Britain's longest aircraft runway ?

[Hooli]

Cheib said:

Eric Mc said:

I keep saying this - EVERY runway in the world of a reasonable length and within the de-orbit cross range glide capability of the Shuttle was a potential emergency landing ground.

True....but there are a quite a few that if the Shuttle had landed there they might not have got the Shuttle back

By the sounds of it, if the runway didn't have the right microwave system there wouldn't have been much shuttle to collect anyway...

[Eric Mc]

At the time the Shuttle was being designed, the US was hoping that the Microwave Landing System (MLS) would become the world standard, replacing the Instrument Landing System (ILS). ILS is still the norm.

[eccles]

Pugland53 said:

rohrl said:

Not the shuttle, but Fairwood airport on Gower, near Swansea, used to be a divert for Concorde as it's not far off the New York route.

As I understand it the runway is long enough that Concorde could have landed but to take off again would have required quite a bit of resurfacing and a road closure.

I'm surprised by this, having been to Fairwood a few times it certainly isn't very long, around 4000ft I think. Cardiff is not far away and Concorde has been there several times, surely that would have been more appropriate.

Edited to say I've been beaten to it!

I grew up about a mile from Fairwood, and have never heard of this.
We used to get Viscounts, Heralds and the odd Friendship in regularly in the 70's.
Once at one of their regular airshows there,a Vulcan actually touched down (a bit more than a touch and go) and that caused enough fuss!
Having since flown from there a few times and had a low level pass over it in the back of a Tonka I'm not sure I'd want to land anything large and jet powered there!

[Total loss]

One of/the longest planned (but not built) runways in the UK was the RAF Thurleigh/RAE Bedford extension, at 5 miles/8000 m it would have been loooong........... , Vmax anyone ?

[miln0039]

Total loss said:

One of/the longest planned (but not built) runways in the UK was the RAF Thurleigh/RAE Bedford extension, at 5 miles/8000 m it would have been loooong........... , Vmax anyone ?

Thanks for that, just read up on them which got me onto this bad boy...(which I'd never heard of but found very interesting in pre/post war context...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Brabazon

[stemll]

Total loss said:

One of/the longest planned (but not built) runways in the UK was the RAF Thurleigh/RAE Bedford extension, at 5 miles/8000 m it would have been loooong........... , Vmax anyone ?

Worked there when I left school. The runway you mention would have run from the airfield that I mentioned above (where Palmer Autodrome is now) to the windtunnel site (where Yarl's Wood Immigration Detention Centre is now) over the road to Thurleigh that is down in a cutting with a central reservation that was to house the runway supports

http://goo.gl/maps/X4OM

I could have sworn it was a much deeper cutting than that

The windtunnel site was also an airfield (RAF Twinwood farm) during WWII and it is where Glen Miller flew from on his last flight. The original field was actually a little lower down Twinwood Rd, you can still see the outline of the runways in the fields.

http://goo.gl/maps/Bacr

Edited by stemll on Friday 8th June 13:44

[Eric Mc]

miln0039 said:

Thanks for that, just read up on them which got me onto this bad boy...(which I'd never heard of but found very interesting in pre/post war context...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Brabazon

"Bad" being the operative word. There's some great archive footage of it flying on youtube.

[AAGR]

A runway 5 miles long ? What on earth for .... ?

[stemll]

AAGR said:

A runway 5 miles long ? What on earth for .... ?

IIRC it was actually going to be a taxiway between the two sites, not a runway. So the airfield would remain where Thurleigh was with the maintenance at Twinwoods.

[anonymous-user]

Total loss said:

One of/the longest planned (but not built) runways in the UK was the RAF Thurleigh/RAE Bedford extension, at 5 miles/8000 m it would have been loooong........... , Vmax anyone ?

26,400ft. Are you sure?

The longest runways in the world are at higher elevations due to air density and reduced take off performance. In the UK 10,000ft is a long runway. Filton was lengthened to 8,000ft for the Brabazon. It's unlikely anyone was planning a 26,000ft runway.

[miln0039]

Eric Mc said:

miln0039 said:

Thanks for that, just read up on them which got me onto this bad boy...(which I'd never heard of but found very interesting in pre/post war context...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Brabazon

"Bad" being the operative word. There's some great archive footage of it flying on youtube.

