Will circular runways ever take off?

[robinessex]

Think again: Will circular runways ever take off?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39284294

For those who like to think out of the box

[0000]

Probably before flying cars do. Or a decent search function.

[Muddle238]

For commercial airliners, no. It's a novel idea but a straight runway suits me fine. It's got too many problems:

Airspace with arrival and departure routings. They are based upon a particular runway or set of runways in use, with the SID/STAR waypoints creating a track from the end of the runway. How on earth would the people who design these instrument procedures create a track from the end of a circular runway? How would you transition from the "roundabout" into an airway and vice versa?

Performance. Heavier aircraft may require longer take off runs and landing rolls. If the wind is variable in direction on a blustery day, they may well land with a headwind but end up with a tailwind.

Physics and aerodynamics. Aircraft going round a right-hand curved runway will be constantly needing to maintain a turn to the right (which if overdone, is a downslope with the camber). A crosswind from the right will cause a weather-cocking effect on the tail, pushing the tail left and therefore the nose to the right, "down" the camber. With wind and camber/gravity against you, this would likely lead to runway excursions. Same for landing aircraft, especially in low visibility ops.

Low Vis Ops. Autoland capability would be lost, and the minimum RVR being substanially increased compared to a conventional runway due to the arc would seriously limit the ability of the airport to operate in even thin fog/low cloud, let alone proper 200m CATIIIa type weather.

[Mave]

Surely the obvious next step is to have the runway rotating, like a turntable? Then you can select your takeoff into wind :-)

[Big Al.]

Thread already running here:-

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...