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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1436.PDF
526 FLIGHT Croydon is London's airport for business and charter aircraft. HSTe at Croydon on a recent weekend fo-1 September, are a Chipmunk, F.P.9_ ' Dove, Heron, Single and Twin Bonanza, Norecrin and two Safirs "Flight" photograph 3 An Airporfs Struggle : for Survival By A. T. PUGH Croydon Under Sentence THE sands are running out for Britain's most historic airport.The exact day of demise has not yet been set, but themethod of execution has. It will be death by strangulation; a cessation of flying, a gradual running down of facilities, and thecreeping urban paralysis of houses and shops spreading across the face of a once-fair field. The bustling activity of business andcharter flying, scheduled flights and training programmes will be shouldered out—so that the grass acres, the hangars and adminis-tration buildings can be sold to offset a little of the cost of doubt- fully adequate Gatwick Airport to the south. This is not execution as the result of a process of naturalevolution. It is economic murder, and it is likely to be committed for the most tragic reason of all—a failure to appreciate that thevictim has not only the right, but ample justification, for survival. Not because of the airport's historic associations, great as they are(recall the flying training of King George VI, the D.H. Comet's departure for New Zealand, the birth of Air Transport and Travel,Instone Air Lines, the growth of Imperial Airways), but because Croydon is an essential London airport. It is not sufficient toargue that it must be dosed because it cannot be developed into an airport for modern commercial transports when the urgentneeds of other spheres of civil air commerce are overlooked. It seems unthinkable that Croydon's advantages of geographicalposition, developed installations, hangarage, repair and mainten- ance facilities and a size and surface sufficient for aircraft of25,000 1b gross weight should be dissipated at a time when the growth of air traffic is so rapidly outstripping the most carefullycalculated forecasts of a few years ago. The need is so obviously for more airports for London, not forless, that one so advantageously situated as Croydon can never outgrow its usefulness. Indeed, the number of movements atCroydon has more than doubled since 1953, and in the past 12 months was a record 75,500.The development of "The Airport of London" at Croydon was no accident; it was a logical choice of location, half an hour by carfrom the city and beyond its suburban fringe. That houses have been built around the airport's periphery in no way affects theright of aircraft to operate; Gatwick and London are similarly affected, and complaints of noise (and not very much noise) comeill from those who buy seats too near the band. Even if the journey to Croydon now takes 45 minutes from London, it is still theonly developed business-airport of useful size within anything like easy reach of the city centre. And rather than outgrowing itsusefulness, Croydon's airport is ideal—in size and situation—for the development and active encouragement of the important fieldof executive, business and charter travel. There is every reason to forecast an expansion of this aspect ofthe civil aviation business, an active nucleus of which already exists at Croydon. A European free trade area—when it comes—shouldbring an increasing executive interchange between European capitals; a function ideally suited to the range and capabilities of THE past ten years should have made us wary about under-estimatingthe growth of air transport. We live in a world which seems continually unable to keep up with the hungry demands for more facilities, moreequipment, more airports. In Great Britain, we talk about a third airport for London (haying advocated the expenditure of another £17million on the £30 million original)—yet in the same breath talk about closing down Croydon. It may not be an exaggeration to say that if,in fact, London does throw away Croydon, future historians may judge that we threw away with it a vital part of our capital's commerce. the new generation of business aircraft appearing on the world'smarkets. Encouragement of a home market for British aircraft of this type—so far woefully lacking—could also result in goodbusiness from abroad, both in the purchase of aircraft and the less tangible economic advantages of more business being brought tothe nation's capital. Croydon could become for London what Teterboro is for New York; a thriving, prosperous airport gearedto the needs of the private and executive aircraft pilot. Customs clearance would be rapid (because of individual treatment); therewould be facilities for hangarage and refuelling, and provision for occasional repairs to visiting aircraft by maintenance facilities suchas exist there today. If Croydon is not to supply this service, which airport is therethat will? Not London Airport, long effectively closed to this type of aicraft; nor Gatwick, once to be the new home for all ofCroydon's operators, but now soon to be heavily committed with the commercial overflow from L.A.P. and those independents whourgently require the facilities the latest airport can offer. A new home for Crqydon's private and business aircraft and fly-ing clubs is a question on which Mr. Harold Watkinson, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, is "still consulting withthe Secretary of State for Air." The prospects—if the Ministry is not to discourage utterly a traffic responsibility which it shouldnurture most carefully—are bleak. As each possibility is examined, the practical choice dwindles. Blackbushe is too far from Londonfor the purpose and. would present an uncomfortable variety of traffic in the circuit. Biggin Hill has been suggested; but access ispoor, terminal facilities do not exist, and the air traffic control problem rivals that of Croydon. Even Southend has been con-sidered; but Southend has been earmarked as a second alternate to London, the need for which was appreciated by the MillbournCommittee in their report on the development of London Airport. "We recommend," they said, "that early consideration be given toStage 2 of the Gatwick plan and also to the possibility that yet a further airport will need to be developed by 1970." There are slender possibilities of developing smaller aerodromessuch as Kenley, Fair Oaks or White Waltham, but only at the prict of rejecting Croydon's obvious advantages of facility and locationIt is doubtful if the effort would be worth the candle. Even north of London, further from the short sea crossings to the Continentthe choice is meagre in the extreme. Elstree has but one runway Denham and Panshanger are too small, Luton and Stapleford
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