Ringway Airport

THE HISTORY OF RINGWAY - The civic authorities of Manchester have always looked on aviation with a kindly eye. In the year following the Armistice of 1918 they tried to buy the Alexandra Park aerodrome which had been established for military purposes during the war, but the negotiations shipwrecked on the obstacle of a reasonable purchase price - a good thing, as events have turned out, because that site would have been of even less use to-day than the larger Barton Airport, which has since proved too small. It was seven years before the municipality again thought seriously about air transport, but in 1928 the city council approved of a proposal to make an airport at Barton. At that time the requirements of flying were adequately met by the proposed accommodation, and Manchester was widely applauded on being the first to construct a permanent municipal airport. But the aviation engineers designed faster and larger aeroplanes and the practicability of flying advanced beyond all conception in the space of three or four years, and soon Barton was recognised as a bold experiment but an unlucky failure. It had become too small for the modern machine to use when visibility was bad. This was instantly apparent to officials of the Dutch Air Lines (K.L.M.) when they landed at Barton on a visit to discuss with Manchester's municipal heads the prospects of running a service direct from Amsterdam to Manchester. This was four years ago, but even then, the disadvantages of Barton were so obvious that the visitors were less than an hour in stating their refusal to use the existing aerodrome. At once a consulting surveyor was instructed to find an alternative site, and he chose Ringway. Such haste to accommodate the Dutch firm appeared. unseemly to some people, but the truth is that four years previously representatives had gone out from Manchester's Town Hall to examine the possibilities of improving the city's transport by arranging a direct air line between Manchester and the Continent. This inquiry ended when they were assured that land 'planes could not cross the North Sea on a regular service. Four years of technical improvement refuted that argument, and the new advances from Holland were welcomed. And so in 1934 the city council was recommended by its Airport Special Committee to purchase 664 acres for an aerodrome at Ringway, an alternative proposal to enlarge Barton being deemed unsatisfactory. The opposition had got busy and managed to reduce the majority in favour of the project to only one vote. Consequently, it was encouraged to carry the protest farther when the council sought to acquire the necessary land by compulsory measures, and the Air Ministry inspector had a long sitting at his inquiry into the council's purchase order. There were fifty-one objectors, among them the Cheshire County Council and several local authorities in the vicinity of Ringway, and the inquiry became an arena, with Ringway enthusiasts at one end of the lists and those who advised the adaptation of Barton at the other. The battle was technical, of course: but in the end the evidence could only be left in the hands of the inspector, who went back to report to his Minister. The reply was delayed, but when it came it was wholly in favour of the city council. and was told it should have the best airport that could, be devised. Even that was not the end of the struggle, and half of 1935 had passed before a High Court decision gave the opposition its "coup de grace."

The first contract was signed in August of that year, and after certain land arbitrations work began in November, when the Lord Mayor of Manchester cut the first sod in the preparation of the landing-ground. The land was being levelled and seeded down, when the Ringway project received a severe check. In February of the following year the Finance Committee grew alarmed at the prospect of rate increases, and the council agreed to modify many of its plans in the interests of a stabilised rate. Building at Ringway was held up, though the preparation of the landing area was continued, and reconsideration was promised in two years' time. Business made its voice heard and the in the Town Hall returned to the attack before one year had run. Their case was made and won on the ground that commercially Ringway was a necessity and not a luxury, and so the modifications were scrapped and the airport was launched on a generous scale.

That was a year ago and more. Today Ringway carries an air of settled establishment. Planes already use it, for the Fairey Aviation Company has a lease of part of the land and frequently sends up machines for testing. Fairey's hangar at one side of the aerodrome and the municipality's hangar and terminal offices at the other are substantial signs of habitation. The latter are, of course, only the first unit in the Ringway development. The full development, which will only be achieved if air traffic warrants it, contemplates six hangars in echelon on either side of a large terminal building. Traffic starts on Monday. All the air services now run from Barton will be transferred at the week-end, and, with the Dutch line, Ringway will at once be used by KLM Railway Air Services, Isle of Man Air Services, and charter and. private flying machines. Barton is to continue in use by the RAF. Reserve Flying School and the Northern School of Aviation, and may be put into service at holiday and other peak pressure times. It is proposed to take the KLM Planes through to Liverpool, which has been the terminus in recent years, but the Dutch firm makes no secret of the fact that Manchester, with its regional population of nearly four and a half millions, is their main objective in preference to a largely transporting city like Liverpool.  [Manchester Guardian 24 June 1938 page 11]

