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Circular runways for airports?
Now here's an idea almost as good as underground airports*: http://www.newscientist.com/article/...-airports.html A CIRCULAR runway for airports is being considered by the US navy, and the idea was recently tested in principle at General Motors' proving ground. It is thought to promise some advantages but to be more expensive than providing similar operational capacity in the normal way. One particular advantage is that it would save one-third of the space occupied by a conventional airport of equal capacity. The idea is to match the circumference to the landing speeds of the aircraft that would use it, assuming that each aeroplane would need to be sure of one sixth of the circumference. This would mean that for big jet aircraft, a circular runway of rather more than 60,000 feet in circumference would be required. Taking the usual first-class runway width of 300 feet, an aeroplane, touching down on the outside edge and aiming just to miss the inner edge, would have a run of 4860 feet before it approached the outer edge again. In that distance, thrust reversers and brakes would have been applied and the speed reduced perhaps sufficiently to use the nose wheel gently to steer the craft back onto another tangential course for the next mile of its run. As an alternative, the runway could be made wider. In that event cost would rise steeply. A 10,000-foot runway 300 feet wide costs little under £1 million. The need to devise new landing techniques and to retrain pilots is acknowledged in official references to this study, but emphasis is laid on the "unlimited runway" and on the "minimisation of crosswind factor" by enabling take-offs and landings to be made in any direction. This might reduce the number of aircraft that could use the runway at the same time. Only when crosswind was not of serious strength could the runway be used by six aircraft simultaneously and the claim that it would conduce to high traffic density be justified. * http://groups.google.com/group/rec.a...a?dmode=source |
#2
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Circular runways for airports?
This isn't by any chance being studied with GOVERNMENT money is it?
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#3
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Circular runways for airports?
In a previous article, Larry Dighera said:
under £1 million. The need to devise new landing techniques and to retrain pilots is acknowledged in official references to this study, but emphasis is laid on the "unlimited runway" and on the Does this mean that Convair is going back into the airplane business? (If you get the joke, you're showing your age.) -- Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/ So I was reading Twelfth Night ... and would you believe that the I LOVE YOU hoax is the exact same trick Shakespeare uses to point out what an arrogant, self-absorbed fool Malvolio is? -- Julia McKinnell |
#4
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Circular runways for airports?
Larry Dighera wrote: Now here's an idea almost as good as underground airports*: Or as good as taking off from a treadmill ? :-) ;-) So why not use a treadmill for landing as well. Then you'd just need an "airport" the length of an airplane. Mount the treadmill on a pivot, and you could always land/take off into the wind, too. Of course, you could always use the aircraft carrier method of stopping landing planes.... just mount all the passenger seats backwards to absorb the shock. Kev |
#5
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Circular runways for airports?
Kev wrote: Or as good as taking off from a treadmill ? :-) ;-) So why not use a treadmill for landing as well. Then you'd just ... PS. before people go crazy, yes I know you can't land on a treadmill. Although I'm sure someone will make a proof the other way ;-) Kev |
#6
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Circular runways for airports?
In article . com,
"Kev" wrote: PS. before people go crazy, yes I know you can't land on a treadmill. Although I'm sure someone will make a proof the other way ;-) Of course you can....probably won't fly the airplane again, but... :-) -- Bob Noel Looking for a sig the lawyers will hate |
#7
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Circular runways for airports?
In article ,
(Paul Tomblin) wrote: In a previous article, Larry Dighera said: under £1 million. The need to devise new landing techniques and to retrain pilots is acknowledged in official references to this study, but emphasis is laid on the "unlimited runway" and on the Does this mean that Convair is going back into the airplane business? (If you get the joke, you're showing your age.) "If they built a runway around the world at the equator, Republic would build an airplane that would use it." - unknown |
#8
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Circular runways for airports?
This type article (granted 50 years old), gives scientists a bad name.
