Talk:Airport

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Airport was the collaboration of the week for the week starting on May 15, 2005.

For details on improvements made to the article, see history of past collaborations.

This page has been selected for the release version of Wikipedia and rated B-Class on the assessment scale. It is in the category Engtech.

What is the part of an airport called that passengers use to get in the airplane? It's like a ramp.

I've usually heard it referred to as a jetway. -eric 08:40, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)

1 use of secondary terms
2 Guidance signs
3 Architecture
4 Military Airport
5 Translate
6 Airport Security
7 Pics
8 Conversion Error?
9 Heirarchy of terms (start at Airfield)
10 Airport name list
11 Shortest paved runway?
12 Extreme airports
13 Wind Indicators
14 Airport vs Airfield

[edit] use of secondary terms

i really find the use of terms like 'aerodrome', 'airfield', etc to be mostly pointless in the context of an encyclopedia for the average user. saying that an airport is an aerodrome for aircraft to take off and land is not only obscure, it's redundant. the user must then look up aerodrome, which links to a single-line definition. -eric ✈ 06:30, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

Be bold. Edit as desired. I am waiting for the COTW to do much, myself. Burgundavia 01:06, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
- i would, but about half the edits lately have been mine, and i'm likewise waiting for the COTW. I just figured mentioning it in the talk would maybe get people thinking. -eric ✈ 01:19, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
  - Cool Burgundavia 01:53, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
    - Legally, there is a difference between an "airport" and an "aerodrome". it's not just obscurity, really! These are Canadian def'n, but seem to be standard: an "aerodrome" is any land or water surface that an aircraft is operating from. An "airport" is regulated for passenger safety. Will have a look at the first paragraph to incorporate some of this. Madpilot 04:57, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

The article says 'aerodrome' is not used in North America. This is not accurate as there are aerodromes in both the Canada and US (eg Antiquers Aerodrome FL, Eagle Crest Aerodrome DEL, Rhinebeck Aerodrome NY.) In Canada aerodromes refer to seaplane landing areas. --Dlatimer 04:56, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Right, but the term is very rare. If you drop the word in an ordinary conversation in the U.S., most people will look at you funny, and the few who know what it means will think you are showing off your vocabulary. They would wonder why you are saying such a mouthful when one can simply say airport! --Coolcaesar 07:46, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

where are you getting the "In Canada aerodromes refer to seaplane landing areas." Thats a big no. Aerodrome basicly refers to (without getting too technical) a piece of land or water that has been set aside for the use of aircraft--Captain433180 05:36, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Guidance signs

I think this section should be replaced with a more general section on airport layout. Runways, taxiways, numbering & naming of same. Include the guidance sign stuff - it's a nice FAA diagram! - but make it more generally an "Airport Layout" section. Thoughts? Madpilot 05:18, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

A section devoted to airport layout would probably be better. It could contain subsections about guidance signs, runways, taxiways, lights, control towers, ect. MechBrowman 18:51, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

I'll do some night flying and try to get a good shot of the lights (runway, taxiway, VASI) Let me know what you want and I can arrange it. FYI, Im a contracted flight instructor and sit on the board of directors of a club so I can get a few favours done for me for this project. Captain433180 05:13, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

That would be a great picture to go along with the article, would definitely help illustrate the article. MechBrowman 04:05, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

Night shots of lights would be great. I'm going to work up a new airport layout diagram soon as the start of rebuilding this section. Madpilot 08:38, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

OK, I'm working on a new airport diagram for this article, starting with a PD USAF airport chart of Vancouver Int'l (CYVR, Vancouver, BC, Canada) because it's the nearest large airport to me, and has a good layout, I think. Complex enough to have all the bits we need to point out, but not insanely complex like, say, KORD or KSFO might be. (Chicago O'Hare & San Fransico Int'l).

I'm planning on colour-coding in three basic groups: runways, taxiways, & apron areas. Will also add text ID'ing the terminal & jetways, and add some roads to show groundside/passenger access to the airport. I might point out some of the high-speed taxiways, too.

Any suggestions, please post them here; it'll probably be at least a couple of days before this image is ready to publish. Madpilot 08:23, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Architecture

While not integral to airport functionality, architecture and design of airports is a major characteristic. It serves as a way for countries to show off to int'l visitors. There are a lot of famous terminals amongst architects, including the TWA terminal designed in the 60's (I think), and of course Dulles is widely known. There are numerous others. Perhaps we could rope some architecture wikipedians into helping out. —thames 15:27, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Military Airport

Where should that go?? Falphin 02:27, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

And we also need a section on Aircraft carriers since they are basically a floating airport.

I would think a small paragraph and see main article would work, but there doesn't seem to be a main article. MechBrowman 02:37, May 20, 2005 (UTC)

aircraft carrier does and their is a very small one for militaryAirbase, which probably deserves its own COTW. Falphin 20:26, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Translate

Can anyone translate anything useful from the French[1] or ,Portuguese [2](looks like it has a lot of useful info) Falphin 20:26, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Airport Security

I've done some work on the operations part today, and I've noticed that the airport security section could use some work too. What I'm wondering is, do people really think it neccesary to break down security measures by country on this page? That seems extreme to me, especially since that's not done on the Airport security page itself. I think that the subject could be covered without going into country specifics, and that dividing it up like it is now leads to fractious writing style and redundant statements (e.g. increase after 9/11) that don't read easily. I propose that we move the country-specific info over to the main article and rewrite the section on this page to be more general. What do others think? -Lommer | ^talk 04:37, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

I agree, I was suprised to see so much information about airport security by country on the airport page since there is an airport security page MechBrowman 18:50, May 21, 2005 (UTC)

Probably and the information by country on this page should be merged with the Airport Security page. Falphin 22:32, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Pics

Here's one that you could use http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:ChennaiAirport.jpg --Planemad 09:35, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Conversion Error?

