PROGRESS IN AVIATION.

Wairarapa Age, 7 July 1936, Page 7

PROGRESS IN AVIATION.

the need of aerodrome PLANNING. AN INWRUCTIVE SURVEY. The Town Planning Institute of New Zealand is adopting a new policy ns to its publications in that it proposes to issue a series of bulletins dealing with separate subjects of social, technical, scientific, or economic interest having a bearing upon national development. The first of this series is a paper prepared by Mr. A. R Galbraith, president of the institute, under the title of 4 4 Aerodromes and Community Planning.” The paper sets out the recognised requirements which apply to aerodrome construction generally, and states that an aerodrome’s effectiveness is governed mostly by its dimensions, which are largely determined by the type of aircraft using, or likely to use, the field, the larger passenger liners requiring runaways in every direction of 600 to 1000 yards, and as there was a pronounced movement for increases in sizes, speeds, and weights of these machines, so there would be a tendency to increase the length and width of runaways. On the other hand, some of the venL small and light machines could take off in runs from about 25 to 30 yards. This would give a minimum of area of about 40 to a maxi muih of 640 acres or more as the specific needs with allowances for future development. The average size of aerodromes in England in 1933 (250 more required) was from 100 to 150 acres, while in the United States, out of 803 aerodromes in 1930 (there are now over 1600), the smallest was 38.5 acres and the largest 1085 acres, with an average of 338 acres.

A table sets out the areas of wellknown aerodromes in various countries: Croydon, 250 acres (too small, being enlarged); Heston, 172 (being enlarged); Manchester, 260 (being enlarged) ; Leeds and Bradford, 215; Templehofer, Berlin, 360; Rome, 640 (also airship station); Brisbane, 228; Ohio, U.8.A., 890 (also airship station); Los Angeles, 500 acres (380 developed). 44 As with so many public problems, the reservation for an aerodrome is fundamentally a phase of community j4anning, and. as such, steps should be taken by all responsible authorities to act at once and conserve suitable sites whilst land is available at reasonable cost,” continues Mr. Galbraith. 4 4 The function of an aerodrome in community life is that of part of a great transportation agency of an increasingly predominant character. These are the early days of air transport, and many aerodromes are being used in an undifferentiated and disconnected way for various kinds of air transportation and for many different auxiliary uses. Sooner or later it will become necessary to segregate these by setting aside different aerodromes for specific purposes. Hitherto local and municipal considerations have been under review, but there may be cogent and important derisive**" influences affecting an aerodrome which are of a national character, and have to do with the interrelationship of an aerodrome to the great national systems of travel routes by air, roads, and sea linking up the nations of the world.”