Airport Engineering

Taxiway
• A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport
connecting runways with aprons, hangars,
terminals and other facilities.
 Factor controlling the taxiway layout
• Taxiway should be arranged that the aircrafts
which have just landed and are taxiing towards
the apron, do not interfere with the aircrafts
taxiing for take off
• At busy airports, taxiway should be located at
various points along various points along the run
way so that the landing aircraft leaves the
runway as early as possible and keep it clear for
use by other aircraft. Such taxiway are called exit
taxiways
• The route for taxiway should be so selected
that it provides shortest practicable distance
from the apron to runway end
• As for as possible intersection of taxiway and
runway should be avoided
• Exit taxiway should be designed for high
turnoff speeds. This will reduce the runway
occupancy time of aircraft and thus increase
the airport capacity.
 Terminal Building
• The purpose of airport building is to provide
shelter and space for various surface activities
related to the air transportation.
• It refers to a Building mainly ,used for passengers,
airline and administration facilities
• An airport terminal is a building at an airport. It is
where passengers are able to get on and off
aircraft.
• Essential building categories for a commercial
airport are terminal and operational.
• Terminal building offers enplaning passenger,
direct access from the vehicle platform or
though booking and waiting room, to the
aircraft loading position on the apron
• It offers deplaning passenger, with direct route
from aircraft to baggage claim counter and
then to the vehicle platform
• The operational category includes control
tower, weather bureau and other government
services related to the aviation
 Planning consideration
1. Centralization plan : all passengers , baggage
and cargo are funneled through central
building and are then dispersed to the
respective positions
2. Decentralization plan: the passengers and
baggage arrive at a point near the departing
plane
 APRON
• It is a paved area for parking of aircraft,
loading and unloading of passenger and cargo
Size of apron depends on
1. Gate position (size of loading area required for each type of aircraft)
2. Number of gate position
3. Aircraft parking system

1. Size of gate position depends on

• Size of the aircraft and its minimum turning
radius
• Manner in which aircraft enter and leave the gate
position
• Aircraft parking configuration: aircraft are parked causing the
least interference due to heat , fumes and blast during manoeuvring into and
out of gate position
 2. Number of gate position
• Depends upon the peak hourly aircraft movements
and time during which each aircraft remains in a gate
position.
• Gate occupancy time for
small aircraft : 10 minutes
Big aircraft : 60minutes
𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑤𝑎𝑦
• 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝑋 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
60 𝑥 2
 3. Airport parking system
Aircraft can be grouped adjacent to terminal
building in various ways
• Frontal system
• Open apron system
• Finger system
• Satellite system
 HANGER
The primary function of hanger is to provide an
enclosure for servicing, overhauling and repairs
of aircrafts
• They usually constructed of steel frames and covered
with galvanized sheets
• They are provided with machine shops and spare
parts
• Adequate light inside the hanger is prime importance
• Construction of single hanger to store large number
of aircrafts may be undesirable both economy and
other conditions
viz., difficult in manoeuvring of aircrafts,
noise nuisance,
fire hazards etc
• The size of the hanger depend upon the size
of aircraft and its turning radius
• The number of hangers depends upon the
peak hour volume of aircrafts and demand of
hanger on rental basis by different airline
agencies
 Typical airport layout
• The first step in airfield design is the selection
of suitable runway configuration
• There should be good correlation between
the runway and other airport elements viz.,
taxiway, terminal building, apron etc
• The proper airport layout provides full
functional efficiency with the minimum space
utilization
 Characteristics of good airport layout
• Landing, taxiing and taking off as independent
operation without interference
• Shortest taxiway distance from loading apron to
runway end
• Safe runway length
• Safe approaches
• Excellent control tower visibility
• Adequate loading apron space
• Sufficient terminal building facilities
• Sufficient land area to permit subsequent expansion
• Lowest possible cost of construction
Typical Airport Layouts For Basic
Runway Configuration
 Blast consideration
• High energy jet exhaust has created many
problem in the field of civil aviation
• Inconvenience, discomfort and even injury
may be caused to the passengers boarding the
aircraft if they are exposed to the jet exhaust
of velocity more than 50kmph
• The damage also caused to the airport
equipment, structure and to the pavements
Wake velocity at any distance from the
exhaust end of the jet
• Airport planning and maintenance programs
include
evaluation of the effect of jet blast in terminal
area , in the vicinity of runway end , apron and
along the taxiways for determining the needs for
their protection
 Methods used for protection
• Stabilization of shoulders along the taxiway,
aprons and holding apron for the erosion
control
• Erection of blast fences in apron areas,
holding aprons, runway end and taxiway fillet
 Airport marking
• The pilot needs visual aids while landing or
take off during all weather and at every time
• In order to enhance the day time visibility
runways, taxiway and other allied structure
marked with line and numbers
• During poor weather condition or at night
time the visibility reduces considerably
• it is essential to provide adequate lightning in
the airport to convey the similar information
to the pilot during visibility condition
• Airport area is marked in a simple manner so
that the pilots can spot and recognize to the
various airport elements

