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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0251.PDF
FEBRUARY 13TH, 1947 ttis problem—and I mean solve it—willbe a miracle man. F.I.D.O. is one solu- tion to blind landing problems, but it isvery expensive. At the moment, the controller's chiefheadache lies in control of aircraft in the air. Once on the ground a machine isleft more or less to its devices and, apart from permission to taxy or otherwise,the pilot is solely responsible tor seeing that he doesn't collide with anything.With seventy-two aircraft movements in an hour, and a complicated taxi-striplayout, something has to be done to In Britain talks still go on ... In America La Guardia sinking into the sands of Flushing Bay ; Idlewild a lonely wilderness. control the aircraft at the many inter-sections. Present thoughts tend towards a traffic-light system, but any motoristknows that it is difficult enough to see traffic lights even at his level on a foggynight—so what about the poor pilot perched high in the nose of his Tudor IIwith no forward ground visibility in the taxying attitude? It seems, therefore,that some indicator in the cockpit will need to be provided, but, even so, thestopping and starting of aircraft is not as easy as it is with cars. Additionalcomplications arise with the limit of turn radius with most tricycle undercarriages,because the nose wheel is only free to move through a certain angle; turningradii are, consequently, large. Perhaps, then, the only solution is toreduce the number of taxi-strips to a minimum and, by careful design, toeliminate as many curves and inter- sections as possible. In this respectLondon Airport and Idlewild are bad, both layouts being reminiscent of adartbpard. So much for the controller's nightmare. Now what about the trafficside? In the past, aircraft have just taxiedup to a white mark on an apron, some- one has opened the doors and the workof loading and unloading has begun. In many cases, this has taken a long time,especially where large pieces of freight are concerned, or where long-distance A train has merely to follow rails . . . remember the a/most complete dis- location of rail transport in foggy conditions. -«ftircraft have to be cleaned and re-lict ualled. At London Airport the allowable timefor the entire operation is to be thirty minutes, including any maintenancewhich may be required and refuelling Ii I say this figure is absurd, it isn't, arude rebuff to the planners, but a prac tical criticism of a theoretical assump-tion. The fault lies in the method ol computation of the time required. In-stead of working out a reasonable time factor for the traffic operation, and thentelling the aircraft controllers how many aircraft they can accept per hour, thetraffic facilities planners have been forced into their "thirty-minute" position because the controllers have declared their intention of organizing seventy-iwoaircraft movements an hour. In practice A general plan of Idlewild airport as it is expected to be when finished,major axis of the central ellipse is east-west. The the thing will work itself out, becauseneither the traffic people nor the con- trollers will be able to handle that num-ber of aircraft. In my opinion no set time figure canbe set for the servicing of an aircraft. Long-range aircraft require more atten-tion than short-haul traffic; big aircraft provide more problems than small ones;freighters may need several hours for unloading and loading; and internalservices may do the whole thing in fifteen minutes. So standardization isnot practical Different aircraft, too, require diffeient facilities, so here againit is a mistake to have identical unload- ing bays for all types. One thing appears to be certain—andthis is that the airport authorities will need to allot '' time'' to the operat-ing companies, and it will then be up to the latter to arrange theirschedules accordingly. Variations from the allotted time are bound to occur, dueto weather and maintenance snags, and so there will still be congestion at peakperiods. Handling Problems At the moment the planners are work-ing on the idea of island sites for traffic buildings, around which the aircraft willcluster, arriving via tortuous taxi-ways. An alternative scheme would be to nosethem around the main building in what is known as the " coastline" pattern,but fewer aircraft can be handled in this manner and towing problems areaccentuated. It seems fairly certain that, in the last lap of their journeyfrom the runway to the unloading ramp, large aircraft, and especially the jets,will need to rely on tractors or cables to jockey them into their correctposition. Immediately there is posed anotherproblem. Will a 25 h.p. tractor be able to hold a 300,000 1b aircraft on its ownbrakes should a sudden stop be neces sary? Visions of a snapping tow bar,with a consequent over-running of the tractor, spring easily to mind. Somemethod will need to be adopted whereby the aircraft's brakes are used either by aman in the cockpit (who would be useless in a tail-wheel type aircraft because hewouldn't be able to see anything) or by a mechanical link to the tractor. There seems to be no reason why sometype of electrical hauler, on a flush rail, could not be employed. This could beconnected, via a tow bar, to the nose- wheel, or, alternatively, it could be inthe form of a small platform on to which the nose-wheel was taxied. An electricalconnection to the cockpit would enable the pilot to control his own progress.Having put the aircraft safely along- side the "island " terminal building, itwould then remain to get the passengers off and away to their destinations and toput the outgoing load safely aboard. • The critical matter . . . is the actual ', contact with the ground and holding ; a straight course when on the ground. This will involve a walk across a loadingramp or taxi-way, or through a tunnel. Since, with the anticipated aircraftmovements, the taxi-ways are going to be fairly busy, a tunnel, or ratherseveral tunnels, would appear to be an essential. Freight, baggage and mail will prob-ably travel on conveyor belts and should present few problems except for theactual work of lifting it into the aircraft's stowage compartments. It seems thatnose compartments are finished, and the tendency seems to be towards belly stow-age. This will necessitate the use of a crane or winch, perhaps carried as partof the aircraft's equipment. Tunnels, however, are a complication,and will presumably need to be large enough to accommodate inward and out-ward passengers at the same time and in fairly large quantities. It should beborne in mind, of course, that these tunnels are mere subsidiaries to the gianttunnel which will pour the many thousands of passengers a day in and outof the main island-site terminal building. From all accounts this at London Air-port is to be a kind of aerial '' Radio City,' with cinemas, restaurants, and athree-ring circus. Through this will surge a solid mass of tired and excitedpeople either coming from or going to the tar corners of the world. The " island" site arrangement willalso provide obstacles in the way of the successful co-ordination of rail and airinterests. One can hardly imagine a double-tracked railway tunnel as well asthe one foi motor vehicles. Mail and freight, then, will need to arrive hv
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