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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 0084.PDF
56 FLIGHT International, 11 January 1973 AIR TRANSPORT.. LIGHT * COMMERCIAL & BUSINESS Which airfields for general aviation? There is no absolute shortage of airfields in the South- East of England but those that exist are not necessarily in the best places for their users or from the environmental point of view. This is one conclusion which has been reached by the Standing Conference on London and South East Regional Planning in its study of general aviation in the region. The study was produced in response to local authorities who had indicated a need for the small airfields in the region to be considered in their local and regional plans. Surrey County Council in particular felt that further work was desirable, following a consultant's report on the use of Fairoaks. At the same time the Greater London Council had shown an interest in the setting up of a network of airfields around London to serve general aviation. The report highlights the difficulty of individual authori ties faced with requests for planning approval for devel opments of airfields; because general aviation operates without regard to administrative boundaries the overall context of supply and demand is not easy to see. Indi vidual authorities are therefore put in the position of appearing to act negatively to pressure for development because such matters as the immediate loss of amenity are all-too-apparent. "In forming a view on.the maintenance of an adequate network of aerodromes for general aviation, the local planning authorities need to consider arguments con cerning the importance of general aviation, particularly to the commercial life of the community. Looking to the future they will wish to be made aware. . . of likely technological developments in aviation." The study considered 45 airfields within an area bounded by Luton and Stansted to the north, Kidlington to the west and Shoreham to the south. Fifteen of these, it was felt, could be disregarded, being disused, private or mili tary, and Wisley was placed in this category since Surrey county Council intends that it should be returned to agri cultural use now that test flying has ceased there. The remaining 30 airfields are unevenly distributed within the region, with nearly half lying within the north westerly quadrant from central London. Twenty of the airfields had at least one hard runway but hangarage varied widely; the two local authority airfields, Luton and South end, both had more than 20,000m2, whereas eight of the airfields had less than 2,000m2. An analysis of the views of some of the local authorities involved showed the following opinions: there should be no intensification of use at Denham, Stapleford Tawney or Lasham nor should there be any commercial use of Booker. The future of Fairoaks should be considered only in the context of other airfields in the region and it is felt that development of the third London airport limits the future of Southend. Radlett should be used commercially only for manufacturing while Dunsfold should be returned to agri cultural use when it is no longer required as a test airfield; the local authority would be reluctant to see Chalgrove reestablished. Several airfields in the region have shown remarkable growth, particularly Booker with a fourfold increase in five years. Other notable growth rates which can be seen in the table include those at Denham, Biggin Hill, Shoreham and Kidlington. Several of these airfields are among those which record the highest frequency of complaints about noise but in many cases no noise complaints were recorded against a particular airfield. With regard to recreational flying the study concludes that there are sufficient aerodromes but it accepts that in some cases the facilities are inadequate "perhaps partly through the reluctance of planning authorities, in the absence of some guidance, to encourage or allow intensi fication of use. Commercial flying imposes restrictions on the location of recreational airfields close in to the metropolis but the authors feel in any case that it is not unreasonable for people to be prepared to travel some distance for leisure flying. Suggestions for satisfying the business aviation require ment include one nominated general aviation airfield, two such, one to be north of the Thames and one south, and The high rate of growth of general aviation is shown by the table of movements recorded at selected airfields around London. Approxi mately 100 home-based aircraft contribute to the total at Elstree, some of which are seen above Biggin Hill Blackbushe Denham Elstree Fairoaks Gatwick Heathrow Leavesden Luton Oxford Redhill Rochester Shoreham Stansted Stapleford Tawney Southend Wycombe Air Park (Booker) TOTALS 1964 118,000 22,985 .— — 19,000 10,559 4,884 5,653 28,223 15,365 4,835 — 15,595 9,557 20,560 5,897 — 281,113 1965 124,000 39,949 24,786 10,806 25,000 11,983 6,169 8,678 22,083 58,243 5,568 15,600 20,220 9,798 21,374 4,492 11,020 419,769 1966 103,000 56,694 27,540 8,323 35,000 14,563 7,321 8,538 28,744 131,115 5,554 20,650 20,756 9,602 22,594 4,708 26,310 531,012 1967 145,000 65,501 30,600 7,180 50,000 16,674 8,398 9,394 25,638 191,332 5,990 22,800 22,920 7,293 24,305 6,721 57,600 697,346 1968 140,000 70,000 36,160 8,978 90,000 18,393 10,337 19,647 25,421 223,260 5,465 26,000 27,898 6,412 23,155 21,948 54,802 807,876 1969 142,321 72,351 38,550 10,033 130,000 21,047 13,771 19,624 23,891 170,555 6,495 28,600 33,230 6,979 25,000 30,631 86,000 859,076 1970 157,802 63,246 41,000 10,050 140,000 23,487 14,978 12,307 21,523 130,568 6,827 31,500 25,544 6,754 28,000 32,816 93,345 839,747 1971 173,600 106,165 55,000 n.a. 170,000 23,852 15,212 12,490 34,272 175,317^ n.a. 4,520 31,516 9,441 72,500 36,370 102,000 i 1,022,255
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