Transport: Airport Expansion

Spurred by the apparent immediacy of transatlantic transport test flights, New York City last week finally bestirred itself to make ready for them. In Manhattan, the Sinking Fund Commission voted to acquire and improve North Beach Airport at a cost of some $8,000,000. On Flushing Bay, L. I., near the site of the coming World’s Fair, it can be reached from midtown in 20 minutes over the new Triborough Bridge.

This good news for one U. S. airport was last week counterbalanced by tidings which chilled the operators of 160 other U. S. fields. In Washington, the Bureau of Air Commerce disclosed that it is planning new regulations which may disqualify all but 30 of the present 190 scheduled airline stops. Within a year the new four-motored transports scheduled for U. S. airways will need far more room for landing and taking off than do present planes. The Bureau plans to set up three airport classifications—super-terminals with runways of 4,000 ft. in four directions, plus two miles of clear approaches; terminals with 3,500-ft. runways; limited terminals with 2,200-ft. runways. This means that such important stops as New ark, Detroit, Washington, Chicago, Kan sas City, St. Louis and Portland,. Ore. would be “limited” ports unless greatly improved.