Circular Runways

Hello all,
Is this guy soaring ahead of his time with his thinking or has his dream clouded his judgement, not sure why during the video (only 3mins) he seems to talk to the wall, maybe Einstein was quirky also

It seems to make sense to me the passenger, but I am no pilot, he discusses a design for circular airports which has benefits for the enviroment, general populace and efficiency

www.bbc.co.uk...

Peace N-joi

a reply to: UpIsNowDown

I would fear increased collisions.

It might be an unfounded fear, but I would still fear it.

A little outta the box.....the nav equipment wants a straight shot outta the hole, and the pilot wants a wings level approach and touchdown and the landing gear doesn't want the sideways moments on wet or snowy concrete.

We gotta entertain outta the box, though so flagg

We would have to stop saying " maintain runway heading on departure " , huh

a reply to: UpIsNowDown

Predictability trumps efficiency and environmental concerns in the aviation world. Given that an ILS approach would be damn near impossible with a setup like that (much less trying to land on it in general, with any sort of changing wind patterns), the safety risks that circular runway would create more than outweigh any environmental or operational advantages.

a reply to: UpIsNowDown

Possible when aircraft travel is completely automated but I can't ever see this happening anytime soon given the resistance to change that is innate in the current culture of air travel.

a reply to: UpIsNowDown

To go with the absurd flow here, itt might work well in a young tornado where the winds are circular and not yet too violent. Most people know that airplanes usually take off into the prevailing wind which is why runways usually point in that direction in that area.

Cool, so the general consensus seems to be fun on a PC simulation but not in real life

Peace N-joi

This must be a joke. If you look at the video in the link it would be extremely difficult to land a large jet like that without crashing. Add in some wind gusts or a crosswind and a crash would be happening. Also looks a lot more expensive to build than a normal runway. Total joke.

I am not even a traffic controller and i am burnt out .

One time we landed a Travelaire at Dallas Love Field in the soup with a tornado going down Royal Lane.we couldn't see.....he...he

Outta the box though....props for that, but the return to Earth is so tricky in a crosswind or gusts. Ya have to use the rudder to correct wing tips about to hit the turf......and if ya push the rudder the wrong way .......I mean ailerons aren't enough....ya have to push the high wing side or ........

Not only the problems that have been posted, it´s much easier to direct the runways in the most common wind directions locally.

But it somehow reminds me of this Idea, where we build a circular railway to nullify the problem with atomic waste. Just drive it around in circles forever, no storage needed.

So, would this require a Class III.XIV ILS approach?

I suppose it could be done with WAAS for an approach vector, but you are really down to a single runway here as all the planes will be landing on the same heading and there is no parallel runway now. The pilot will not have the chance to settle into a stabilized crab for the wind, he will be constantly adjusting. I hated doing turns around a point. I see the runway is banked, but what about wind shear or micro-bursts? It won't really help with noise either as most runways are setup for prevailing winds which is what they will use (prevailing winds) for these as well so they will be taking off in the same general direction on average days. Where would you put VASI and how many? So many unanswered questions.

WTF just WTF ????????????????

this is the sort of " solution " to a none existant " problem " that you get when you allow some walt who has ZERO grasp of aviation , civil engineering , fluid dynamic or to be blunt - any credible ideas at all access to the media

a reply to: GBP/JPY

It been tried the primary advantage is for taildragger aircraft (spitfire, c185, platius porter).

They are these toleratant of cross wind landing and take off. You just taxi around until you can take of straght into wind, trim for take off. Power up... when the tail lifts pull back on fly.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

I agree with you but it has been tried.

Follow the link

originally posted by: UpIsNowDown
Hello all,
Is this guy soaring ahead of his time with his thinking or has his dream clouded his judgement, not sure why during the video (only 3mins) he seems to talk to the wall, maybe Einstein was quirky also

It seems to make sense to me the passenger, but I am no pilot, he discusses a design for circular airports which has benefits for the enviroment, general populace and efficiency

www.bbc.co.uk...

Peace N-joi

This is how seaplanes lift off when there isn't enough room for a straight acceleration or the water is too calm. They go around until they have enough speed, straighten up, and fly. This is directly from a WW2 PBY pilot.

a reply to: pteridine
Nice little info, how big is the turning radius, do you know? From eye impression, a seaplane drifts a bit on water while it´s making a turn or not? The excess energy is allowed to disipate in a sidewards movement over a big surface. Try that with tires (small contact surface) and the wear is greatly increased. I would imagine.

originally posted by: verschickter
a reply to: pteridine
Nice little info, how big is the turning radius, do you know? From eye impression, a seaplane drifts a bit on water while it´s making a turn or not? The excess energy is allowed to disipate in a sidewards movement over a big surface. Try that with tires (small contact surface) and the wear is greatly increased. I would imagine.

Given the forces involved, the radius would have to be such that it would be easier to make straight runways. The seaplane lists hard to the outside of the turn and certainly drifts. I do not have advance and transfer tables for the Catalina and can't say how much they move in a turn, but it was certainly a technique that I did not know about until my cousin told me about it. He also said that taking off from smooth water required a special technique because without a small amount of chop it was difficult to break the hull free of the water.

As a WW2 Marine pilot, he flew PBY's, and land based Corsairs [Whistling Death www.youtube.com...] and C46 aircraft. He also told me that the C46 gasoline heater would explode on occasion and the pilots claimed that the plane had been built by the Curtis Novelty Company.