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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: 2) by subs on Thursday March 30 2017, @04:22PM
The sad thing is, if they would spend the extra jet fuel to fly a few miles further out before turning north, they'd be over the Atlantic Ocean and impact virtually noone - it's what they do in Oahu, you see the jets there, but never hear them - at least that's how they operated when I was in Waikiki.
Most of the noise footprint is when the aircraft is closest to the ground. As the aircraft climb, the noise rapidly decreases. The reason why they don't turn later is probably because they deemed the attained altitude to be sufficient. It's likely a later turn would provide essentially no benefit to the most affected areas (i.e. right under the flight path). The reason why you probably didn't hear much from Waikiki is because most departures from Honolulu contain an early turn right after takeoff. This is turn is typically initiated at around 400-600 feet above ground and they turn direct south to avoid most of the city. The departure charts [skyvector.com] even contain an explicit instruction about this:
NOTE:Honolulu departures from Rwys4L/R and 8L/R must complete right turn to assigned heading within 2NM of departure end of runway (HNL 3.6 DME)
2 nautical miles puts them around Sand Island and about 2-3 statute miles from Waikiki. Considering you're seeing them side on and that far away, it's no wonder you wouldn't be able to hear them at Waikiki.