" An Airport Did You Say? "

By Henri Pageot

Experiences of a Civil Engineer in the conceptual planning of major airports notably Maplin Sands, Heathrow Terminals 4 and 5; Gatwick; Stansted; Glasgow and others. Oportunity is taken to express opinions on options for London's Airports.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781291659429

Book preview

" An Airport Did You Say? "

An Airport Did You Say?

In Times New Roman font

© 2013 Henri Pageot.

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-291-65942-9

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eur Ing Henri Pageot BSc., CEng., FICE

He was born in London 1937 into a non French speaking cosmopolitan family. Attended a secondary modern school, failing 11 plus, and moved on to Hendon Technical College to obtain university entrance in 1956. Awarded a degree in Civil Engineering at Bristol University and worked in Civil Engineering contracting. From 1963 to 1970 worked in Uganda Government service, five years of which as Airport Director and Chief Engineer of Entebbe Airport. From 1971 to 1997 employed by the BAA as a planner and Deputy Managing Director of Scottish Airports. He was given responsibility to produce conceptual designs for Maplin; Terminals 4 & 5 Heathrow; North Terminal Gatwick; redeveloped Glasgow airport and the new Stansted Airport. In the 1970s he was secretary for seven years to the Western European Airports’ Planning Group. Prior to retirement he was BAA’s Director of Facilities Planning and was subsequently seconded to be Executive Director of the Construction Round Table.

He is married with one daughter. He is a Freeman of the City of London and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers.

PREFACE

When contemplating writing this small book I pondered who the target audience might be. My objective could be considered somewhat conceited because I wanted to set down my recollections about my experiences over some 35 years in the development of airports. Since so few professional civil engineers detail a record of their careers I thought prospective engineering trainees might be intrigued to see how an interest in a specialism like airports became my field of expertise – in its day I might add.

Also, there may be facets of interest to others who would never have reason to know some of the behind the scenes workings leading to the airport infrastructure of the second half of the twentieth century. These could add to historical record or perhaps, better inform some of the many ‘Arm Chair’ experts found among so many commentators, politicians, City movers and technical consultants who express simplistic opinions. My recollections may be at odds with some former colleagues’ memories of events but it would be unusual if everyone had a common view. It would also be true that in the first half of my career with the BAA I was not always party to some of the Executive Board discussions on the strategies relating to the major airport projects. However, their deliberations were about papers my team had prepared to present my conceptual ideas.

As the author I cannot resist putting down some observations about the airport scene at the turn of the twenty first century alongside some personal perspectives. I would not presume for a second to think that these would necessarily find much universal acknowledgement since there are so many diverse opinions and situations requiring constant change of resolution. However, at the risk of appearing pompous, I feel there may be some pointers to tease out strategies to help understand the need for increased airport capacity.

INTRODUCTION

You might ask who is this person who is pontificating about airports? What has he done to bother blotting up some of your valuable time to read his saga? A Civil Engineer, I believe, is as qualified if not more so than most others to define and instigate infrastructure. In my case, it is especially so in the field of airports. So how do I come to make such an audacious remark?

This is how I developed my experience. Following working as a construction engineer in the UK I took a post with the Uganda Government in 1963. I had just been awarded professional status as a civil engineer at the age of 25 and set off, with my wife, to live in the Western Region of Uganda. My post as an executive engineer was almost immediately upgraded because so many expatriates had left the country which had gained Independence only months earlier. I was told to become the Regional Engineer, a post previously held by an experienced engineer with long service, usually in their late 40s. I was the employer of several thousand people with various skills to manage six townships in my territory; hundreds of miles of road; all government housing and buildings; hospital infrastructure; all government transport; electrification; general building control; water supply and sewerage; inspector of explosives at the local copper mine; governor of a technical college; bridges and airfields; besides being resident engineer on some projects. To say that I had to learn administration on the run would be a vast understatement.

The measure of my success in holding down this post for two years must have been the lack of challenge, during that period, by the Ministry of Works head quarters in Entebbe. However, my career was about to take a life changing turn with a ‘phone call from Jim Aguma, the Permanent Secretary of Works, one Wednesday afternoon. He asked me if I could help him with an urgent problem. Naturally, I said I could but enquired about what needed to be done. He was a young professional African civil engineer, also struggling with heavy newly acquired responsibility. He was a realist with a good sense of humour but was under obligation to implement any charge that came his way. He said that he had only that moment come from a Cabinet meeting at which the Minister of Defence had reported that the Congolese rebels had been bombing the north west of Uganda and he received authority to respond with military force. The Minister of Works was charged with reconstructing the existing grass airstrip in a town called Gulu to handle jet bombers. He instructed that this should be achieved by the following Saturday! And, it so transpired, I was the one tasked with implementing the instruction. Every resource the Ministry could muster was brought into play. With no knowledge of heavy military aircraft requirements I adopted the specifications set out in the International Civil Aviation Authority’s Annex 14 for the construction of runways for large airliners. The Mowlem Construction Company based in Nairobi, who had done previous work for me, signed a negotiated contract and work began within the month. The ridiculous dead-line we had been set was quietly ignored since it transpired that no bombing raids had occurred. The new runway was deemed a strategic military necessity so work continued with me on site as resident engineer and six months later the longest runway in Africa was completed. Although it was used by the Russians and the Czechs to train the African military to fly jet aircraft its value was very dubious.

The Uganda Government must have been satisfied with my performance since I was invited back to sign a second contract and to take up the post as Airport Engineer and subsequently Airport Director at Entebbe International Airport. It was here that I ‘cut my teeth’ on airport administration, development and operation over the next five years. During that time I installed one of the World’s first no-break power supplies to meet the requirements of the Category II instrument landing system besides planning, designing and arranging International finance for the new main runway. It was also incumbent on me to be the Resident Engineer for its construction.  I became aware of airline requirements and the Civil Aviation strictures of International Regulation for civil aviation during this introduction to handling the needs of air passengers and freight. I believe I was possibly instrumental in 1969 in selling the idea to African politicians for exporting local agricultural produce to Europe by air. There was obvious advantage to be taken of discounted rates on empty north bound air freight aircraft that had previously arrived in East Africa with high value manufactured goods. A higher proportion of un-perished and fresher produce could thus arrive in European markets quicker, attracting a higher price than by transport over land and by sea. The insurance premiums would be less and so would the Government loan times for seed provided to farmers before revenue was banked. It is gratifying to see how this concept has benefitted so many emergent African economies since then. The arguments that this means of trade is bad environmentally are by no means as carbon negative as being presented if all aspects are properly evaluated quite apart from enabling Africa to move away from a dependence upon unproductive hand outs through aid which fuels corruption.

Thus, when I decided to return to the UK in 1970 I felt that I had served a good apprenticeship for pursuing