The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1929 AIRPORT FOR AUCKLAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 678, 1 June 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1929 AIRPORT FOR AUCKLAND

WITH one good airdrome already in existence, and another in formation at Hobsonville, Auckland at first glance looks to be well provisioned against the future contingencies of air development. The first of these airdromes is a private ground acquired and developed by that enterprising organisation, the Auckland Aero Club, and the second is a place set apart for defence purposes, and equipped with facilities for handling seaplanes. Both are admirable in their way, but it is questionable if they are the sum of the requirements that future activity in commercial aviation may demand.

While earth-plodding citizens cling to motor-cars and trams, and go about their business with only occasional interest to spare for the signs of aerial progress, and then only when those signs take spectacular form, a band of enterprising bird-men is laying the foundations of the New Zealand commercial air system of the future. Save when something of a sensational or picturesque nature occurs, the enterprises of these airmen do not come within the notice of the general public. The airdromes at which they land are usually far from city streets. The taxis and service-cars of the skies alight, and their passengers are quickly gone, absorbed as ordinary mortals in the earthbound crowd. It takes an accident like that which occurred on the beach at Gisborne to focus the spotlight of publicity on the flyers and show the people that they are busy all the time. Unfortunately,, this inevitable publicity illuminates a phase of flying that is perhaps shown up in false perspective. The mishaps in New Zealand since the real flying “boom” began have not only been remarkably few and far between, but in themselves of minor character. In the intervals airmen are moving here and there in their quick swoops about the countryside. The other day a well-known Hawke’s Bay sportsman was flown from Hastings to Rotorua. That sort of thing is happening regularly. Exchanges between Auckland and Hamilton are frequent, and the enterprise of the Marlborough Aero Club has made Blenheim a suburb of Wellington.

All this is the basis on which the strong fabric of the future aviation system will be woven. The portents are too plain to he ignored, and that is why an unnsual measure of interest must be paid to the proposal of Mr. G. W. Hutchison that the Auckland City Council should at once set about the accumulation of data concerning the possible location of an airport, including cost of acquisition and development, as well as an opinion as to what authority should bear the main responsibility for its provision. Because commercial flying in this country has not progressed beyond passenger flights, without any regular schedule or systematic handling of mails and freight, the impulse behind this proposal must not be deemed premature. Moreover, although there will need to he still greater reliability in airplanes before regular commercial flights over a sea like the Tasman may become practicable, there is ample room in New Zealand itself for the development of a highly-organised air-system. Experience has shown that, in relation to the time saved and the measure of comfort provided, travel by air is not prohibitively costly. So rapid have been the developments in the air during the past two or three years, and particularly in New Zealand in the past twelve months, that it is quite impossible to place any limits on the possible rate of development in the future, or to say how requirements will stand at the end of five years, and again at the end of ten. Certain it is that, by providing an airport, Auckland will not be making a rash speculation. A conspicuous merit of Mr. Hutchison’s proposal is that it allows ample time for investigation of different sites, and for discussion of their suitability by experts and interested organisations. In this issue a member of the Auckland Aero Club protests against the dismissal of the Mangere ’drome from consideration. In spite of what he says, its distance from the city is a disadvantage. It is true that Croydon, the great London airport, is ten miles from London proper. But Auckland is not London, and should he far-sighted while she may. The closer the airport is to the city, the greater advantages it will provide. Save that it occupies more room, an airport corresponds to a railway terminal in the factors that determine its location. Shoal Bay has been suggested as an area that by reclamation may be converted into a good landing-ground, but this plan may not take cognisance of the needs of the Harbour Bridge. Hobson Bay and the shallows between Herne Bay and Point Chevalier are other spaces that might be reclaimed and utilised, hut objections might he raised to the fact that they are bordered by populous residential areas over which heavily-laden freight planes would have to fly dangerously low when landing or taking off. The airport will he used by machines greatly different from the light Moths to which Auckland is now accustomed. The huge tri-motored monoplanes used in commercial services in America and on the Continent require a minimum of 1,000 yards of runway, and for preference would have double that distance. With such specifications to be considered, the provision of a suitable airport for Auckland is not without serious difficulties, as the amount of flat land within the outskirts of the city is strictly limited, while even at a distance there are few large expanses on which outer-suburban development has not encroached.