Sydney Runways and the Southern Cross

[von Tom]

OK this is extremely nerdy but has anyone else noticed that the layout of the runways at Sydney airport matches that of the Southern Cross? :)

[ourkind]

haha I'm going on a treasure hunt for the Jewel Box tomorrow!! :lol:


Now slightly off topic, I just had a browse through your flicker photostream and can I just say WOW, you've got brilliant planetary captures and compositions, so many hours of work it's just great. A couple of standouts and they are Saturn in daylight (sooo cool) and the ISS and shuttles. Great work :thumbsup:

[chappo]

You may be on to something!
The airport of course, was named after Charles Kingsford Smith who made the first trans-pacific flight in an aircraft named Southern Cross.
Also, the airport lies at the end of Southern Cross Drive.
A few too many coincidences?:D:D

[Larryp]

Interesting observation, Tom!

[Suzy]

Wow this is really interesting, esp. with what John said.
Thanks for the education.

Oh, and someone please buy Tom a television. :P

Only kidding, great observation! ;):lol:

[joe_smith]

the only answer?? :lol:

[Suzy]

This got me curious so I started looking for information, but nothing I could find except here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Airport) in this Wikki article.
No mention of the connection- from what this article says, perhaps a co-incidence? Because it says that they ended up having to extend a couple of runways much later when it was built.:shrug:
I don't know anything about this stuff, so I watch here with interest what you guys come up with. :)

[vaztr]

Another 'space' related Sydney airport fact.

The 'long' runway at Sydney was part paid for by NASA so that the Space Shuttle could use it in an emergency. I believe it is the only runway in the southern hemisphere that is able to handle a 'runaway' shuttle.

VAZ

[LewisM]

Pure coincidence. The runways at Sydney are aligned purely for the most prevalent winds, and no other "conspiracy" :)

Pretty sure Darwin could handle a Shuttle too. You could land a 747 SIDEWAYS almost at Darwin it is so darned wide! Well, it was built for B-52 staging etc :) Plus, it is one of the few Aussie runways long enough for the now defunct Concorde (and was used for such).

[stephenb]

Correct, coincidence, and, err, look at Melbourne airport, almost identical alignment

YMML: 16-34 and 09-27
YSSY: 16-34 and 05-25

I know that Melbourne was specifically orientated to cater for local weather conditions also.

[MrB]

Happy to stand corrected, but I think airports like to have crossing runways(where possible) to suit wind direction.
LewisM and/or Peter Ward might be able to shed some light?

[von Tom]

Great comments guys :). I'm surprised I didn't notice it earlier, being an ATC! ;)

[LewisM]

Simon, yes, they have cross runways to cater for usually atypical conditions. Usually shorter runways, as they are more oriented for GA aircraft that do not generally have as high x-wind limitations or autoland ;)

So, the LONG runways are typical 80% of the time wind oriented, and the other 20% for the other. My figures are guesses only ;) I am no statistician.

[LewisM]

Hmmmm... you look down on us all the time... you should notice :lol:

[RobF]

My ageing copy of ERSA says:

Sydney (16/34) 3962m, Darwin 3354m

Almost 4km is a pretty good distance to get just about anything down :)

[von Tom]

And I like the way that runway 16L/34R aligns with epsilon and zeta Crucis :)