Designing an airport runway

by Aviationer || Category: Airports, Regulations

One of the key elements of an airport is the runway. In fact, if there is no runway, there is no airport anyway. The runway is the place where airplanes take off or touch down. Then, the runway features will be an important issue to bear in mind.

First of all we have the runway orientation. The runway direction will be a major fact in terms of airport operations. A wind intensity and direction research must be done in order to obtain and gather wind data, and then determine the most likely wind direction in that area. Now let’s talk about physical characteristics.

The two more important sizes are the runway length and the width. Depending on the aircraft expected to operate on that airport, you might use larger or shorter distances. There is no specific runway length established by FAA or ICAO, but could change from 200 meters to infinite (if we could have that region). About the runway width it is mandatory to be greater than 18 meters up to 60 meters (able to land an A380). There are other physical matters, like strips up to 150 meters (around the runway) and shoulders up to 15 meters (paved margins at both sides of the runway).

In addition, to promote the most rapid drainage of the water, there should be a transverse slope not greater than 2%. Longitudinal slopes cannot be greater than 2% (just imagine a 3000 meters runway, 2% would mean 60 meters of vertical variation).

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Designing an airport runway