"jsmith" wrote in message ...
The theory posited in the article was that one could always land and
takeoff into the wind using a circular runway.

Surely you can see how that theory makes no sense. The airplane would only
be pointed into the wind for a very brief moment during a takeoff or
landing.

The banked track would counter the crosswind component.

Actually, I expect the bank is intended to deal with the bank of the
airplane required to produce the constant radius turn required for landing.
There's no way a banked track would "counter the crosswind component",
especially given that the component would be constantly changing throughout
the takeoff or landing.

But it's even worse than that, since the bank of the track will only match
the bank of a given airplane at a given groundspeed, since the aircraft
needs to maintain a constant radius turn. There will still be some degree
of difference between the bank of the airplane and the bank of the track.

Perfect for aircraft built by Republic Aircraft. ("If they built a
runway around the world at the equator, Republic would build and
airplane to use it.")

Not sure what that has to do with this circular runway. After all, a runway
around the world at the equator would still be straight.

Pete