AIRWAYS TERMINUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1938, Page 7

AIRWAYS TERMINUS

NERVE CENTRE OF GREAT SYSTEM. LANDMARK FOR LONDON. Rapidly nearing completion, with a lofty tower providing a new landmark on London’s skyline, is the new Imperial’ Airways terminus in Buckingham Palace Road, London. It is at this “nerve centre” of a great system of modern high-speed communication that throe different modes of transport will be handled—air, rail, and road. Motor-coaches will be arriving and departing with passengers for the airport dealing with Continental air traffic, special trains will operate from the terminus, taking passengers to the marine coastal air-port from which flying-boat journeys will be made across the Empire routes and there will be control of great aerial fleets, which, at the-present time, are flying approximately 30,000 miles every day. A group of statuary, embodying a representation of speed, will top a ceremonial gateway fronting Buckingham Palace Road. The wings of the main structure, extending on either side of the central tower, will provide an appropriate suggestion of the flyingcraft with which those occupying this building will be concerning themselves. There will be a curved facade to the main building. The whole structure rests on a raft of reinforced concrete. An interesting internal feature will be a special central heating system embedded in the walls and floors of all rooms and passages. The new building is to house the entire Imperial Airways headquarters staff. The main booking-hall will be one of the largest in the country. All Imperial passenger, mail, and freight traffic, over the company’s entire system, will be handled in this new building and air passengers using the terminus will find themselves provided with every amenity of modern travel.