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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0758.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 June 1958 The single finger extending out on to the apron is 900ft long. On the left is the upper storey, partitioned for customs and non-customs passengers. On the right is shown the aircraft marshalling tower and parking stands along the finger. "Flight" photographs GATWICK ... terminal building, the floor of which is 22ft above ground level.The building is of concrete, clad in glass and steel, and the architects, Yorke, Rosenberg and MardaU, have adopted an origi-nal design. A minimum of decoration has been applied to the structure of the terminal, which is intended to convey an im-pression of strength and spaciousness from the building materials used in the construction. The supporting pillars, for example, areleft untreated after casting and the pre-cast concrete slabs of the walls are left in unadorned contrast to the glass expanse of thesouth wall. Such colour as there is in the concourse will come from the advertising displays on the central concessions block, the head-ing boards of the facilities around the sides of the hall, and that provided by the flow of people moving through the building. Facing the entrance to the concourse from the railway stationis a long staircase leading to the restaurant floor. At the head of the stairs is a substantial buffet and snack bar, beyond it a cock-tail bar and beyond the bar the main restaurant. A subtle change in the character of the interior design takesplace on the restaurant floor. The noise and bustle of the main concourse has intentionally not been in any way subdued; thearchitects visualize the passage of travellers as part of the character of the building. But on the restaurant floor, in contrast to thealmost stark simplicity of the main concourse, decoration has been progressively introduced to provide graded luxury. The buffet,for example, has red Terrazzo tiled walls and green Terrazzo floor, and the cocktail bar and restaurant beyond it is carpeted; therestaurant will be fully decorated, curtained, and soundproofed. The process of departure from Gatwick begins with checkingin baggage and showing tickets at the airline desks. Baggage is loaded on to a conveyor running behind the row of desks andtaken on to the ground floor and hence to the waiting aircraft. Passengers are not subject to outward customs, although spotchecks by customs officers may be made and emigration formalities must be observed. When called to join their aircraft, travellersdescend to the mezzanine floor and go unescorted out along the pier to the aircraft stand. To walk from one end of the centralfinger to the other takes about seven to eight minutes, so that, including processing, it should be possible for passengers to arriveat the airport 20 min or a little less before boarding the aircraft. The finger is partitioned vertically so that international anddomestic travellers are segregated for customs purposes once they have started the journey out to the aircraft. Ample provision is made for spectators, who have access to theconcourse, buffet and restaurant, and a viewing platform along the complete length of the central pier. In addition there is a spec-tators' enclosure at ground level to the north of the terminal. Gatwick's most characteristic feature is unquestionably its single7,000ft long, 150ft wide, runway. Lying roughly east and west, it is distinguishable from any other runway in the British Isles bythe turn-offs on to the taxi track, which can safely be negotiated at 50-60 kt, and by the special treatment which has been appliedto darken the surface. This has been done to reduce glare and to provide contrast with the white threshold, centre line and touch-down markings, and the pink-coloured 75ft wide shoulders. These have been continued across and beyond each threshold to providean overrun 300ft wide and 200ft long that has a bearing strength approximately half that of the runway itself and equal to that ofthe taxiways. The top runway concrete, 12in thick, was laid in 15ft wide strips which were later sawn into 15ft lengths withfibreboard inserted to form contraction joints. The minimum crushing strength is 5,000 lb/sq in at 28 days and the bearingstrength is sufficient for the 190,500 1b landing weight of a DC-8. The concrete top layer is laid upon a layer of polythene sheet,0.003in thick, which serves as moisture insulation for the top slab and reduces the friction between upper and lower slabs. A con-siderable engineering operation was needed in order to complete the runway, shoulders and taxiways on time, particularly as specialefforts were made to ensure that the runway was truly flat. Runway markings—which conform to the latest I.C.A.O. recom- mendations—are shown on the drawing on p. 773. Apart from theusual threshold, direction and centreline markings, touchdown zone markings extend 2,000ft from each runway end, and areintended to emphasize the fixed-distance touchdown aiming points 1,000ft from the threshold. Cleared areas at least 900ftlong have been provided beyond each threshold of the runway and the approaches—with two minor exceptions marked by redflashing beacons—come within I.CA.O.'s recommendations for a clear instrument approach surface at a slope of 1 in 50. The most modern airport in Europe, Gatwick has a highlydeveloped lighting system that incorporates certain very new features installed as a result of M.T.C.A. and M.o.S. trials. The approach lights are to the British Calvert type of centrelineand bar. At the western end of the runway the centre line is 3,000ft long and is made up of white high intensity lights at 100ftspacing and low intensity red lights (supplied by G.E.C.) spaced at 200ft. There are two low- and five high-intensity crossbarsspaced at 1,000ft and 500ft intervals respectively. The eastern end of the runway is similar except that the centre line of lights hasbeen reduced in length by 200ft to clear the taxiway to the main- tenance area. At each end of the runway one centre line lightnear the I.L.S. localizers is omitted. Flush fitting runway lights have been abandoned in favour ofBenjamin Electric high intensity lights raised lOyin above runway level. They are in two rows 100ft apart, spaced at 100ft intervalsfacing west, and 200ft facing east; supplementary low intensity lights are spaced at 200ft intervals and are omni-directional. An innovation is the use of touchdown zone lighting coveringthe first 3,000ft of the runway in each direction; in other words, all but a 1,000ft in the centre of the runway. This comprises aseries of short transverse bars each side of the centre line and 37ft 6in from it, each bar consisting of four lights having a maxi-. mum projection of lin and visible only to aircraft on final approach. The lights are intended to reduce the "black hole" effectexperienced by pilots suddenly deprived of the intensity of the approach lights. Apart from the standard G.E.C. green threshold lights, theGatwick runway is equipped with high intensity green threshold wing bars consisting of four uni-directional elevated fittings oneither side. Further wing bars are positioned at 1,000ft from the runway end adjacent to the touchdown zone bars. The taxiway lighting has also received special treatment becauseof the nature of the high speed turn-offs. The centre lines are marked with rows of green lights which start from the runwaycentre line 160ft before the turn-off and continue at 80ft intervals or less along the turn-offs and down the taxiways. The greenlights are supplemented with small yellow reflecting markers at the edge of the main taxiways. All approach, runway, thresholdand green taxiway lighting is provided with brilliancy control, but until the airport has been in operation long enough for pilots'comments on brilliance of the various systems to be analysed, the intensity will remain a matter for experiment. Lighting in the terminal area (apart from an enormous amountof interior lighting) is provided by floodlighting the apron and marking the edges with elevated blue lights. Gatwick also has aStone-Chance identification beacon installed to the south of the western end of the runway which flashes a green "GW," andsouthern and northern hazard beacons. The northern 2.25 kW beacon, rotating at 9 r.p.m. to give 36 flashes a minute, is situated3,000ft to the north of the extended centre line of the runway and the southern beacon is on the extended runway centre line 10,850ftfrom the threshold. A feature of Gatwick that is particularly unusual is the sitingof the control tower and adjacent fire station out of sight (or very nearly so) from the terminal buildings. The position that hasbeen chosen, about half-way along the runway and standing back 1,640ft, is a concession to the need for a single control tower tocover both stage one and stage two of Gatwick's development. Nevertheless, the control tower is one of the few physical indica-tions that a second runway is contemplated. Within the building (Concluded in col. 2, page 785)
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