Runways and Taxiways for Supersonic Transports

Considerable interest has arisen in the United States and in Europe during the 1960 's concerning the development of a supersonic transport for civil aviation. The Federal government has begun to appropriate funds for the development of such a transport. Considerable work must be undertaken before supersonic transports for civil aviation will become a reality. The problems associated with the design of a supersonic transport can be divided into two broad categories: (2) Flight requirements, and (2) the airport requirements. This paper is concerned with airport requirements. From the data available to date (1962), the paper attempts to prognosticate the length and width of runways that will be required to accommodate supersonic transports; the necessary width of taxiways and their radii; and, finally, the effective thickness of asphalt and concrete pavement. An analysis is developed that will permit the airport designer to determine the radii of new taxiways providing certain physical dimensions of the aircraft are known. Also, an analysis is developed for determining whether existing taxiways will need to be widened.