Andrew Gideon wrote:
I've never considered the ratio between runway length and width before.
What is it that defines possible values for this ratio?

The reasoning is probably that aircraft which only need 3500ft of runway are
smaller and thus don't need a 150ft wide runway, while bigger aircraft
which need longer runways would also need wider ones. Building a
short-and-wide runway would be a waste of money because it wouldn't be any
more useful than a short-and-narrow runway - the additional width alone
does nothing to significantly increase the number of types of aircraft it
can handle.

That said and as has been said elsewhere in this thread, a short-and-wide
runway may make sense for military applications, for formation take-offs,
for example.

Anno