OVERCROWED

Evening Star, Issue 22880, 11 February 1938, Page 1

OVERCROWED

CROYDON'S PROBLEM HOMELESS AIRLINERS The airport at Croydon is suffering: from overcrowding by aircraft, wrote cne aviation correspondent -of ‘ The runes on January 1. The fact is admitted by the Air Ministry. It has been pointed out with increasing urgency, from time to time by Imperial Airways. The point has now been reached at which that company is about to begin accepting delivery of 19 big land aeroplanes, and there is no shelter for them at Croydon. Pilots must fly them, in order to have : their, licenses endorsed for those types, and the machines must therefore receive the attentions of ground . engineers, who cannot he expected to work out of doors for any length of time in a Croydon winter. No solution of the dilemma has appeared up to the present. The Air Ministry agrees ' that the accommodation is ‘much overtaxed,” and asserts that it is hoped to be able to overcome the difficulty, but confesses that no decision has yet been taken as to the measures which must be adopted. Meanwhile, ths air liners of seven nations are huddled together at bight in two hangars which are subdivided by partitions to make four separate shelters. The machines of half a _ dozen _ lesser companions are housed in a third hangar with a sprinkling of private charter and- flying school aircraft; and the liners of British Airways are flown to Croydon every morning from Gatwick to begin their —lay’s work and are flown back to Gatwick again at the end of it. PLANS FOR NEW AIRPORTS. This is a temporary inconvenience for British Airways which should bei comfortably established at Heston by, April. If plans'for new airports Vera being realised with any speed the rest might be counted a temporary misfortune; but no news of rapid progress in' ■the Southern Railway’s project for an airport at Luilingstone, Kent, is available, and the creation of a new air-; port near Iliird by the City Coropration will be a lengthy undertakingHowever ready air operating companies might be to relieve the overcrowding at Croydon, there are few alternative terminals at which they could find the conditions necessary for. the carrying on of. their business. The official division of hanger spaca at Croydcyi among the principal comseems, in theory, to place an' Ible strain oh r the two compartments . rented by Imperial Airways.Most nights three big air liners, six D.H. ■ express liners,' one German, one Swiss, and one Belgian liner have to find places under the roof of Imperial Airways. All 12 are supposed to be rathe maintenance shop to be attended and inspected for the next day’s duty.Usually two or more are in the workshop compartment where overhanjs are Undertaken. Even so, the congestion is a little oppressive, and some of these aircraft are ’often to be seen in the early evening undergoing their grooming outside the hangar. NEW BIG AEROPLANES. In the other two sheds are to he found the aircraft of the Royal Dutch Lines, with one of the Swedish company taken under their wing, and those of Air France. Occasionally, by, the charity of one or both of these companies, other lodgers may find shelter in their quarters. It would aeemi doubtful whether the mere rearrangement of accommodation oan make room for any of the Ensign and Albatross types of air liner which will begin coming into" 1 the hands of Imperial Airways during the next six weeks., These are big aeroplanes, the Ensign* having a span of 123 ft x and the Albatross a span of 105 ft, and are such aa cannot be tucked into odd comers., Fourteen Ensigns and five Albatrosses are on order. Not all of them will be based on Croydon; but some of them' will certainly need house-room there,particularly when the heavy traffic of spring and summer must be handled. In the matter of landing space Croydon has been making extensions during the past year. In the middle of tha southern boundary an additional area' about 200yds deep and nearly 300yda long has been taken in, levelled, and prepared for use. On the side near. Plough Lane another piece with a; frontage of 270yds, tapering in depth! from 140yds to about 80yds, is now being levelled in readiness for inclusions in the landing surface. So far no hangar is being built, no decision to build on appears to have been taken,; and no building enterprise begun noi* can possibly he finished in time to meet the new demands as they present themselves in the form of extra air liners.