Airports: Growing with the Jets

AIRPORTS Growing with the JetsOn Aug. 25, 1919, a converted wood-and-fabric World War I military plane took off from a Middlesex field outside London. With some newspapers, a few jars of Devonshire cream, a small consignment of leather, and a solitary passenger aboard, the flight inaugurated commercial air service between London and Paris. Today, near the same site, Heathrow Airport, already the largest outside the U.S., barely manages to keep pace with the mounting tide of skyway travelers.

Looking ahead to even more difficult days, when jumbo jets carrying as many as 490 passengers start landing, Heathrow has announced a $25 million expansion plan. A T-shaped pier with telescopic ramps, capable of loading and unloading seven giants at a time, will be waiting for the Boeing 747 jets, which should be coming down the runways by December 1969 or early 1970. In addition, passengers are to be whisked to and fro on moving sidewalks that will connect boarding lounges with the airport’s departure building and a new arrivals terminal, both situated approximately 300 yards away.

Through improved ticketing, baggage handling and other services, Heathrow should be able to cope with some 900 travelers every 15 minutes, according to the plans. To speed up the trip to the center of London, which now takes about 45 minutes and $10 in unmetered cab fare, British Rail is going to construct a line between Victoria Station and an underground stop at Heathrow. Without such a rail link, experts have predicted, the disembarking passengers from each of the new jets would create a traffic jam one mile long.