Database:

Section:
Record: 1
Circular runways for airports? New Scientist, 11/18/2006, Vol. 192
Issue 2578, Special section p13-13, 1/2p, 1 Black and White
Photograph; Abstract: The article presents information on the
consideration to provide a circular runway for airports by the U.S. navy.
The idea was recently tested at General Motors Corp.s proving
ground. However, it would prove to be more expensive than providing
similar operational capacity in the normal way. It is assumed that each
airplane would require one sixth of the circumference for landing. As an
alternative, the runway could be made wider. In that case too, the cost
would rise steeply. Reading Level (Lexile): 1300; (AN 23358659)
Science Reference Center
1960s: BRAVE NEW WORLDS
AVIATION
CircuIar runways for airports?
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.
EBSCOhost http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/delivery?sid=82640690-f2f8-4d72-a55...
1 of 2 3/12/2013 5:21 PM
11 November 1965
PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): They never did quite manage to fly off at a tangent
2006, New Scientist, Reed Business Information UK, Ltd., a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. Copyright of New Scientist is the property of Reed Business Information and its content may
not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holders express
written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
EBSCOhost http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/delivery?sid=82640690-f2f8-4d72-a55...
2 of 2 3/12/2013 5:21 PM