RINGWAY IS READY - Manchester was the first city in this country to lay out its own municipal airport, and this airport at Barton as, later, the site of the first purely civil aeronautical radio and meteorological station outside Croydon. As long ago as 1933, however, the Municipal authorities realised that Barton, though useful as a beginning, could not. at reasonable cost, be extended to suit future requirements. and, in particular, those which were later laid down by the Maybury Committee. Unfortunately, the old Alexandra Park aerodrome, which was as near to the centre oi the city as any possible airport could be, had already, in less enthusiastic days; been so built around that it was long since unsuitable. In that year, therefore, surveys of various sites were made and that at Ringway was finally chosen as being the most suitable one from all practical points of view.

Something like 600 acres were purchased at Ringway, and the present area which has been laid out totals about 250 acres, giving a maximum run, in the N.E.-S.W. line. of 1,300 yards. The other runs are comparable in length, the shortest being more than 1,000 yards. When the airport is officially opened by the Secretary of State for Air on Saturday, the provisional terminal building should be nearly ready, but this forms only the first part of a bigger plan. The present terminal building. which, with the general layout and lighting arrangements, has been designed by Norman and Dawbarn, consists of a hangar, control building and restaurant, combined with aesthetic consideration to form a balanced whole, yet in due course this building will be a mere item in the future plans. These involve the construction of a separate new control building at the apex of a triangle formed by six hangars. the meantime, also, the Fairey Aviation Company has its erection shops and hangars in the north-west corner of the landing ground.

The most interesting feature of the airport has yet to be installed, though the plans for if are complete. This is a still somewhat novel form of aerodrome illumination which may best be described as flush marker lighting. The initial plans involve its use in one direction only, that of the long, or blind-approach run. The flush lights of the fog-line itself are set at 50-foot intervals in a concrete strip, while transverse strips carry further flush-built lights to indicate to the pilot his position in relation to the aerodrome boundary. When approaching from either end he will see the first of the transverse strips in green lights with the main strip picked out in white lights, except over the last 350-yard section, in which the colour changes to red. There are two further transverse strips of flush lights, that in the centre of the runway being duplicated. By means of suitably placed reflectors and colour screens where necessary in the lamps, the effect is similar whether viewed from either end. In the case of the outer transverse strips the two colours are red and green, while on the main strip twenty lights at each end will show either white or red. Mr Vulliamy, of Norman and Dawbarn, carried out most of this firm's initial experiments, tests and demonstrations with the help of a model layout which clearly showed how the system would work in practice.

There is a tendency nowadays for the flush-lighting system to find more and more favour, particularly with pilots. The ordinary- type of floodlight, excellent though it may be in conditions of ordinary visibility, can become something of a menace in fog or rain. Nevertheless, while only one marker strip is being tried out at Ringway (and for the use of those pilots who prefer the more usual system) three floodlights are being installed before next autumn. In the south-west end of the same line a Lorenz type of ultra-short-wave blind-approach beacon will also be installed, the QDM of the approach being approximately 220 deg., so that the pilot who is coming in on this beam in bad conditions will, as he crosses the aerodrome boundary, have an ocular guide on exactly the same line of approach. Needless to say, the radio is in charge of the Air Ministry and its full details are not yet public property.  Nevertheless, Plessey short-range direction-finding equipment is already in process of installation, the loop being mounted at the top of the control tower. It is probable that this equipment will be used primarily for final approach work only, since the Barton station is likely to remain indefinitely as the main station for the district.

