Runway Construction[PDF]
Introduction
Runway characteristics
- Runway orientation
- Runway length and width
- Runway surface type
- Runway sections
- Runway strength
Runway orientation
A runway numbered 09 points east (90°), runway 18 is south (180°), runway 27 points west (270°) and runway 36 points to the north (360° rather than 0°).
If there is more than one runway pointing in the same direction (parallel runways), each runway is identified by appending Left (L), Centre (C) and Right (R) to the number to identify its position (when facing its direction).
Runway sections
Stop way or blast pad
Overrun areas are also constructed at the end of runways as emergency space to slowly stop planes that overrun the runway on a landing gone wrong, or to slowly stop a plane on a rejected take-off or a take-off gone wrong. Blast pads are often not as strong as the main paved surface of the runway and are marked with yellow chevrons.
Displaced threshold
It is marked with white paint arrows that lead up to the beginning of the landing portion of the runway.
Runway closed
If you see a cross on the runway or in the charts, this runway is closed and it is forbidden to land on a closed runway (except for emergency purposes).
Surface types
In the biggest airports you will find long hard surface type runways (asphalt and concrete). In the smallest airports you can find only a soft surface type runway (grass and gravel). The most common surface types are:
- ASP Asphalt
- BIT Bituminous Asphalt or Tarmac
- BRI Bricks (no longer in use, covered with Asphalt or Concrete now)
- CLA Clay
- COM Composite
- CON Concrete
- COP Composite
- COR Coral (Coral reef structures)
- GRE Graded or rolled earth, Grass on graded earth
- GRS Grass or earth not graded or rolled
- GVL Gravel
- ICE Ice
- LAT Laterite
- MAC Macadam
- PEM Partially Concrete, Asphalt or Bitumen-bound Macadam
- PER Permanent Surface, Details unknown
- PSP Marsden Matting (Derived from Pierced/Perforated Steel Planking)
- SAN Sand
- SMT Summerfield Tracking
- SNO Snow
- U Unknown surface
Runway length
The runway length is generally:
- 500 to 1000 meters long and 25-45 meters wide for small airfields
- 2000 to 4200 meters long and 45-60 meters wide for the larger airfields
You can find normalized distances on charts.
TORA (Take off Run Available)
RESA (Runway End Safety Area)
CWY (Clearway)
The length of the clearway may be included in the length of the take-off distance available (TODA).
TODA (Take Off Distance Available)
ASDA (Accelerate-Stop Distance Available)
LDA (Landing Distance Available)
EDA (Emergency Distance Available)
See also
Reference
- ICAO Documentation Annex 14 - Aerodromes - Volume I - Aerodrome Design and Operation - 8th Edition July 2018 - Attachement A
Author
- VID 150259 - Author
- VID 435695 - Wiki integration
DATE OF SUBMISSION
- 16:59, 15 February 2022
COPYRIGHT
- This documentation is copyrighted as part of the intellectual property of the International Virtual Aviation Organisation.
DISCLAIMER
- The content of this documentation is intended for aviation simulation only and must not be used for real aviation operations.