There seems to be a problem with the following:

"One of the largest landing fields in the world is at the Kennedy Space Center, ... and the paving thickness is 1.6 in (406 mm) at the center."

1.6 inches is not very thick at all, and 406mm = 1.3 feet. So does anyone know the right answer? Bunthorne 18:12, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

I've removed the reference to the KSC runway. It's not the longest runway, and given that we are obviously missing some correct facts, no point in holding onto this tidbit of questionable notability. —Cleared as filed. 06:23, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Heirarchy of terms (start at Airfield)

Airbase <== Airfield (Aerodrome, Airdrome) ==> Airport ==> International Airport

Many US or Russian, maybe Chinese or Indian, domestic airports are very large too, and situated near major highways and have big hotels. It's not the fact that it's International that matters, but merely its size. European capital cities may all have international airports, but I'm sure there are some US (etc.) cities that are larger than some of them but do not have customs facilities.

Originally the British and the French (who had the world's first air force) called it an "aerodrome." The American Army somehow blanched at that "ae" and called a military base an "airdrome" in WWII. By the time the USAF got some power, they called it an "air base." (The U.S. Navy called it a "Naval Air Station.") When "airport" became the default term without a second thought, the use of the world "airport" for a military airbase became a back-formation. Some clarification of this is needed. In the origin of the word, an airport is a port, that is, a commercial facility. Experimental facilities (Area 51 comes to mind, though I'm not a fantast) definitely aren't airports. --Sobolewski 16:13, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

Area 51 is definitely an Airport. It actually has several scheduled commuter flights daily to Vegas on a private defense airline (see: Area_51#Area_51_commuters). So yeah, put some serious thought into the problem of naming/classification because it's quite complex and really difficult to boil down. -User:Lommer | ^talk 19:41, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Airport name list

I agree. There are just way too many. There should be a separate "list" article that this article should point to. --Coolcaesar 16:22, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

A token list is fine, but I'm just trying to stop it from becoming a massive list that must include one airport named for a celebrity for each country in the world. I don't know an equitable way to trim the current list. The politician list of four seems to have a good global feel, 2 Asia, 1 West hem and 1 Europe. I removed the multiple cities, LA is mentioned, no need for Portland. Fargo, who is Hector? And combined the local celebs and pioneers. The San Diego one was only a subtitle. No need for a big list here. Shortened the pioneer thing, people can click the airport name and it links to the pioneer aviator. --Dual Freq 00:14, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

I will continue to revert the addition of airports to the airports named after politicians list, specifically, Ninoy Aquino International Airport. As I have listed above, there are many more and the four listed there now have a good international spread. Does the list need to have one airport for each continent? One each G8 nation? One each country? I think not. There is a list of airports, please add your favorite airport there. --Dual Freq 11:09, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Shortest paved runway?

I'm removing the paragraph claiming that Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport has shortest paved runway in the world. It is located on the island of Saba, in the Netherlands Antilles. It would be difficult to be certain of finding the world's shortest paved runway, but it would certainly be considerably shorter than 1,748 feet. Just a quick glance finds a paved 1,600 runway at Tracy, California (CA54). David 22:30, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I always thought that claim to be a little suspect. --Captain433180 21:37, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Extreme airports

Furnace Creek Airport, Death Valley (very low and hot)
Williams Field, Antarctica (very cold)
Qamdo Bamda Airport, Tibet (highest and longest civilian airport)

217.86.40.254 23:54, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Al Ain International Airport, UAE seems to be as hot. It was used for A380 testing. 217.86.8.76 12:11, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Does these images on links match with this topic? It looks to me like not only completely ridiculous, but also dangerous situation. Someone knows where these photos are taken? ArcticTroll 23:28, 28 november 2006 (UTC)

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/4014/0201517cu3.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1513/0530591mr1.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9461/0686219uj5.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/7300/0713366at7.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1491/0806520fq8.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6654/1078027zf8.jpg http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5376/1083403np3.jpg

Looks like Princess Juliana International Airport, on the Dutch side of Saint Martin. --Dual Freq 01:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wind Indicators

I find it a little hard to believe that plans take off and land into the wind "to achieve maximum performance". Landing into the wind makes sense, as the added wind resistance would help slow the plane down, but surely taking off would best be performed going with the wind to achieve a slightly faster take off? I don't know enough about this subject to change it. --Bmhcjs 23:42, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

When one takes off or lands, it's important that the ground speed be as slow as possible for safety and to minimize wear-and-tear on the landing gear. The performance of aircraft (lift-off speed e.g.) depend on air speed. So by taking off into the wind, you will lift off the ground sooner (use less runway) then if you take off with the wind. Bunthorne 06:07, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Airport vs Airfield

This article implies incorrectly that airport and airfield are synonyms. An airfield is any place where aircraft take-off and land, but an airport aditionally requires at least some of the facilities expected of a port such as dedicated facilities for passenger or cargo handling, refuelling, traffic control, customs etc. Curiously, 'Aerodrome' has a separate entry. Treesmill 19:45, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

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