Round runway airport?

One of my flight instructors landed at what he thought was a newly constructed airport. It turned out to be the newly constructed Maryland International Raceway (dragstrip).
Of course, the first time I landed at New London, VA, I said... hey, you can't fool me... this is a drag strip.
 
benyflyguy said:

BBC did a special about this once. Here’s a short link about it.
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I'm sorry but this sounds like a horrible idea. I can't believe anyone would take this seriously.

For the simplest reason why it won't work, think of the wind. Let's say we have 15kt. from the north. Where do you enter the circle? How do you know where you will take off from? What will the cross-wind component be during the entire sequence? It's going to shift a lot.

When you take off (or land) from a straight runway you know exactly what you are dealing with in regards to the wind. You know the cross-wind will be consistent and can control the plane quite easily. Now imagine that you start taking off with a cross-wind from the left, then half way down you get a tail wind, the a cross wind from the right (or any combination of those).

What a headache...and dangerous.

Do you land turning to the left? To the right? How in the world does the standard traffic pattern work? How do you expand the airport if needed since everything must be inside the circle? How do you pick your touchdown point? What happens if you lose steering or brakes? Can you be catapulted off the lip if you aren't careful? Noise abatement...now everyone around the airport is ****ed off cause a plane can exit the circuit at any point they lift off. How do you plan your on-course heading and which way to turn?

Seriously...this has got to be a huge April-Fools day joke right?
 
Shawn Britton said:
When you take off (or land) from a straight runway you know exactly what you are dealing with in regards to the wind. You know the cross-wind will be consistent...
Click to expand...

Is that a fact?

20201005_113700.jpg
 
Shawn Britton said:
Oh...you are one of those guys. ;) Okay, I stand corrected...this is a BRILLIANT idea. :eek:
Click to expand...

Hahaha.. Jus' sayin'. I was with a guy working on his complex endorsement yesterday when we heard that report over the ASOS. Your definitive statement immediately brought it to mind. Thing is, those conditions are not uncommon (rather the opposite) for that drome.
 
Now that we're talking round runways again...

They won't work.

Why?

Because simultaneous operations would be impossible/unsafe. How do you depart 2 or more planes at the same time? And if the "answer" is to build more circles, then you're not saving any space, now, plus having a plane cross active runways that happen to be super elevated to get back to the terminal... Good luck affording THAT bridge structure.

About the only place this would make sense to mitigate crosswinds would be the eye of a hurricane or a tornado. But having to fly through those probably makes it impractical right off the bat...
 
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