Discussion
The Major problem is that originally Heathrow WAS in the right place. The Planners messed up by allowing house building and Various Industrial units to be built too close. Of course like any other useful "resource" the dog is now wagging the tail as the "homes" created for people working there now house those wanting to shut it.
telecat said:
The Major problem is that originally Heathrow WAS in the right place. The Planners messed up by allowing house building and Various Industrial units to be built too close. Of course like any other useful "resource" the dog is now wagging the tail as the "homes" created for people working there now house those wanting to shut it.
I dont think that is right. The prevailing winds generally blow from the west. As aircraft land into the wind, the accepted wisdom is that you locate the aircraft downwind of the major population centre - in other words, in this case east of the population centre.Heathrow is to the west of London. This means aircraft have to fly over London to get to it.
Only Heathrow is in this position. Every major airport in the world has been put in a place where aircraft do not have to fly over the major population centre to land into the prevailing wind.
It always surprises me when people don't want an airport expanded because of the perceived damage to their environment, reduction in house prices, strain on other infrastructure and decline in quality of life. I live in Twickenham, Heathrow is 8 miles away and planes land non stop at the end of my garden and yet, noise is not an issue, house prices are shockingly high, road and rail links are excellent and the countryside around is lovely. Quality of life I would put as high. Now I think a lot of this is BECAUSE of Heathrow. It brings jobs, investment and that has a direct and indirect effect on huge areas of the local economy which simply wouldn't be the case without a major airport. I'd like to see Heathrow expanded and fast as others would.
Edited by Thankyou4calling on Wednesday 17th July 18:41
Edited by Thankyou4calling on Wednesday 17th July 19:33
Thankyou4calling said:
I live in Twickenham, Heathrow is 5 miles away and planes land non stop at the end of my garden and yet, noise is not an issue, house prices are shockingly high, road and rail links are excellent and the countryside around is lovely. Quality of life I would put as high. ]
That's some garden you have!greygoose said:
That's some garden you have!
Ha! I see what you mean, What I mean is that the planes are on their final approach at the end of the garden, what I'm getting at is that the areas around, Twickenham, Kew, Richmond, Barnes, Chiswick, Chelsea are really under the flight path yet are considered desirable with house prices to reflect. It doesn't stack up in some ways.Thers is already a massive runway about 3 miles from the 2 runways at Manchester airport. With HS2 connected the traffic could be increased to Manchester and the project could be completed immediately as the derelict British aerospace plant has a runway long anough for a bloody space shuttle and all the landing stuff already in place. The link road to the airport is mostly complete and the whole damn thing could be up and running for 10s of millions not billions.
Also its a great way to wind up the local residents by going in the local pub and telling them some officials from the CAA have been snooping around and I overheard them say...... o to Appopleptic in 0.1 sec.
Also its a great way to wind up the local residents by going in the local pub and telling them some officials from the CAA have been snooping around and I overheard them say...... o to Appopleptic in 0.1 sec.
Some interesting points, just out of interest, those saying Heathrow is in the wrong place, where do you live?
My opinion is that the only sensible option is to sort out Heathrow, and why not go for both the north west and south west options they've put forward (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23337754) now and stop fking about. Heathrow is in the best place out of all the major airports from what I can see. It's right between the M3 / M4 on the M25 for roads and has good links into and out of town. Maybe the only thing they'd need to sort out is making sure that the train linking Heathrow to Paddington is as fast as is possible.
To the people moaning about the fact they fly over London, that's the best bit of any night flight when they're coming in on approach over the city.
My opinion is that the only sensible option is to sort out Heathrow, and why not go for both the north west and south west options they've put forward (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23337754) now and stop fking about. Heathrow is in the best place out of all the major airports from what I can see. It's right between the M3 / M4 on the M25 for roads and has good links into and out of town. Maybe the only thing they'd need to sort out is making sure that the train linking Heathrow to Paddington is as fast as is possible.
