Its a cute concept... But no one has discussed Instrument approaches.

I don't see any aircraft that could do a CAT III Circle approach to auto land while trying to make a banking turn on a sloped runway. Much less a pilot that could shoot a hard IFR approach to mins in windy conditions and then try to transition to a curving and sloping runway.

Then the issue with Takeoffs. The presenter was saying that they could launch 3 aircraft at the same time on one circle runway..... I call BS.... they will never clear 3 aircraft to TO off the same runway at the same time... What happens if someone aborts the TO? What happens if someone has an engine failure/fire at V1 and can not fly the published. Even with multiple parallel runways, ATC does not launch simultaneous departures just for that reason.

I could go on and on about the issues that would need to be addressed that they so conveniently don't talk about... I am sure many of them would be the same issues that caused NASA to drop the project in the 60's

thats my 2 cents
J


BTW... Under VFR... I routinely landed in a circle my Aviat Husky in a field that was to short for straight in landings and takeoffs... so I don't hate the idea, just don't think its practical. Especially for some of todays pilots that have no stick and rudder skills and rely on the automation entirely to much..