Hey - the second model was going to be able to do 300mph...!! But yes, I agree they lost the plot when making something the size of a 767 and then only getting 50-100 people on board. Silverjet anybody?

[Johnnytheboy]

AAGR said:

A runway 5 miles long ? What on earth for .... ?

Area 51 in the US has a 7km long runway - nearly that long.

[stemll]

http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/communi...

[Eric Mc]

miln0039 said:

Hey - the second model was going to be able to do 300mph...!! But yes, I agree they lost the plot when making something the size of a 767 and then only getting 50-100 people on board. Silverjet anybody?

The design was based on pre-war thinking. The airliner world had changed radically by 1945 and there was no way the Brabazon would ever turn a profit for its operator. Indeed, only one operator was envisaged, BOAC, and they weren't interested.

Other designs stemming from the Brabazon Committee were more successful, particularly the Viscount and the De havilland Dove.

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

Although not "British" (anymore), how long is the runway at Shannon?

UK

London Heathrow 12,799ft
London Gatwick Airport 10,879ft
MoD Boscombe Down 10,538ft
Brize Norton 10,007ft

Shannon 10,233ft (for Eric)

World

Qamdo Bangda Airport (People's Republic of China) 18,045ft
Ramenskoye Airport (Russia) 17,723ft
Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport (Russia) 16,404ft
Embraer Unidade Gavião Peixoto Airport (Brazil) 16,296ft
Upington Airport (South Africa) 16,076ft

There are longer but unpaved rwys at Edwards AFB (39,600ft) , Nellis AFB and White sands in the USA.

Edited by el stovey on Friday 8th June 16:04

[motomk]

AndyNetwork said:

At 3900m I would suspect they did not need to alter the runway at all.

Manchester is also certified for the A380, and has a runway of 3050m and the other of 3048m.

At Max take off weight the A380-800 needs 2750m.

More the width I was thinking about. They had to shut the main runway where I am for about 6 weeks to make it wider or at least pave/concrete a little extra width on each side.

[anonymous-user]

Johnnytheboy said:

AAGR said:

A runway 5 miles long ? What on earth for .... ?

Area 51 in the US has a 7km long runway - nearly that long.

At it's longest it was about 13,500ft never anywhere near 7km. It has a huge run off.

[Total loss]

stemll said:

AAGR said:

A runway 5 miles long ? What on earth for .... ?

IIRC it was actually going to be a taxiway between the two sites, not a runway. So the airfield would remain where Thurleigh was with the maintenance at Twinwoods.

A quick google to refresh the memory shows people talking about the 5 mile taxiway and runway, but norwichpaul on AIX says the plans for the runway are at the RAF Museum and the 'underpass' built is a lot wider than needed for just a taxiway.

[Total loss]

el stovey said:

Total loss said:

One of/the longest planned (but not built) runways in the UK was the RAF Thurleigh/RAE Bedford extension, at 5 miles/8000 m it would have been loooong........... , Vmax anyone ?

26,400ft. Are you sure?

The longest runways in the world are at higher elevations due to air density and reduced take off performance. In the UK 10,000ft is a long runway. Filton was lengthened to 8,000ft for the Brabazon. It's unlikely anyone was planning a 26,000ft runway.

It appears so, remember they were thinking far ahead then (1947) and longrange aircraft were getting bigger and bigger.

[anonymous-user]

Total loss said:

el stovey said:

Total loss said:

One of/the longest planned (but not built) runways in the UK was the RAF Thurleigh/RAE Bedford extension, at 5 miles/8000 m it would have been loooong........... , Vmax anyone ?

26,400ft. Are you sure?

The longest runways in the world are at higher elevations due to air density and reduced take off performance. In the UK 10,000ft is a long runway. Filton was lengthened to 8,000ft for the Brabazon. It's unlikely anyone was planning a 26,000ft runway.

It appears so, remember they were thinking far ahead then (1947) and longrange aircraft were getting bigger and bigger.

Quite right. I think the point is it was just a plan though and possibly just a wide takeaway between to facilities so a bit of an odd plan too. Sorry if I scoffed though I didn't know about it, I assumed you were suggesting someone was planning a 26,000 conventional runway in the UK.