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Valuable Results from Air Transport Conference

18th January 1935
Page 51
Page 51, 18th January 1935 — Valuable Results from Air Transport Conference
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

THE first national conference to be held by the air transport section of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors since it was re-formed in March, 1934, was held in London, from January 10-12.

The conference was opened by Mr. Herbert J. Thomas, chairman of the S.B.A.C., who is managing director of the Bristol Aeroplane Co., Ltd. There were brief speeches by Mr. W. D. L. Roberts, chairman of the operators' division, and Councillor R. Ashley Hall, chairman of the airports division. Mr. Roberts is managing 'director of Spartan Air Lines, Ltd., and Councillor Ashley Hall is a leading member of the Bristol municipal authority.

Forty Municipalities were represented, as well as about a dozen nonmunicipal airport proprietors. The operators' division, which has some 13 members, was represented by 10 delegates, and there were present representatives from three or four operating companies that had not as yet joined. Aberdeen Airways, Ltd., and Jersey Airways Ltd., did so recently.

Four papers were read.. Major R. H..

Thornton, chairman of the civil aviation committee of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce (and a well-known shipowner) read a paper entitled "The Problem of Air Traffic Control," which urged the need for a national plan of airports and airways in Great Britain. This has long been advocated in The Commercial Motor, also in its associated paper, The Aeroplane, and has been proposed by the London Chamber of Commerce and the Aerodromes Advisory Board, in conjunction with other bodies.

Never before, however, has it been strikingly brought home to municipal authorities, and their enthusiastic responses to this argument were, without doubt, the feature of the conference.

To explain the need for a plan by a graphic illustration, if. the several towns of the South Staffordshire Black Country were to vie with each other in providing first-class airports, the unwarranted expense would be tremendous, especially if, for reasons of national defence, radio organization or the interests of transatlantic, railway or road-motor traffic, the Government subsequently decided upon a slightly different air route, which rendered none of the existing airports suitable.

The Aerodromes Advisory Board may be charged with the supervision of a survey on which a plan may be formed, but Major Thornton went farther and suggested that a Board to control all air traffic, to administer the airways and collect dues will probably become a necessity.

Mr. C. V._ Allen, legal adviser to the S.B.A.C., yoke on the law as affecting air transport and airport operators. Mr. H. R. Gillman, secretary of the S.B.A.C., spoke on the law and regulations of national and international control of civil aviation.

Mr. Nigel Norman, chairman of Airwork, Ltd., and a partner in the wellknown firm of aeronautical consultants, Messrs. Norman, Muntz and Dawbarn, outlined in his paper the necessary layout and organization of an airport. On January 12, delegates visited Croydon and Heston Airports.

The general impression was that practical results could be expected from this conference. The S.B.A.C. was thanked from all quarters for its

generous help. Another impression which we formed was that the municipal authorities in particular, need constant. guidance and information from the centre of the aviation move

ment, such as the S.B.A.C.


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