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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1256.PDF
112 FLIGHT July 31st, 1947 • • # ABERDEEN o The airport at Renfrew. Aircraft can be seen patked on the tarmac beside the old hangars and the flying club building, immediately beyond is the concrete square in front of the Lockheed hangars which can just be seen at the extreme left. In the fore- ground is the rather remote white control building surrounded by radio aerials. The N/S runway runs, from left to right in this photograph, and any extension would be through the hill between the cemetery and the built-up area in the right centre of the photograph. •a *•• May 8,853; and in June the ngure> not Yet finally conii Ife,Will exceed 10,000. The type of operation is rather differikf from that of the English division in that so many of the routescross either water or mountainous country or both, and where surface transport facilities are poor and even air operationsare difficult in the winter. Many of the flying bases in the Division, especially those in the outer islands, present anoperational problem in the bad-weather months, not only owing to the weather itself but also because of the difficult, approaches to many of the landing grounds, which themselves are invariably a makeshift, and the somevfFhat unreliable com"munication system. As a matter of interest, the average distance flown per passenger in the Scottish Division is esti-mated to be 244 miles. That is probably a greater average distance than for a passenger in the English Division, whereon. such routes as from Cardiff to Weston-super-Mare and Land's End to the Scilly Isles there i.s a high frequency butlow mileage. Renfrew Airport During the first world war the airfield at Renfrew, just out-side Glasgow, was opened up and, in 1916, hangars were built. The airfield was abandoned in 1919, but flying wasresumed by the Scottish Flying Club in 1927, and an elegant clubhouse was built which is now used by the Ministry ofCivil Aviation and the British European Corporation for offices and passenger handling. During the last war runways werebuilt and hangars were constructed by the Lockheed Corpora- tion, who used Renfrew as a maintenance base. The result of such piecemeal expansion is that Renfrewis in a mess, -there being inadequate accommodation for handling even the present traffic. There are several plansfor a new terminal building, but nothing has yet been approved. Renfrew has only two runways, thb main runwayfrom east to west is 2,000 yards long and equipped with S.B.A.; the N/S runway is 1,500 yards, and there is apossible extension of about 500 yards in the south-west direc- tion into the side of a small hill, but this would involve theremoval of many tons of earth. The north end of this runway is bounded by a main road having overhead tramcar wires,which makes the approach rather tricky in bad visibility and renders the first few hundred yards useless for landing. The Flying Control building is situated well away from thenormal position and is rather out of the picture1 at this airport and consequently the controller, for local traffic, functions froma crow's-nest-like watch tower on the old clubhouse. Never- The passenger restaurant at Renfrew. In the group of officials at Renfrew are, left to right: A. Wlshart A.T.C.O.), J. R. bain (B.£.A. Stn. Supt), T. D. Ryan Met. Officer) and B. A. Oakley Airport Manager). " |p
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