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Old 5th Jun 2018, 08:50
  #58 (permalink)  
POBJOY
 
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Croydon availability and convenience

For the machines of the day Croydon was very convenient, as it was close to London and had (for its day) a good road/train access.
For most it meant you were actually travelling in the right direction to start with, and the Airport was ideal for European routes.
It also suited the simple metal monoplane like the Lufthansa J52 due to it having large fixed wheels that coped ok with the grass surface.
UK civil airports were mainly only provided with a natural surface, so it made sense to use machines that were built with that in mind.
Considering Croydon served us in two major conflicts and also pioneered many of the facilities and operations that are now considered normal in civil transport it really could not have done more.
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