To the people moaning about the fact they fly over London, that's the best bit of any night flight when they're coming in on approach over the city.
Semi interesting time line of UK aviation indecision, they've been talking about a new hub airport for 50 years, seems we've got this far without one...
https://mediacentre.heathrowairport.com/ImageLibra...
https://mediacentre.heathrowairport.com/ImageLibra...
Expanding Heathrow is by far and away the the most stupid option.
I used to travel short/long haul 4-6 times a year, after a few years of using Heathrow i have come to hate the airport. If I can I will use Gatwick/stanstead/luton if possible. I only have one word to describe Heathrow and it isn't a nice word. I recently had a friend fly over the HK for business, hasn't been in the UK for 9 years, his experience of Heathrow and public transport into london wasn't good. I don't know why but I kept on defending Heathrow even apologising a few times.
I like the idea of expanding the other airports, followed by Boris island. The people of 'West' london are scared of job loses, but yet complain about the noise and air quality..
to be honest, boris island is a nice option, the Gov don't want to make that decision fear of west londoners and the owners of heathrow getting pi$$ed off. Boris island could/would have a dedicated 'FAST' rail link into central london, links to Cross rail, and links to the Euro Land via rail.. dedicated trunk roads, keep some traffic of the M25.. and 24hr flights..
sounds like a good idea to me..
lets make a decision this year, and get building next year and have it working in the next 5-10 years. that might sound like a tall order but nothing quite like getting it sorted asap and taking the lead in in air travel
I used to travel short/long haul 4-6 times a year, after a few years of using Heathrow i have come to hate the airport. If I can I will use Gatwick/stanstead/luton if possible. I only have one word to describe Heathrow and it isn't a nice word. I recently had a friend fly over the HK for business, hasn't been in the UK for 9 years, his experience of Heathrow and public transport into london wasn't good. I don't know why but I kept on defending Heathrow even apologising a few times.
I like the idea of expanding the other airports, followed by Boris island. The people of 'West' london are scared of job loses, but yet complain about the noise and air quality..
to be honest, boris island is a nice option, the Gov don't want to make that decision fear of west londoners and the owners of heathrow getting pi$$ed off. Boris island could/would have a dedicated 'FAST' rail link into central london, links to Cross rail, and links to the Euro Land via rail.. dedicated trunk roads, keep some traffic of the M25.. and 24hr flights..
sounds like a good idea to me..
lets make a decision this year, and get building next year and have it working in the next 5-10 years. that might sound like a tall order but nothing quite like getting it sorted asap and taking the lead in in air travel
Edited by NST on Wednesday 17th July 21:25
[quote=toppstuff]
It is the only major airport in the world where aircraft have to fly over a major population centre in order to land in this way. Sending ever increasing numbers of huge aircraft over an urban centre of 7 million people is a stupid thing to do. Only self-interest and lobby groups try to argue otherwise.
Every other major city in the world has bitten the bullet, swallowed hard and built themselves an airport down-wind of the population centre so that the aircraft land effectively in front of the major city rather than having to fly over it. It is time we grew some balls and did the same.
So you've never flown in to Los Angeles, then ? Or San Francisco ?
It is the only major airport in the world where aircraft have to fly over a major population centre in order to land in this way. Sending ever increasing numbers of huge aircraft over an urban centre of 7 million people is a stupid thing to do. Only self-interest and lobby groups try to argue otherwise.
Every other major city in the world has bitten the bullet, swallowed hard and built themselves an airport down-wind of the population centre so that the aircraft land effectively in front of the major city rather than having to fly over it. It is time we grew some balls and did the same.
So you've never flown in to Los Angeles, then ? Or San Francisco ?
There was a plan after WWII to build an airport in the Thames Estuary at Maplin Sands. There were even plans for a motorway built out over the sea next to Southend to serve it. It was all Gerry Anderson style bks, just like Boris Island.
Heathrow is a dump. The area around it is a dump (largely caused by the "economic benefits" of Heathrow).