One of the more important features of the terminal building is the provision of really adequate and pleasant restaurant facilities for the use both of passengers and the general public. Not only is there a normal indoor restaurant overlooking the landing area, but above it there is a deck, part of which is covered, and on this there will eventually be seen the little tables and covered umbrellas which are such a popular feature of all Continental airports - the principle being that J. Citizen must first, before becoming an air traveller, be encouraged to use an airport as an interesting rendezvous. The deck can be reached by a staircase at the rear of the building, so that there need be no difficulties about keeping the passenger sheep from the public goats. On the ground floor, alongside the restaurant, there is a main hall, customs and immigration offices, baggage examination room and the usual companies' offices. Four of these have been taken over, one of the tenants being K.L.M., and, with their customary forethought, some of this company's equipment had already arrived a week. ago. At the base of the control tower there is a communications office and above it, are rooms for the airport superintendent and for the pilots. On the next floor is the control room and, adjoining, the radio operators' room. The control room is surrounded by a look-out balcony, while above there is a still more exposed eyrie, which can be reached by means of a ladder. The teleprinter accommodation is next to the communications office on the ground floor. The bulk of the building, however, consists of the built-in hangar, which adjoins and partly surrounds the tower. This hangar, like the rest of the building, is constructed of steel and reinforced concrete, and is 175 feet long and 120 feet wide, with a door clearance of 23 feet. The doors are of Esavian design and are electrically driven. In the roof there is a track for a travelling crane and at the rear there is a large shop for detailed maintenance work on airframes and engines. Beside the hangar there is an immediately accessible shed for the fire-fighting equipment.

The site of the airport is actually 10 miles by road in a south-westerly direction from the centre of the city, but the scheduled time for the bus service is only half an hour, so that this distance gives a false idea of the airport's comparative nearness to the centre. In due course, when a new road plan has been completed, the time for the journey will be further reduced.

The firms concerned in the Ringway project are: Barrister, Walton & Co. (steelwork), Bolton and Hayes (reinforced concrete), Chance Bros, (lighting), F W Chandler (drain laying). Educational Supply Co. (hangar doors), En Tout Cas (ground levelling, draining, grading and seeding). General Electric (lighting), C. H. Godfrey & Son (buildings), G.N. Hoden & Sons (heating), F. & J. Pilling Bros.(plaster and paint), Plessey (radio), A. E. Sudlow & Co. (electrical installation), William; & Williams (metal windows), and Norman & Dawbarn (architects). [Flight 23 June 1938 Page 608-609]

THE RINGWAY AIRPORT - Work being pressed forward to complete the hanger and terminal buildings at Ringway Airport, Manchester, in time for the official opening on Saturday by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Kingsley Wood. Everything will be finished except the restaurant; this is furnished, but it awaits the essential link with the kitchens. The buildings, as illustrated in the drawing by Mr. G. Noel Hill, the City Architect (who designed them in consultation with Mr. Graham Dawbarn), consist of a hangar, 175ft. by 120ft., and the complementary administrative block, and they have cost about £46,000. Their horizontal lines conform to the modern practice and give an immediate suggestion of economical yet aesthetically attractive spacing. At the south- west corner of the hangar is the control tower, with its topmost floor shared between the control room and the wireless room, with battery accommodation adjoining; a crow's-nest, for look-out purposes, projects above the roof. The remaining floors in the tower accommodate the meteorological officer, the wireless and look-out staff, and other officers, including the airport manager (Mr. S. Hill) and the pilots. In the administrative wing are the counters at which passengers will undergo the usual Customs and immigration examinations, a separate entrance being provided for freight. The main feature of the ground floor is a hall which adjoins the terrace overlooking the landing-ground, and this serve as a waiting or assembly hall from which people may pass through french windows on to the terrace to watch the planes as they arrive and depart. At the westerly end of the hall is the restaurant, which has a licence. There is also a café. Behind are workshops and the manager's residence. [Manchester Guardian 23 June 1938 page 13]

RINGWAY AIRPORT – One item in the exhibition called “Industrial and Commercial Manchester," which is at present on view at the Central Library has attracted more attention than any of the others. It is a group of plans, and drawings all dealing with the new airport at Ringway. This group probably provides more information about the airport in graphic form the public has ever previously had the chance of inspecting Architects, surveyors, engineers, airmen, lighting consultants, builders, and the ratepayers generally should find something of interest here. At the request of the Libraries Department, the City Architect has had copied plans and elevations which have not been shown before. There is also a map to the scale of 6in. to the mile, showing the site of the new airport, a fragment of which is within the boundary of the city. Another map shows how the natural contours of the land have been changed to provide an easy approach to the airport buildings. Still another shows the proposed lighting system for the whole field. Details of the first airport buildings are also shown. Most of these plans have been prepared by the City Architect, Mr G. Noel Hill. with Mr. Graham Dawbarn, of London, as consultant. [Manchester Guardian 5 October 1937 page 13]