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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0648.PDF
292 FLIGHT, 14 March 1952 EXIT the AIRPORT COACH? Tourist Air Travel May Raise a Still Bigger Road-traffic Problem NOW that the introduction of tourist-class services seems likely to bring airliners carrying a hundred or so passengers, we must rid ourselves of the idea that motor coaches will continue to be an adequate means of transport between airports and city centres. This will be a problem not only for London Airport, but equally for Idlewild, Le Bourget, Schiphol, and many others. Berlin will be one of the few exceptions, for Tempelhof is com parable in situation with Battersea Park in London. When British airlines began in 1919 a single Daimler six-seater motor-car was all that was needed to take passen gers between central London and Hounslow, Cricklewood, and (later) Croydon airports. Today, even big coaches are beginning to prove inadequate; and when all traffic is moved to L.A.P. from Northolt, they are likely to create traffic chaos in the already overcrowded streets of Chiswick, Hammersmith, and Kensington. Up to the time of writing, no workable plan to overcome this difficulty has been announced, but there can be no doubt that we must at once rid ourselves of this motor-coach mentality. » The best solution seems to lie in a recent suggestion for building an airways terminal (with a helicopter landing- place on the roof) at the South Bank site. This adjoins Waterloo Station, from which there is a direct railway line to Feltham. From there a branch line could be run right into the traffic-centre of L.A.P., and trains could do the journey in 25 minutes from Waterloo. It would also be a comparatively simple matter to run such airport expresses right into the new airways terminal building on South Bank. Further time might also be saved by completing at least some of the Customs and immigration formalities on the trains. When Imperial Airways built the present Airways Terminal at Victoria, a few years before the 1939 war, they were accused of grandiose planning; but already it is far too small, and B.O.A.C. and B.E.A. both have to spread them selves inconveniently in many parts of London. If an adequate terminal could now be built at the South Bank, B.O.A.C. could collect all their chicks under their wing from Brentford, Victoria, Heston, Piccadilly, etc., and B.E.A. could do the same from Ruislip, Regent Street, Kensington, Northolt North Side, etc. Foreign operators, too, might be leased offices in a gigantic Airways House. New York is already meeting with similar problems, for though Idlewild on Long Island is reached by a magnificent, broad highway such as has been visualized for London, at fine week-ends the route is choked with holiday traffic. On a fine Sunday afternoon in April, 1951, it took me ninety minutes to drive by car from midtown New York to Idlewild. In Johannesburg it is planned to connect the new Jan Smuts Air Port with central Johannesburg by a new broad, straight road; the same is being done to connect Kentucky Airport with the centre of Salisbury (Southern Rhodesia); and, probably, motor coaches will prove adequate to serve these towns for many years. Even so, both centres, and others such as Cairo, Buenos Aires, and Rio, would do well to look far ahead and follow the lead—if London is wise enough to give it—of building an adequate airways terminal connected to the airport by rail. Airlines could then start saving money by making the ticket operative only from take-off to landing—as, in fact, is already being done by some operators of reduced-fare services. G. D. DA VINCI'S MASTERPIECES 'T'HE Leonardo da Vinci Quincentenary Exhibition which opened •*- at the Royal Academy of Arts in London on March 6th ncludes a number of aviation exhibits of great historic interest. Leonardo da Vinci carefully studied the flight of birds and a number of his classic drawings of bird-flight are shown, with the collection of designs for wings and flying machines. An attractive display lent by the Science Museum shows da Vinci's drawings of flying machines, a helicopter and a parachute, together with well-constructed models based on these designs. One of the flying-machine layouts includes what must almost cer tainly have been the first aircraft safety-belt. Da Vinci's drawing of a ballista reminds the visitor rather force fully of a V. 1 launching ramp, while a drawing of a "webbed glove for swimming in the sea" was a five-century-ahead vision of World War II frogmen. The exhibition will remain open until the end of May. PASSENGER COMFORT in the Mk 2 UNIVERSAL FREIGHTER RADIO OPERATOR/ NAVIGATOR MAIN ELECTRICAL SUPPLY PANEL :ESS LADDER FLIGHT DECK A proposed layout for a three-flight-crew compartment, and behind, on the flight deck, a "stateroom" for five passengers (the tail-boom cabin accommodates sixteen). Larger clear-vision screen panels are to be provided for the crew. The access-ladder will be raked forward to clear the cargo floor extension. "D ECENTLY we were able to announce that Blackburn and -"• General Aircraft, Ltd., have received M.o.S. instructions to go ahead with work on the Mk 2 Universal Freighter, which has been in abeyance for many months. The chief difference between the Mk 1 and Mk 2 is, of course, the use of Bristol Centaurus engines- in place of Hercules, while the new mark will have a tubular tail boom above clamshell-type rear loading doors. The main cargo floor will be 4ft longer. A proposed interior change —illustrated in the sketch on the left—is the provision of a passen ger compartment on the after part of the flight deck.
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