Airport marking are divided into the followings

Runway marking
Taxiway marking
Runway and taxiway shoulder marking
Apron marking
Wind direction indicator
Landing direction indicator
 Runway marking
Marking made on the runway are the following
Runway threshold marking
Runway touch down zone or landing zone mark
Runway edge strip marking
Runway centre line marking
Runway number
Runway marking
 Threshold marking
• The runway threshold is indicated by series of
parallel lines starting from a distance of 6m
from the runway end
• These marking in the form of strips 3.6m wide
spaced 0.9m clear and symmetrically placed
on either side of the runway centre line
 Runway touch down
• It is indicated by series of stripes arranged
symmetrically about the centre line
• with their number decreasing gradually in the
direction of landing
 Runway Edge Stripe
• When the width of runway exceeds 45m the
side stripes in the form of long continuous
lines 90cm wide may be marked near the
edge

Runway centre line marking

• It is represented by broken strip running
along the entire length of the runway
 Runway numbering
• The end of each runway is marked with a
number which indicates the magnetic azimuth
• The angle measured in a clockwise direction
from the north of the runway in the direction
of landing
• Thus East end of East - West runway marked
27 (270 ͦ), For west 9 (90 ͦ)
• The marking is given to the nearest of 10 ͦ
If two or more number of parallel runway ,they
are marked as follows at the threshold
• Two parallel runway ( L , R)
• Three parallel runway (L , C , R)
• Four parallel runways (L, LC, RC,R)
Airport Lighting
 FACTORS AFFECTING AIRPORT
LIGHTING:
• Airport classification
• Amount of traffic
• Availability of power
• Nature of aircraft using the airport
• Type of night operation plans
• Type of landing surfaces provided
• Weather condition, etc.
ELEMENTS OF AIRPORT LIGHTING:
• Airport beacon
• Approach lighting
• Apron and hangar lighting
• Boundary lighting
• Lighting of landing direction indicator
• Lighting of wind direction indicator
• Runway lighting
• Taxiway lighting
• Threshold lighting
 Runway lighting
• The planning of runway lighting is carried out in
such a way that the pilot gets enough information
on alignment, lateral displacement, roll and
distance.
• During night landings, flood lights were used in
olden days. But now runway edge lights are
adopted.
Narrow gauge pattern-
• the most precise runway alignment which is
widely used.
• It makes use of centre-line and touch down zone
lights for operations in very poor visibility.
Black hole effect:
• As the pilot crosses the threshold and continues to look
along the centre-line, the principal source of guidance,
namely, the edge lights has moved far to each side in the
peripheral vision. As a result, the central area appears
black and the pilot is virtually flying blind for the
peripheral reference information.

• This can be eliminated by adopting the narrow gauge

pattern of the runway lighting,
• All the lights provided on the runway are
white in colour and of flush type, i.e. they do
not protrude more than 1cm above the
surface of pavement.
• The runway edge lights are of elevated type
and they are white colour except for the last
600m if an instrument runway facing the pilot
which are of yellow colour to indicate a
caution zone.