Will govt. reveal its plan for developing Ratmalana Airport?

IN 1934 the State Council of Ceylon decided that an airport with easy access to Colombo was a necessity and declared that Ratmalana was the best site available.

- BY CAPT. G A FERNANDO MBA (UK) [e-mail]

Accordingly, an air field was built and the first landing took place on 27 November 1935. This was Ceylon’s first designated Airfield. With the advent of WWII, the airport expanded and a runway was also built. The Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm used it.

To assist aircraft landing in bad weather and resulting bad visibility, a transmitter was built at Thalangama to generate a Radio Signal Beam directed along the extended centre line of the runway at Ratmalana. If the aircraft was tracking the correct path, the pilots would hear a continuous tone on their headsets. However if they were left of the desired track, the pilots would hear a letter ‘A’ in Morse code (dit dah) or if right, a letter ‘N’ which was a (dah dit) in Morse code. The objective was to hear a continuous signal in the ears, which guided them towards Ratmalana. The descent to lower altitude was at the pilot’s discretion.

As time went by, there was a low frequency, Non-Directional Radio Beacon (NDB) placed in the vicinity of the airport (Attidiya) and used with an Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) on board the aircraft. A needle over a compass dial pointed to Attidiya and gave directional guidance to international air traffic. Although it could accommodate an unlimited number of aircraft, when they needed it most, like during thunderstorm activity, there was static interference and the needles pointed towards the thunder storms instead of Attidiya. So, a Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Radio Range known as a ‘VOR’ for short was installed for more accuracy and free from interference.