AIRPORTS

An airport serves as gateways to the world and a huge powerhouse for a country’s economy. Sine
aerial transport is trend in transportation, the Heathrow Airport in London upgraded by building the
terminal 5 (TS). This innovation led them to be the largest airport in the world. How did airports get
this long?

During 1920’s, Croydon Airport (London) is the main airport in the country, and it was young and
primitive. Pilots use the mark one eyeball -system navigation of using landmarks to locate their
whereabouts. But this system killed 7 lives during the first collision in civil aviation back in April 7,
1922.

While searching for landmarks the pilot did not realized that another cargo plane is approaching
ahead of him. Thus, The Croydon airport built a three radio stations to coordinate the locations of
the plane through the radio burst sent by aircrafts. The first air- traffic control was born. And it
guides the plane out of the sky.

Back then, airport systems are primitive. Passengers had to walk to reach the planes , which
poses downright dangers. An airport should be convenient for both the passengers and the plane.
The answer is terminal. Morris Jackaman proposed a Gatwik Beehive. It was a circular terminal that
allows the plane to quickly and independently taxi to its gate. Passengers a comfortably wait inside
for the telescopic canopy to led them right to the aircraft’s door. It was revolutionary. Considering by
the area, Gatwik is 6.74𝑘𝑚2 while Heathrow is twice as big as it is. Thus, Heathrow needs longer
terminal which maximizes the space. Heathrow engineers build a stack of rectangular building
connected by underground trains. It helps the taxiways clear for the aircrafts. Building plan is simple
but the construction is complex. To input a roof as big as 5 football fields and 40 meters high without
using a crane is a great challenge both for engineers and architects. As a solution, engineers
assembled the roof on the ground, then use the stand jacking system. It was a lifting technology that
uses a hydraulic rams.

The larger the number of passengers, the larger the aircraft needed. In 1950, is the birth of Jet plane.
It engulfed the trends in aerial transportation. It was faster and bigger. It was three times heavier
than the propeller plane. Thus, runways needs to evolve too. The concrete of the runway should be
strong for the jet planes to land off. The engineers of Chicago O’hare tried to make their runway
stronger by embedding steel ages into the concrete. But it was slow and expensive. Until, they found
the Slip-form Paver. It can lay concrete faster than any human beings. It can build Runways in a long
strips, smooth, flawless, and strong. Yet, Jet planes do evolve. Heathrow is homing the largest
passenger plane in the world, The airbus a380. Seven stories tall and 200 tons heavier than Jumbo
jet. Thus, they need a runway wider and stronger than Chicago. To engineers calculation, to facilitate
the land-off of A380, the concrete should be one meter thick, which is beyond the capacity of the
paver. Thus, Hethrow engineer used a new kind of concrete. It contains a soap-like liquid that
displaces water and makes the bond of the concrete stronger. It was really strong that a 60 m. thick
concrete can hold a a830 jet. Fascinating isn’t it? But hold still because airports will get bigger.

The birth of Jet Planes enables the birth of larger airports. Then flying involves too much walking and
become a test of endurance. Dallas love airport is processing over 3 millions of passengers, and they
need something for speeding up. Using the concept of California Quarry, who can transports rocks
15 km through a rubber conveyor. Love airport fit their corridor with rubber conveyors with wooden
pallet, or the so called Glide Ride. It was the world’s first moving sidewalk. Heathrow, on the other
hand, was more revolutionary. Instead of using sidewalks, there are robot taxis – no driver,
automated, that it an sense its surrounding through lasers. It was called Personal Rapid Transport
(PRT). It an take 1200 passengers in one hour. PRT was still on approval to be put beyond airport
and would soon reach inner cities.

Trending yet vulnerable. Aerial transportation back the can be described using this three words. In
1970’s three jets were hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Gist’s fuelled to airports having securities.
At first, they hired over 200 armed sky marshals. But fighting guns against guns is not an ideal
solution. They need to stop the skyjackers before it an even board to plane. They’ve turned to hand-
search at the terminal but it interrupts the transportation. Well, a sawmill just put an end to the
problem. Sawmills are using metal detector machine before the logs get to the blade sword. The
airports. …