Circular Runway

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...

That would be true 50% of the time.


How so?

jsmith wrote:

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

Well, at some point in your takeoff or landing you could be in line with the wind and
the runway at the same time, but at other points, you'd have to deal with a crosswind
component. Furthermore, that component would be changing as you rolled along.

The banked track would counter the crosswind component.

No, it would counter the tendency of the aircraft to travel in a straight line. If
the track were not banked, you'd run off the track before you got airborne.

George Patterson
Treason is ne'er successful, Sir; what then be the reason? Why, if treason
be successful, Sir, then none dare call it treason.

In a previous article, jsmith said:
A USN pilot got the idea for a circular runway after experiencing an
engine failure and landing on a country road.

Sounds like the old joke: "If somebody made a runway that stretched
around the world, Convair would make a bomber that couldn't take off from
it."


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a
mistake when you make it again. -- F. P. Jones

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 16:18:52 -0500, Cub Driver
wrote in Message-Id:
:

Circular (or at least 360-degree) airfields were common at one time.
You put a stake in the center with a windsock on top. The aircraft
landing simply landed into the wind, wherever it was coming from.

Lindbergh Field in San Diego was the same in the early days.

All early airfields were built that way.

Larry Dighera writes:

On Thu, 01 Apr 2004 00:52:35 GMT, jsmith wrote in
Message-Id: :

The banked track would counter the crosswind component.

That would be true 50% of the time.

Or less. A lot less. The bank needed would depend on the aircraft's
varying speed, in addition to the (variable) wind velocity. The whole
thing sounds like a joke--1 day early.

On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 13:47:02 -0800, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

I don't think that's what he's talking about.

Oh, I knew that, Peter. Just wanted to parade my arcane knowledge


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: -- put Cubdriver in subject line!

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Perhaps this was an April Fool's joke that Air & Space Magazine played on
its readers?

I haven't seen the magazine yet, but in my experience George Larson
takes aviation very seriously.

Well -- there was the cover with the dog flying the plane.

And the big feature about the world's ugliest aircraft...

Come to think of it, perhaps it is an April Fool edition. My
contribution is a "Soundings" about the XC-99 cargo plane finding a
new home at Wright-Patt.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: -- put Cubdriver in subject line!

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

On Thu, 01 Apr 2004 01:26:12 GMT, "Steven P. McNicoll"
wrote in Message-Id:
. net:


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
.. .

That would be true 50% of the time.


How so?


Yah, you're right. I was being very liberal.

Cub Driver wrote in message . ..
Circular (or at least 360-degree) airfields were common at one time.
You put a stake in the center with a windsock on top. The aircraft
landing simply landed into the wind, wherever it was coming from.

Wu Chia Ba airport in Kunming used this arrangement before the
Americans arrived toward the end of 1941.


See: http://members.tripod.com/airfields_...ds_FL_JaxN.htm,
and search for "VQQ". This will show Cecil Field NAS in Jax in a WWII
aerial photo. The original circular landing area still shows.

It's a cool website in any case.

-Malcolm Teas

I actually remember reading about the circular runway in the early 1960's when
I was in grade school. I believe it was that august aviation publication "My
Weekly Reader". Don't know why, but as a young airplane nut, the artical made
a big impression on me, and I had a good chuckle when the subject popped up
again in Air&Space

Howard Kahn
Fairfax Station, VA
Howard Kahn
Fairfax Station, VA