BUSY AIRPORT

Evening Star, Issue 19412, 22 November 1926, Page 15

BUSY AIRPORT

GREAT AVIATION CENTRE MATTER-OF-FACT CROYDON Croydon, as the airport of London, and the chief point of departure and arrival for the Continental services, impresses one in various ways—chiefly by its incessant activity, its atmosphere as a miniature terminus, and its quiet matter-oMactness (writes the London representative of tne Sydney ‘Sun’). To spend a few hours at Croydon is to have revealed, more clearly than the high figures of Continental passenger traffic issued officially can ever achieve, the popularity which civil aviation is quietly gaining. Taking an average throughout the day, barely half an hour elapses without an arrival or a departure—sometimes two and even three huge passenger planes will arrive or depart within a few minutes.

Croydon’s attitude of nonchalance about the matter—a development in communications which twenty years ago would have been incredible—is delightful. Afar off, amid the clouds, a dark smudge emerges, grows - rapidly larger, resolves itself into a ’plane, circles the aerodrome once, planes down, alights with the daintiest effect (rather like a seagull descending to a wave), taxies down the ’drome, swerves round gracefully, and draws up as handily as a motor car in the appointed spot of “ tarmac ” in front of the Customs Office, to which passengers may walk almost dryshod, whatever the weather. Porters and luggage barrows—the latter mounted on aeroplane wheels, apparently a quaint conceit of the air companies—appear, luggage is decanted and inspected by the Customs officials, and within a few •minutes the passengers are being whirled to London in tho motor cars or motor coaches which- the companies maintain to complete tho journey. OUT OP THE SKIES.

Departures are equally matteor-of-fact. Passengers, rid of all the anxiety as to seats, such as is inseparable from a crowded railway station, stroll out casually, enter the fuseltfge. and wave farewells to their friends _ through tho 'plane windows. Mechanics hitch a looped rod to the huge propellers and pull them round once—perhaps twice. The engines start with a roar, and the wind of them bends the grassblades flat. The pilot puts on the overcoat which he had flung over a wing of the ’plane when he alighted, and disappears into the cockpit. An official hangs the departure disc out of tho control tower, the ’plane glides off as easily as a Rolls-Royce, turns into the wind, puts on speed, lifts imperceptibly, gains height by an easy angle, circles, and is lost to sight almost m less tune than it takes to write this. Croydon just glances at the disappearing aircraft and turns its attention to the next departure. Those scenes are repeated all day long. Hugo dark blue Imperial Airway ’planes, with the proud names of great cities of the Empire picked out in white; brown French Goliaths, with their flat, formal, rather ungraceful wings, bearing the names of French departments; light blue three-engined Belgians; yellow Fokker monoplanes—all drop down out of the rkies in turn, and go back to them with less fuss than an omnibus _ picking up passengers. Casual visiting ’planes look in, so to speak; a local company gives flips at 10s a time; and soon it is expected that German ’planes will be added to the daily adventurers in the air.

The busiest and the most responsible place at Croydon is the Control Tower, which is designed to assist pilots en route and in landing. It is only a tiny place, glass-sided, and approached by a steep iron ladder which no unauthorised person may climb. On a tablo is a map of Southern England and the western part of the Continent, with the air routes clearly marked. WORK OF THE CONTROL TOWER. The Control Tower assists pilots who are doubtful of their whereabouts, owing to mist or other causes, to steer the required course. The ’plane is asked to start its wireless, and Croydon and Hendon aerodromes, by means of ingenious special apparatus, take a bearing from the buzzing. Then, when these bearings are plotted down upon a chart, the point whore they intersect is the" spot where_ the ’plane was at the moment of inquiry. If necessary Lympne can assist in this calculation. The pilot is informed, and is able to change course, if expedient. He can obtain as many bearings as he wishes. Usually in thick weather he_ would fly on a compass-bearing, taking occasional advices from the aerodromes. So efficient is this moans of guiding ’planes that an aircraft has been brought in' to Croydon from France and ’landed safely, without _ the pilot once seeing the earth until he descended. Another duty of the Control > Tower is to issue weather reports, which are received every few minutes, .to_ pilots, and also to give them different heights in which to fly on misty days in order to avoid collisions. There is at present little night-fly-ing, but Croydon is equipped for the landing of ’planes in such circumstances. The buildings round _ the ’drome are picked out in red lights which are never extinguished, and its limits are marked with flickering red lights. In the landing space _an arrangement of lights has installed which can bo illuminated by the mere touching of a switch. These lights allow L-shaped designs to be lit up, according to the of the wind, for ’planes always land into the wind. The approaching pilot sees two L’s with the long arms back to back. Ho knows that if he lands down the long arm of the right-hand L and taxios into the centre space he will avoid any ’plane which may be leaving, and which will be using the ’ong arm of the other L to guide its course These lights are used in dirty weather as well, and a switchboard in the Control Tower indicates which particular sot of L's are in operation at the moment.