Engineers are faced with countless challenges when they build an airport. The ideal location needs abundant space, endless flat ground, favorable winds and great visibility. But locations in the real world are rarely ideal, and engineers are forced to work with what they have, making sure that the end product is the safest possible structure for pilots and passengers. A survey of airports around the world turns up a mixed bag, ranging from dangerous and rugged landing strips to giant facilities that operate like small cities.
Popular Mechanics Magazine has put together this interesting list of the
world's strangest airports and why they stand out. It is interesting reading for
flight training students and everyone else who likes flying and aviation.
1. Gibraltar Airport
The tiny British territory of Gibraltar sits between Morocco and Spain. Construction of the airport dates back to World War II, and it continues to serve as a base for the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, though commercial flights land on a daily basis. Winston Churchill Avenue, Gibraltar's busiest road, cuts directly across the runway. Railroad-style crossing gates hold cars back every time a plane lands or departs.
2. Kansai International Airport – Osaka, Japan
Kansai's artificial island is 2.5 miles long and 1.6 miles wide—so large that it is visible from space. Earthquakes, dangerous cyclones, an unstable seabed, and sabotage attempts from protestors are just some of the variables engineers were forced to account for. As impressive as the airport is, Stewart Schreckengast, a professor of aviation technology at Purdue University, cautions that climate change and rising sea levels pose a very real threat to the airport's existence. "When this was built, [engineers] probably didn't account for global warming," he says. "In 50 years or so, this might be underwater.
3. Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport - Saba, Netherlands Antilles
Getting to this paradise-like island can be a bit distressing thanks to a 1300-foot-long runway, slightly longer than most aircraft carrier runways. Large planes aren't landing here, but the small runway is difficult even for Cessna’s and similar aircraft. "The little X means don't land there," says Stewart Schreckengast. "It's challenging, but if you don't have something like that, the people here don't get things they routinely need, like mail." Given the limited amount of land and rolling topography of the island, not many other options exist.
4. Qamdo Bangda Airport - Tibet
This is the world's highest airport, perched more than 14,000 feet above sea level. Even more impressive than the airport's altitude, perhaps, is the nearly 3.5-mile-long runway.
Having a runway that's the length of 61 football fields may seem a tad excessive, but Stewart Schreckengast says that long runways are crucial to making safe landings at higher altitudes. "When you go up to these higher-elevation airports, then your approach speed, landing speed and takeoff speeds will need a higher ground speed," he says. "At sea level, where your approach speed is 150 mph, it may take 5000 feet of runway to stop. At 14,000 feet your approach speed is still 150, but maybe it takes 10,000 feet to stop."
5: Don Mueang International Airport - Bangkok, Thailand
From a distance Don Mueang International looks like any other midsize airport. However, smack-dab in the middle of the two runways is an 18-hole golf course.
Stewart Schreckengast, says one of the major problems is that the only taxiways were located at the end of the runways. "We recommended that they build an additional taxiway in the middle, from side to side, and they said ‘absolutely not, that will take out a green and one fairway.'" The airport and the course were originally an all-military operation, but have since opened up to commercial traffic. Security threats, however, have limited the public's access to the greens.
Flight training students can see more of these strange airports by going to Chris Sweeney’s excellent article on the
Popular Mechanics website.