NAPIER'S AIRPORT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19374, 12 July 1937, Page 13

NAPIER'S AIRPORT

BEACONS GROUND CHOSEN AIR BOARD’S DECISION Development of the Beacons aerodrome as the official centre of commercial aviation for Napier was decided on at a meeting of the Napier Airport Board on Thursday, the board being guided in its choice by the recommendations of pilots and other experts who have been convinced, in recent months, that this field offers exceptional advantages. Since the Public Works Department commenced the comprehensive reconstruction of. the original field, on the mud-fiats bounded by the highway near Westshore, the Beacons field has been used regularly as an emergency aerodrome, and experience has shown that it provides conditions essential to the carrying-on of regular air services; and requires little expenditure for levelling. The East Coast Airways’ pilots have found the Beacons field much superior to the older ground, in many ways, one great advantage being the absence ol power or telegraph lines which might interfere with the landing and takingoff of machines, and the good drainage of the soil, while the experience of several months’ winter use of the aerodrome has qlso indicated that fogs are never likely to interfere with operations from the Beacons. These advantages had been communicated to the Naper Airport Board by East Coast Airways, Limited, prior to the inspection of the emergency ground by Wing-Commander Cochrane on behalf of the New Zealand Government. His report fully confirmed the impressions of the airways pilots, and strongly recommended that the emergency ground should become the permanent base of aviation for Napier. The Airport Board is now approaching the Napier Borough Council with a request that finance be made available to transfer hangar accommodation from the old aerodrome to the Beacons Field, and negotiations are in train to secure a definite tenure of the new ground.