SUPPLEMENT
bases built by the Allies often included depots for bulk goods, hangars with integrated storage areas and mechanical handling equipment that far surpassed anything available to civil operators before the war. When civilian carriers inherited surplus aircraft and infrastructure in the late 1940s, they also inherited the idea that freight could be a regimented, large-scale business.
Separating freight from passengers In
intentionally, freight activities
the post-war period, airports began to design cargo terminals separating
from passenger
flows.
Early cargo buildings often resembled warehouses more than airport structures, with long sheds positioned perpendicular to the apron. Inside were sorting rooms, customs offices and bays for lorries. Conveyors became more common, although still rudimentary by modern standards. Palletisation - the practice of stacking goods on standardised pallets - emerged in the 1950s, dramatically speeding up the movement of freight and encouraging airports to invest in stronger floors, higher doorways and specialised loading docks. The arrival of wide-body jets in the late 1960s and early 1970s, starting with the Boeing 747, transformed expectations yet again. The 747 Freighter’s nose-loading door, powered cargo systems and ability to accept containerised loads made it possible to move vast quantities of goods rapidly and reliably. Airports adapted by building larger, more sophisticated cargo terminals capable of handling unit load devices, refrigerated goods and hazardous materials. Today’s cargo facilities - with automated sorters, climate-controlled
rooms, high-throughput docks and integrated IT system - would be unrecognisable to the pioneers who hauled silk into rickety biplanes. Yet the story remains consistent: airfreight has always been shaped by a dance between technological possibility and commercial need. From rough grass fields with little more than a shed and a scale, to vast logistics complexes handling millions of tonnes a year, airports have evolved constantly to keep pace with a world that demands speed. Air cargo was born by improvising, but it matured into one of aviation’s most precise sciences.
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