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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0426.PDF
424 FLIGHT Great white hope—or white elephant? The Princess is already becoming dated but, given the opportunity, she will be able to demonstrate her real worth. DESIGN FOR CIVIL AIR TRANSPORTATION . . . in any case, soon be by helicopter. This terminal should be sited for its meteorological and physical suitability, and from it, for example, a mono-rail travelling at 200 m.p.h. should complete the journey, using the most practical approach to the city in question. I do not under-rate the problems involved, but they are certainly not insurmountable. In London's case they could well be integrated with the general re-planning. The noise problem would be solved, and the curious phantasy that to travel 17 miles in 45 minutes is preferable to travelling 60 miles in less than 20 minutes could be finally blown from our minds. So far as the British Isles are concerned, therefore, if this thesis is accepted, flying-boats fill the bill for all major long distance requirements, either for passengers or for freight. In the matter of the British Empire, there can, equally, be no argument with regard to the main services—as has already been proved. We are now in the curious position of building ever larger and more expensive airfields within a mile or two of great expanses of water, entirely suitable for the operation of flying-boats. Even where such water is required and is not available, it may well be cheaper to make a lake than a modern airfield. One disability frequently attributed to the flying-boat, the difficulty in handling passengers and cargo, should not now arise. Today it takes an average of 45 minutes to get from city centre to airport. Before that, the majority of passengers have assembled for tickets and other formalities for which a period of at least 20 minutes is allowed, even on internal services. On arrival at the airport, all passengers are assembled and further formalities are completed. Conservatively, another 30 minutes elapses before embarkation takes place. Inclement weather is frequently accom panied by a considerable pause in the open. Even before B.O.A.C. discarded the Solents, passengers and goods were embarked direct from the dock. No reason exists why this should not be by means of a covered way. The technique of docking a flying-boat is well established, and recent improvements in design and reduction in costs make such a method practical at all except the most unimportant stops. Maintenance, too, becomes a simple matter on a large flying- boat. Power units, being completely accessible from within the wing, not only provide weather protection but eliminate the costly loss of tools overboard. To date, flying-boats have had to be beached at frequent intervals for hull cleaning and to receive a coat of lanolin. With the larger craft, if it be impossible to produce a metal impervious to salt water, there is no reason why a means of spraying lanolin while in flight should not be incorporated. Dry- docking should become an annual major operation, as with ships. The larger the flying-boat, the more self-contained it becomes, because the cost of carrying its own powered dinghies, fire-fighting systems and mooring impedimenta not only represents a smaller proportionate loss in carrying capacity, but involves a lower actual cost in loss of potential cargo. This means that landings for traffic purposes away from main bases become practical. Only if refuelling is involved are any arrangements at all required. With the advent of atomic power even this requirement will vanish. And may I point out that, with the exception of atomic power, there is not one aspect of the above two paragraphs which could not be built into a flying-boat tomorrow ? So far as the flying-boat is concerned, therefore, we can say that in large sizes, say from the Princess upwards, the economics of operation should be at least as good as the best landplane yet devised. And those economics are at a stage where, apart from passengers, an enormous field of freight-development unfolds. Obviously, however, aircraft of such a size are practical only where loads justify such carrying capacity. My own estimate is that, given freedom to operate and to expand there will be, within the next ten years, a very large number of routes and projects on which aircraft of 500,000 lb and over can well be employed. Just as we do not expect to use the Queen Elizabeth to carry passengers and cargo between Dublin and England, equally we do not expect large aircraft to serve all points from which traffic originates. It is ignoring reality to claim that such, in fact, is done by present landplanes. As the physical requirements for airports increase, the number of airfields available decreases. I have already shown that at least one hour and thirty-five minutes is lost between city centre and embarkation so far as passengers are concerned. Even that is only for those travelling to or from the city served by the airport. With freight, the delay is greater. The primary purpose of air transport is speed. There are. however, many other advantages, some of which are not yet sufficiently widely understood. In the case of passengers, the ability to avoid irksome changes of vehicle ranks high. Comfort and cleanliness appeal to many. So far as freight is concerned, the consequential advantages are even greater—in the form, for instance of packing, insurance and lowered risk of loss. I maintain that we can improve and cheapen present air transport by using the most economical vehicle, the large flying- boat, for the major part of the routes flown. I also maintain that by a proper integration of feeder services, the speed of arrival at destination can be increased and the tiresome and slow road journeys, airport delays and other inconveniences eliminated. I suggest that the following is the way to do it, in this country or in most others. Main flying-boat terminals will be sited for strategic, traffic and economic reasons, and each terminal will have alongside it a medium-sized airfield, surfaced with grass or any other locally suitable alternative. From this airfield will depart main feedet services, carried out by aeroplanes with a maximum all-up weight of forty to fifty thousand pounds, having the necessary landing and take-off characteristics for such a purpose. A similar-size flying-boat with similar aerodynamic characteristics may be substituted where more appropriate. Helicopters can also use the terminal airfields, and will be capable of alighting in the centres of towns and industrial areas. The bulk of traffic proceeding to the nearest large centre will however, be carried by mono-rail, the city terminal of which will be the rotorstation of that city. Most customs and immigration facilities can be carried out either on the flying-boat or on the mono-rail. Covered ways and all facilities can be provided for passengers, even to the extent of using specially designed electric, diesel or motor vehicles where necessary. Apart from the purely civil side of such a pattern, the strategic advantages are enormous. While it is easy for an enemy to neutralize harbours and existing main airfields, it would be impos sible for him to deny us the use of the entire British coastline, without, of course, occupying the country in strength. In war. therefore, the fleet of flying-boats could alight at any selection of suitable points. Small airfields are much easier to provide quickh than the modern requirement of heavy concrete runways 3,00c yards or more in length. In emergency, helicopters could be usee to maximum availability. A fleet of only 50 such flying boau could deliver well over 2,000 tons each day from Canada. Although I do not pretend to be a student of military strategy and although warlike requirements have nothing to do with rm thesis, 1 cannot resist ending on the note that, from my owi limited experience, the flying-boat as a combat weapon has a ven definite function. The further it is developed, the more does thi; become so. From every point of view, therefore, it would bt a tragedy were we not to carry on, not where we left off, bu where we can now pick up the threads of the art of flying-boa design and construction.
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