Airport Provision in the Inter-War Years

Abstract

A Frenchman observed in 1919 that 'Pre-war aviation was a sport; during the war it has been a military weapon; after the war it will be one of the transport industries.'2 As we now know, aviation in the inter-war years more than adequately fulfilled this prediction and it went on to become during and after the second world war one of the world's greatest transport industries. Yet, whilst progress in aircraft manufacturing during the first world war had probably made Britain by 1919 the leading aviation nation,3 this advantage was not turned fully to national account in the development of commercial flying, when the leadership was conceded first to Germany in the 1920s and then to the USA in the 1930s. In tracing the development in the inter-war years of the air transport industry, which drew on a range of resources from the airframe and engine manufacturers4 to the new airlines,5 the providers of ground navigational services and the operators of airports, the most neglected aspect of the story has been the provision of aerodromes and airports.6 This paper, which concentrates mainly on the policy aspects of the issue, seeks in part to fill this gap.

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