The so-called "transport infrastructure" is crap. Ever tried going on the Piccadilly Line with a load of luggage? Heathrow Express from Paddington is vastly overpriced as are cabs/minicabs from central London to the airport. No-one with any semblance of sanity would use the Airbus or go to Reading by train and then get on a coach to get stuck on the M25 just outside Heathrow in the traffic caused by other morons who all want to fly out from Heathrow.
A hub airport could be anywhere within a reasonable radius of USA/China/Central Europe/Western Europe (that radius covers the whole of the British Isles).
My suggestion would be to turn RAF Alconbury back into an airfield as the runway there is long enough and wide enough to accommodate U2 spy planes. Its next to the ECML and the A1 and will be within easy reach of the widened A14. It would hoover up passengers from north of London and is outside the M25.
Then, someone needs to get the airport companies and the carriers together in a room and bang heads together until they agree a proper strategy for making the best use of runway capacity until Alconbury (lets call it Huntingdonshire [London] Airport) can be fettled.
Meanwhile, tell Boris to shut the fk up and sort out the aircon on his stupid, stupid new buses.
Heathrow is a dump. The area around it is a dump (largely caused by the "economic benefits" of Heathrow).
The so-called "transport infrastructure" is crap. Ever tried going on the Piccadilly Line with a load of luggage? Heathrow Express from Paddington is vastly overpriced as are cabs/minicabs from central London to the airport. No-one with any semblance of sanity would use the Airbus or go to Reading by train and then get on a coach to get stuck on the M25 just outside Heathrow in the traffic caused by other morons who all want to fly out from Heathrow.
A hub airport could be anywhere within a reasonable radius of USA/China/Central Europe/Western Europe (that radius covers the whole of the British Isles).
My suggestion would be to turn RAF Alconbury back into an airfield as the runway there is long enough and wide enough to accommodate U2 spy planes. Its next to the ECML and the A1 and will be within easy reach of the widened A14. It would hoover up passengers from north of London and is outside the M25.
Then, someone needs to get the airport companies and the carriers together in a room and bang heads together until they agree a proper strategy for making the best use of runway capacity until Alconbury (lets call it Huntingdonshire [London] Airport) can be fettled.
Meanwhile, tell Boris to shut the fk up and sort out the aircon on his stupid, stupid new buses.
Tootles the Taxi said:
There was a plan after WWII to build an airport in the Thames Estuary at Maplin Sands. There were even plans for a motorway built out over the sea next to Southend to serve it. It was all Gerry Anderson style bks, just like Boris Island.
.......
Meanwhile, tell Boris to shut the fk up and sort out the aircon on his stupid, stupid new buses.
The only reason the google eyed gook keeps on banging on about it is to take any responsibility away from him, thus everybody still loves moronic idiot. .......
Meanwhile, tell Boris to shut the fk up and sort out the aircon on his stupid, stupid new buses.
Surely people have realised this by now.
AAGR said:
toppstuff said:
It is the only major airport in the world where aircraft have to fly over a major population centre in order to land in this way. Sending ever increasing numbers of huge aircraft over an urban centre of 7 million people is a stupid thing to do. Only self-interest and lobby groups try to argue otherwise.
Every other major city in the world has bitten the bullet, swallowed hard and built themselves an airport down-wind of the population centre so that the aircraft land effectively in front of the major city rather than having to fly over it. It is time we grew some balls and did the same.
So you've never flown in to Los Angeles, then ? Or San Francisco ?
Yes, but the point still stands.Every other major city in the world has bitten the bullet, swallowed hard and built themselves an airport down-wind of the population centre so that the aircraft land effectively in front of the major city rather than having to fly over it. It is time we grew some balls and did the same.
So you've never flown in to Los Angeles, then ? Or San Francisco ?
If you were building an airport now in London ( or indeed LA or SF) you would not build it there.
Best and accepted practice is to build it down from the prevailing wind and away from populations. HK spent an absolute fortune on a new island airport for precisely this reason.
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