Ron Lee Richard Riley wrote: On Mon, 25 Dec 2006 19:25:06 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote: Now here's an idea almost as good as underground airports*: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...936623,00.html Mar. 21, 1955 Dr. John Gibson Winans, 52, an air-minded professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin, was demonstrating last week the first part of a pet theory: that airplanes should take off and land in circles, as tethered models do. A straight runway, the professor reasons, is fine if it is long enough. But often, even on a very long runway, a faltering engine or iced-up wings can dump an airplane in crack-up territory beyond the airport fence. A circular runway, on the other hand, is infinitely long because an airplane, tethered to its center, can fly around it indefinitely. The pilot need not fear "running out of runway." Even if his engine dies after the takeoff, his airplane can circle safely to the ground again. Professor Winans heard that the circular take-off had been demonstrated as a stunt by Jean Roche in 1938. In 1950 Winans got from the Sanders Aviation Co. of Riverdale, Md. the special equipment (a hub, spindle and release gear) that Roche used, but his attempts at that time to take off in a circle were not a success. This year he tried again with his new light airplane, an Ercoupe. At first he wanted to use frozen Lake Mendota, near Madison, for his circular runway, but the city council said no. Last fortnight he set up his apparatus on the ice of Lake Kegonsa, a safe distance from Madison. The spindle and hub were attached to a steel barrel frozen into the ice and guyed solidly. A double strand of woven nylon, 400 ft. long, led to a quick-release fixture under a wing of the airplane. The first four tries were failures. The airplane swept part way round the circle and left the ground, but the rope always broke before the professor could make a controlled release. The fifth try was successful. This week the professor was doing it every time, slinging himself into the air and flying off with composure. Professor Winans hopes to get permission to take passengers up on circular takeoffs, which he considers the utmost in safety, but his ultimate objective is to land in the circular manner. He has not tried it yet. |
#9
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Circular runways for airports?
"Richard Riley" wrote in message
... On Mon, 25 Dec 2006 19:25:06 GMT, Larry Dighera wrote: Now here's an idea almost as good as underground airports*: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...936623,00.html Mar. 21, 1955 Dr. John Gibson Winans, 52, an air-minded professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin, was demonstrating last week the first part of a pet theory: that airplanes should take off and land in circles, as tethered models do. A straight runway, the professor reasons, is fine if it is long enough. But often, even on a very long runway, a faltering engine or iced-up wings can dump an airplane in crack-up territory beyond the airport fence. A circular runway, on the other hand, is infinitely long because an airplane, tethered to its center, can fly around it indefinitely. The pilot need not fear "running out of runway." Even if his engine dies after the takeoff, his airplane can circle safely to the ground again. Professor Winans heard that the circular take-off had been demonstrated as a stunt by Jean Roche in 1938. In 1950 Winans got from the Sanders Aviation Co. of Riverdale, Md. the special equipment (a hub, spindle and release gear) that Roche used, but his attempts at that time to take off in a circle were not a success. This year he tried again with his new light airplane, an Ercoupe. At first he wanted to use frozen Lake Mendota, near Madison, for his circular runway, but the city council said no. Last fortnight he set up his apparatus on the ice of Lake Kegonsa, a safe distance from Madison. The spindle and hub were attached to a steel barrel frozen into the ice and guyed solidly. A double strand of woven nylon, 400 ft. long, led to a quick-release fixture under a wing of the airplane. The first four tries were failures. The airplane swept part way round the circle and left the ground, but the rope always broke before the professor could make a controlled release. The fifth try was successful. This week the professor was doing it every time, slinging himself into the air and flying off with composure. Professor Winans hopes to get permission to take passengers up on circular takeoffs, which he considers the utmost in safety, but his ultimate objective is to land in the circular manner. He has not tried it yet. Please remember to post this again in about 3 1/2 months! ;-) Peter |
#10
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Circular runways for airports?
On 25 Dec 2006 13:47:11 -0800, "Kev" wrote in
. com: you could always use the aircraft carrier method of stopping landing planes.... just mount all the passenger seats backwards to absorb the shock. Actually, that's a prudent idea. It might require some additional stowage methods in the galley and cargo hold, but it would seem preferable to the bend over your seat belt, and wait for the impact emergency procedure currently in place. |
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