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When it comes to airport infrastructure, the design of terminals may have changed over the years, but the long, straight runway has stayed remarkably consistent. Dutch researcher Henk Hesselink thinks it's time for a change. His radical ideas about runway design would transform the modern airport's operations, layout, and efficiency—and even its architecture.
Since 2012, Hesselink and his team at the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) in the Netherlands have been working on a runway design that's circular instead of straight. Their so-called Endless Runway Project—funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Program, which supported research in breakthrough technology from 2007 through 2013, and in partnership with several other European scientific agencies—proposes a circular design that would enable planes to take off in the direction most advantageous for them. Namely, the direction without any crosswinds.
https://www.fastcodesign.com/90107235/why-airport-runways-should-actually-be-circular
[Related]: giant circles from the air
Do you think such a design would work in practice?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2017, @12:58AM (3 children)
Build walls on both sides of the airport so there is almost no crosswind. The problem will happen when the aircraft leaves the ground and faces the crosswind when taking off. Or hits the wall while landing in crosswinds.
Build a donut-shaped runway. Aircraft enters and runs around the inside of the donut, gathering speed. Then a door opens and lets it out... and it hits the ground at high speed.
Hey, I'm just trying out different ideas.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday March 30 2017, @01:48PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday March 31 2017, @06:59AM
That's part of the design. Look:
http://www.endlessrunway-project.eu/images/the-endless-runway---01a.jpg [endlessrunway-project.eu]
(Score: 2, Funny) by steveg on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:12PM
Great idea. And add roller coaster bars on the seats so the passengers can raise their arms above their heads and yell when the aircraft bounces around in the turbulence.