Portsmouth Airport info

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Trev, you may very well have seen this before but just in case!!
Scroll to the bottom and an aeriel picture although of only one side and also a photograph of the ATC building in the background

http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/airfields/por.html

Nigel.

[PeteP]

Hi Pete, yes that's the chappy! I am after info on the 'terminal' that popped up on the Eastern Road (in my living memory)

OK, Trev, then save your money. It's an excellent book but it concentrates on the opening and early years. Pages 11 to 74 are all pre-war with only the last 21 (75-96) showing photos of the post-war operation. Of those, only 2 show (a small part of) the terminal in the background.

Nigel has sent the link I was going to suggest. The most useful thing on the page is probably the photo of HX taken by my work colleague, Tony Jones, which I posted there a few years ago. The colour and style of the terminal's construction can be clearly seen in the background. I have a much larger, higher res original that I'm sure Tony won't mind you having if you think it would be useful. Also on that site are a few I took in 1972. http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/airfields/porpix.html In the background of the photo of KM, you can see the colour and shape of the original Airspeed factory building and (probably) just enough of the Aero Club building to see what that looked like. Btw, the main factory buildings nearest the Eastern Road were white with black roofs if my memory serves me well.

The tower (which I am also after info on) remained in the older south side, I think, but it's all a bit vague for the period (60's/70's) that I want to re-build.

I can help you out a little here. If you want to see the original 'tower' at Portsmouth, it's in the background of the photo my father-in-law' enjoying a beer with Ron Clear and a BOAC engineer outside the Aero Club in 1947 http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/portmem/pmem.html You can see the letter 'C' on the roof indicating that it's the ATC building and it also appears in the background of the photos of TF and SP. A (very slightly) more salubrious structure -a single story wooden base with a small glazed hut on top - was put up on the same site shortly afterwards which may be why you believe that the tower was on the south side of the airfield site.

The one you want that served through the 60s until closure was at the southern end of the terminal building. It was a single-story square base - the same height as the terminal building to which it was joined - with a full-width glazed 'cab' with the traditional outward sloping windows. The last time I was in that tower was the summer of 1973 when I was summoned there to receive a bollocking for allegedly landing on the wrong runway. However, as soon as the controler discovered I was "in the business" too, all was settled amicably.
Pete

[TSR2]

One of the original hangers is still intact.....

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=50.822 ... l=19&sty=h

[PeteP]

It's difficult to be sure which building you're looking at, Ben, but I don't know of any surviving hangars (that's not to say there aren't, of course). Some of the bulidings on the corner of Bilton Way and Airport Service Road were part of the original Airspeed factory, though. Other links to Nevile Shute are maintained by the road names in the industrial estate that covers most of the old Airspeed site - Nevile Shute Road, Norway Road, Marazan Road and, of course, Airspeed Road itself.
Pete

[DaveB]

Ah.. drag that map left a couple of pulls and you'll see my old MQ in Parsons Close

ATB

DaveB

[TSR2]

Hi Pete,

This one....


Its one of the original 3. Not sure if its still there now, but that images is from the last 3 years apparently.

[DaveB]

Hi Ben..

I zoomed in on that shot I posted from Google Earth and that hangar is still visible (it's visible on the shot without zooming in). That image is APR 2007 vintage

ATB

DaveB

[Trev Clark]

Parsons Close sounds a little like the punchline from the 'never finished' Eric and Ernie joke 'Two old men sitting in deck chairs'!

Thanks for the links Pete, I had them (and pretty much everything else on the net, precious little!) already, but every avenue needs searching. Did they really use that tower right up to closure? It looks more ancient than the pre war tower! It's a shed on a stick!

I have a feeling that making this model with some 'poetic licence' will be the way to go, I think it is better to have something rather than nothing and I am not charging any money for it, after all.

[PeteP]

Did they really use that tower right up to closure? It looks more ancient than the pre war tower! It's a shed on a stick!

Hi Trev,
No they didn't - that shed on a stick was the wartime tower, used post-war until the 'proper' one was built as part of the terminal building. I think you may have misread what I wrote about the lat-50s/60s/70s tower in my previous post - here it is again:

"The one you want that served through the 60s until closure was at the southern end of the terminal building. It was a single-story square base - the same height as the terminal building to which it was joined - with a full-width glazed 'cab' with the traditional outward sloping windows. "

Hope that's some help.
Pete

[Trev Clark]

Hi Pete, do you mean the terminal alongside the Eastern Road, or the original terminal building near the older building used by the flying club. I was under the impression that comercial work left the southern end of the field in the early 60's.