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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 2029.PDF
22 December 1949 795 LONDON AIRPORT PROGRESS Second Stage of Development Now Well Advanced PROGRESS in the second stage of the construction ofLondon Airport is now in an advanced stage, and inthe adjacent aerial photograph the extent of concreting on runways and aprons can be clearly seen. Two. of the runways in the original R.A.F. triangular system (Nos. 1 and 2), together with runway No. 6, now form the arrange- ment in current use (No. 6 having been put into service in June of this year to replace No. 3, which is now being broken up). Work on the four other runways in the original plan is now nearing completion. The construc- tion of the fourth (No. 7) was found necessary in order to clear the future terminal area, across which No. 3 formerly stretched. The plan calls for a main entrance tunnel leading from the Bath Road to the terminal area, through which all passenger and vehicular traffic will pass, and this con- sideration, plus the installation of an up-to-date lighting system and the completion of the junction with Nos. 4, 6 and 7 runways, requires that No. 1 runway shall be taken out of service. The subway is being cut and roofed-in rather than tunnelled underneath the runway itself. Run- way No. 5 (3,150yd long and now almost completed except for a small section at the western end at the junction with No. 7) will then be put into service as the main runway. This work is scheduled for early 1951. Runway No. 1 is 3,000yd in length and No. 2, 2,000yd; four runways will be 300ft wide and the remaining two (Nos. 4 and 7) will be 250ft. Runway No. 4 is now only used for parking purposes. In order to achieve the present arrangement of the run- ways the diversion of two rivers and construction of two sections of road was necessary. The final layout, which permits two parallel runways in one direction to be used at the same time, should be completed by 1952, and the complete future plan is indicated in the key diagram to the aerial picture. The concrete aprons, providing hard-standings on the eastern facets of the central diamond, are now almost com- plete and a series of vehicular and pedestrian subways are being cut to connect the terminal area with the aircraft parking areas, thereby eliminating the necessity for the dangerous intermingling of walking passengers, mobile vehicles and taxi-ing aircraft on the parking aprons. The plan envisages eight such subways, on which work is now in progress; their positions are indicated on the diagram. The terminal buildings at present used will eventually be replaced by those of semi-permanent, two-storey type, which will be erected in the central area. No permanent buildings have as yet been planned, but the eventual lay- out is thought to depend largely on the experience gained in the period during which the semi-permanent constructions are used. The construction of a permanent control tower is also in the immediate plan for the central area. The airport now has a total of four hangars on No. 1 maintenance site, and four others are now being built. The single, large hangar used by Pan American Airways, which has been constructed on No. 2 maintenance site, was shipped from the U.S.A. and erected under local arrange- (Concluded on page 804)
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