SUPERSONIC FLIGHT FRANCE PLANS AHEAD FOR FIRST AIRPORT

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31323, 20 March 1967, Page 12

SUPERSONIC FLIGHT FRANCE PLANS AHEAD FOR FIRST AIRPORT

(By

PAUL LEWIS

in the "Financial Times”?

(Reprinted by arrangement/

Unless the British Government takes some rapid action, there is every possibility that Paris will become the first European capital to boast an airport specially designed for the coming generation of supersonic and high passenger-load commercial aircraft. Last December, bulldozers began clearing a 7500-acre site some 15 miles north-east of the French capital where in 1972 a brand-new airport—to be called Paris Nord—will receive first flights.

The French do not expect this venture to go unchallenged from the other side of the Channel. But they point out that there is not much time left for the British to make up their minds about a third airport in London, if they want to stay in the race. The first Jumbo jets should be in the air around 1970 and the Concord by 1972. Paris will certainly be ready to give them a contemporary welcome; but if it is the only city to do so. it will also be staking a claim as Europe’s aeronautical capital of the 19705.

First Thoughts The idea of a third international airport in the Paris region first began to receive serious consideration in 1957, when the airport authority started looking around for a possible site. In 1959, its eye settled on an enormous tract of agricultural land a few miles from Le Bourget airport and near the village of Roissy-en-France. But the Ministerial go-ahead did not come until 1964 and it was only at the very end of last year that plans and formalities were finally completed and work could begin. The principal reason for building another airport near Paris is that the resources of the two existing ones— Orly and Le Bourget—are rapidly being outstripped by the growth of traffic, now averaging 14 per cent a year for passengers and 20 per cent for freight. Both Le Bourget and Orly have already reached maximum annual passenger throughput 3m and 6m respectively—though Orly is currently being extended to accommodate 12m passengers, which should take care of the anticipated traffic expansion up to 1971. Beyond that date, however, a new solution had to be found. But the fact that noone can really forecast the effect larger aircraft and cheaper fares are going to have on travelling habits, to say nothing of the peculiar handling problems such planes present, suggested the answer had better be a radical one. And the French decided that there was no alternative to building a completely new airport. When it first opens, Paris Nord will have only a single runway and terminal building in operation. But by the end of the next decade, the plan calls for four runways of up to 5000 yards in length permitting 150 aircraft movements an hour and five separate terminal buildings capable of handling a total of 25m passengers a year and 2m tons of freight. The airport ought, therefore, to take care of the French capital’s needs up to 1985 at least.

The first difficulty the ! architects had to face in ; planing an airport for the I 1970’s was the intolerable i noise the next generation of } giant aircraft are expected to 1 make landing and taking off. i Rather than rely on soundproofing surrounding houses, as the British have been forced to around Heathrow, the ; French deliberately chose a site in a low population density area and intend to zone all . new building in the region so that discomfort will be minimised. Approach and take-off channels have been arranged so that aircraft will continue to by-pass the city. But a second and more serious problem was that of designing installations which could not only handle a very high annual turnover in passengers but would also be able to cope with their arrival and departure in much larger groups than hitherto as the average size of planes increases. The solution finally adopted was to model each terminal on a present-day railway station with the central p* ssenger collecting point linked by underground passage to 15 smaller terminals ranged around it rather like platforms. The planes will taxi up between these platform terminals and the passengers enter or disembark from either side through telescopic gangways. The main advantage claimed for this system, as opposed to the arrangement more frequently adopted where planes nose into a single circular terminal, is that it allows the greatest possible number of aircraft to be handled within the minimum distance of the central passenger collecting point But it also makes arrivals and departures more speedy by allowing the planes to move straight off from the platform terminals without wasting time and space in the delicate operation of turning round. Handling Baggage A problem that has not yet been solved, on the other hand, is how to deal quickly with the baggage; and some French experts feel the only answer is to let passengers keep their cases with them on high capacity aircraft as on a train. This would also make it possible for customs inspections to take place in flight—another analogy with modem railways which would greatly relieve the pressure on

the ground terminals. But while getting passengers and their baggage on or off an aeroplane is one thing, getting to or from the airport itself can often be quite another. Here, curiously enough, the French have no new ideas to offer. A special train, for instance, on the lines of the one that plies between the

Sabena terminal in Brussels and the airfield at Zaventem, has been ruled out on grounds of cost: although there is a long-standing plan to extend the Metro in the Paris Nord direction in the distant future. On the whole, therefore, passengers are simply being left to make the most of the autoroute du nord which conveniently runs right past the new airport site. However, to avoid congestion it will have to be widened and the airport authority is alarmingly quick to point out that this is none of its business. It is also hoped to get the present prestigious, but inconveniently situated. Air France terminal at Les Invalides replaced by two new bus stations on the outskirts, serving Orly and Paris Nord respectively. Drive-in Passengers In fact, only about 20 per cent of passengers are expected to make the trip in either direction by bus, and experience suggests that 60 per cent are likely to travel by private car. The new terminals have therefore been specially designed for the new age of drive-in airline passengers. Each has parking for 4000 cars, and on his way down to the garages the passenger can check in his baggage, buy a ticket, get flight information in half-a-dozen languages, and perform all the usual last-minute chores without leaving the car. The total cost of Paris Nord is currently put at around Frs.looo million (£73 million). Half of this is included in the Fifth Plan, which runs up to 1970, and the remainder is expected to be spent in the following three or four years. A good deal of light industrial activity is likely to be generated by the new airport and a special industrial estate has been marked out nearby. Another important consequence of Paris Nord is that the present airport at Le Bourget will have to be closed down by 1972 for flight control reasons and will probably be turned into an international exhibition centre. This does not mean that Paris will be definitively reduced to two airports, however. Scouts are already searching out a site for Paris 111, as it has been christened, preferably along the Loire Valley to the west, where it could also serve cities such as Rouen, Le Harve, Tours, and Rheims.