BLENHEIM AIRPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1937, Page 10

BLENHEIM AIRPORT

WORK'NEARS COMPLETION

TRANSFER OF SERVICES

(By Telegrapk—Press Association.) 0 BLENHEIM, This Day. ;

Within a short-period Union ■ s.a& Cook Strait Airways will be operate • ing from the Blenheim , municipal airport/where extensive enlargement and improvements are nearing completion^ For the. past year the air services have been using the Woodbourne fly* ing field from which the Southerii Cross took off on its first New. Zea- • land-Australia flight in 1928. This property was taken over by the Government some: time ago for. an Air Force station, the airways companiei enjoying temporary rights. ' .. ' Two hundred men have been_ engaged for over a year under' the Public Works Department developing/the municipal airport, which is of interest to Dominion aviation history because it was established as an aerodrome shortly after Captain Ewari Dicksbn's secret dash to Blenheim for the first Cook Strait flight in 1920. Subsequently it became the first-aero club aerodrome in the Dominion, when' the Marlborough Club commenced operations in 1929. As now extended the field embraces an area of 160 acres, offering adequate runways in all directions, the longest being 940 yards, with room for subsequent extension to 240 acres if necessary. An interesting feature will be special ground markings comprising a landing circle 100 ft in diameter defined by a concrete circumference five feet wide. Alongside the ring will be the word "Blenheim" in concrete letters 16ft long . and 20ft wide spaced at 16ft intervals. Already the. aero club, which is the controlling authority, has a handsome ■ clubhouse, workshops, and f. hangar capable of accommodating six machines. When the commercial services transfer they will establish a fully-appointed passenger building. : . :