PROGRESS OF AIR TRANSPORT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21707, 14 February 1936, Page 7

PROGRESS OF AIR TRANSPORT

HESTON AERODROME STATISTICS

NEW D.H.86 MACHINES ORDERED

(FROM oub own correspondent.) LONDON. January 18. Statistics of activity at Heston airport, near London, during 1935, are clear evidence of the rapid advance of commercial aviation. Even in the British Isles, with their frequently cloudy skies on the one hand and excellent express rail services on the other, there is scope for the intensive use of < air transport. Once an adequate ground organisation serves the country the way will be clear for increases of traffic beyond the best results yet achieved. Heston is the London headquarters of several of the home air transport companies. In some weather it is preferred to Croydon as a landing place by cross-Channel air liners. Last year 33,962 aircraft ascents and landings were made in the controlled period between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. each day. Of these, 49 per cent, were made by commercial aeroplanes. Passengers through Heston In 1935 on the regular air lines numbered 17,903. Of this passenger total 8668 were carried between London and Jersey by Jersey Airways. This figure is in addition to the • company’s Southampton-Jersey traffic, which is by far the largest proportion of its work. Its Heston traffic alone shows a 24 per cent, increase on the previous year. New Air Liners Effective radio communications and direction-finding- are provided at Heston. During the year the installation was begun of a “blind landing” system Which is designed eventually to make feasible the safe approach and landing ‘ of suit-ably-equipped aircraft even in the thickest fogs. The Heston system will be the first of its kind in this country. Demands of “blind” landing are also reflected in the extension of the landing area from 105 to 172 acres; work is in .hand which will provide runways of from 1015 to 1315 yards in all directions. Among important orders recently placed with the Heston ,sales department is one from British Airways—the new combine of several important “independent” air transport companies—for four of the 1936 model of the de Havilland D.H.86 four-engined biplanes. The model chosen is that equipped with con-trollable-pitch propellers and the Gipsy-Six Series 11. motor, which is rated to give higher continuous power output than the standard engine. The continuous operational speed of the machine is 155 to 160 miles an hour at a height of 7000 ft, and it carries a substantially heavier load than the original D.H.86. Since it was opened in May last year the airport sales organisation has disposed of 50 new and secondhand aeroplanes. It has orders in hand for a considerable number of new types of machine, all scheduled for delivery early this year.