s, and, at present the return fare is double this figure, but as from July 1 it will be reduced to £26 2s. Air France hopes shortly to inaugurate a tlirect non-slopservice from London to Nice—a flight of about 3|hr. PILOTS' STRIKEr HE strike habit has spread to -civil aviation. The Air LinePilots Association of the United States has informed the National Mediation Board that it intends to call a strike of allpilots and co-pilots of Trans-World Air Lines, beginning on April 21st. This arises out of a demand for more pay and•-horter flying-time when operating the new four-engined aircraft which the company is introducing, first on its inter-national, and then on its internal routes. Pilots' salaries up *o a maximum of $16,000 £4,000 a year), and a ten per cent reduction in the maximum monthly flying-time, are the figuresquoted. So far, other airlines are not affected, but nevertheless, itis estimated that if the strike materializes it will ground all T.W.A. aircraft on more than 28,000 miles of internationaland domestic routes. As airlines come under the Railway Labour Act, President Truman may intervene to avert thestrike by appointing an emergency panel to hear the case. SCOTTISH QUESTIONS THE subject of Prestwick is now becoming a regular featureof Wednesday question time in the House of Commons. On April 10, the subject received slightly new treatment whenSir Thomas Moore asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation how many times since VE-Day ithad been necessary to divert to Prestwick incoming aircraft owing to fog-bound conditions at other airfields.One imagines that Sir Thomas Moore primarily had civil operations in mind, and that he therefore received somethingof a surprise when he was told that from VE-day to March 31. 194G, only five civil aircraft arriving in the U.K. from abroadwere so. diverted. Three of these diversions were made in accordance with the "weather minima" laid down by theUnited States Civil Aeronautics Administration in connection with the use of Hum by Pan American Airways and AmericanOverseas Airlines. On the days that the American aircraft were diverted, however, Hurn continued to be used byB.O.A.C. In contrast to the figure for civil aircraft. Mr. Ivor Thomasquoted, for the same period, 162 military aircraft either diverted to, or recalled to Prestwick. During the period October 1,1945, to March 31, 1946, twenty-four civil and sixty-four military aircraft were diverted to or recalled to Prestwick onaccount of bad" landing conditions elsewhere. Fit. Lt. Beswick asked whether the facts which Mr. Thomashad given did not simply indicate that Hurn required up-to- date radio landing aids, "to which the Parliamentary Secretaryreplied that it might be so, but that the policy was to get the London Airport into operation as quickly as possible so thatthe use of Hurn as a trans-oceanic airport could be discontinued. Jn repl to a question on the organization of civil aviation
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