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The 'Kallang Airport' (Chinese: 加冷机场), also known as the Kallang Aerodrome, opened on 1937 as Singapore's first purpose-built civil airport, together with an anchorage for seaplanes. Land was reclaimed in the Kallang Basin to turn the swampy area into a cicular-shaped airfield and to build a slipway for the seaplanes. The airport was closed in 1955 when the new Singapore International Airport at Paya Lebar was built, and the terminal building remains standing today as the headquarters of the People's Association.

Contents

History

Closure

Legacy

References

External links

History

The need to build the airport arose when booming aviation traffic led to congestion at the existing Seletar Airbase (today's Seletar Airport), which was opened to passenger traffic in 1930. Sir Cecil Clementi, then Governor of the Straits Settlements, was quoted thus:
:''"Looking into the future, I expect to see Singapore become one of the largest, most important airports of the world .... It is therefore essential that we should have here, close to the heart of the town, an aerodrome which is equally suitable for land planes and sea planes ...."''

When the airport was opened with much fanfare on 12 June 1937, it was hailed as "the finest airport in the British Empire" with facilities which would have been considered revolutionary at that time. The circular shaped airfield allowed planes to land from any direction, and the slipway allows seaplanes to be served at the same terminal building as that for regular planes. The terminal building itself was considered a marvel, with a large open-air viewing gallery on the top of the two-storey building and with an iconic circular control tower in the middle of the glass-clad building.
When the Japanese launched their invasion of Malaya and Singapore on 8th December 1941, Kallang was the principal fighter airfield in Singapore. Brewster Buffalo fighters of 243 Sqn RAF, 488 Sqn RNZAF and a detachment of 2-VLG-V of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Force operated from the airfield, defending Singapore from repeated Japanese air raids. They were joined later by Hawker Hurricanes of 232 Sqn RAF, but attrition took a steady toll of men and machines, and by the last days of January 1942, the airfield had been badly damaged by the bombing and only a small number of aircraft were serviceable. The last of the fighters left in early February, escaping to carry on the fight just before Singapore was surrendered to the advancing Japanese.
The growth in aviation traffic was stunted during the war years, a period which saw the landing circle being converted into a single runway to allow use by warplanes. The British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and Qantas resumed their regular services to the airport, while the resurrected local airline Malayan Airways (MAL) began services on 1 May 1947.
In the early 1950s, the increasing size of airplanes and the need for longer runways resulted in it being extended beyond Mountbatten Road in the eastern boundary of the facility into what is now Old Airport Road. This necessitated the installation of traffic lights to halt vehicular traffic every time a plane took-off or landed.

Closure

The success of MAL and rapid growth again caused congestion at the facility, while advancing technology neccesited extension of the only runway. This was no longer possible due to the presence of residential areas, leading to a decision to build another new facility at Paya Lebar in 1951, 8 km further from the city. When the new airport was completed on 20 August 1955, Kallang Airport was closed down, and all associated facilities moved to the new facility. The runway was converted into a road, and the airfield turned into a recreational area with the building of the National Stadium and Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Currently, the old terminal building still stands. It is used as the People's Association's headquarters.

Legacy

Kallang Airport has left many numerous reminders of its legacy. The old runway, parallel to Mountbatten Road, is now called Old Airport Road. The surrounding public flats there are sometimes referred to as the Old Airport Estate or Kallang Airport Estate.
On 13 March 1954, a Qantas - BOAC Lockheed Constellation, ''Belfast'' carrying mail crashed while attempting to land at Kallang Airport en route to London from Sydney. The accident killed 32 people, including eight crew.^[1]
As the runway was fouled, a Douglas DC-3 Dakota managed successfully to land on a road parallel to the runway. This led to the naming of Dakota Crescent and Dakota Close, as well as the general public nominating "Dakota" as the name for the upcoming Dakota MRT Station.
The slipway for seaplanes is now occupied by the Oasis Building, a structure built into the sea and housing several restaurants.

References

1. The Straits Times 14 March 1954.

External links

★ Singapore's First Airport

★ Aviation landscape in Singapore