Yeah but a suspicious van parked on the perimeter road at LHR* isn't as much of a worry as one parked under both the runways at MAN. The former could maybe get that area evacuated, the latter could halt Take Offs and Landings.

*You can't park one van under both runways at LHR so it should be possible to keep some operations going

You wouldn't taxi aircraft from one to the other. You would only move pax from one to the other via a high-speed rail link. NHT would be for short-haul domestic and European and for A320 sized aircraft.

exactly

Either that or widen the M25 and A40 to accommodate a 747...

Agreed. Noise is, to me, much less of an issue going forward. Most mornings I can hear the earlybird 747s as they overfly the Vauxhall Bridge area. The 777s and A380s are not noticable. By the time any of these "solutions" are in place (and even a Northolt link would likely take the best part of 10 years), plane noise will be even less of an issue than now. 747s and their noisy colleagues will be pretty much gone :(.
Plus, it should be easy enough to restrict movements before, say 6am, and after 10pm to the quietest / most modern planes.

Well I am a little north of London at the moment. Today being a cold and miserable day the planes appear to be a little lower. Its been noisy and very noticeable trying to watch TV. These are the A320 \ type etc, not the 747.

Having frequently advocated a new 3rd runway at EGWU, parallel to the extant LHR alignment, I am conscious that there are severe difficulties.

I assume that EGWU/EGLL(North) would require a fuel farm, some engineering facilities and, of course, adequate Terminal buildings. At this point, the real-estate starts to get a bit difficult.

I can happily conceive a long [10,000 ft plus] runway aligned parallel to and just north of the A40. There's even a major road junction on the A40 sitting there waiting to be used [with West End Road placed in a tunnel]! The dedicated Mag-Lev or whatever to LHR (Main) is also fairly easy. Underground links to the Central, Metropolitan and Piccadilly Lines are but yards away, as is [apparently] a Chiltern Line connection at South Ruislip. Having lived there for nearly 5 years, I could also easily support the idea of bulldozing some of the local housing estates.

But … is there actually space for all the essential associated infrastructure for EGWU to become LHR(N)?

Have a look at Google Earth … placing runways is fairly easy, of course.

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/m...09at173309.png

That isnt so charitable :D

You probably didn't live around there. ;)
RAF Northolt was fine … it went rapidly downhill after a couple of hundred yards.

I rest my case, M'Lud :D

You've missed the obvious answer, and for that we need to look at GIB. The runway crosses the Western Avenue (A40) and there just need to be traffic lights to stop the traffic when a plane is landing, as seen here...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...in_Highway.jpg(Author Andrew Griffith)


Now what's wrong with that? :p:D:D

Love it ^ ^

Keep taking the tablets :D :D

Will we EVER see any new runways in the UK in the near future? or will pigs fly first
 

this is what angers me about this country

France = Built a new 2 runway airport north of Paris with room to expand, guess what? they expanded it and built another 2 runways making it a vast 4 runway hub with the largest airport land area in Europe

Germany = Built Munich Airport (3rd runway approved), built a third AND recently a fourth runway at Frankfurt, talking about a second runway for Stuttgart and currently constructing a brand new 2 runway airport for Berlin

Netherlands = Already have a huge US style multi runway hub which has already added a new runway in recent years (polderbaan)

Spain = Built 2 new runways at Madrid recently turning it into a large 4 runway hub similar to Paris

Funny that 30 years ago all the main European hubs (excluding AMS) had 2 runways like LHR, but in typical British complacency we sat on our asses boasting about having the largest airport in Europe and not bothering to expand it or do anything whilst the Europeans quietly got to work building and building

The interesting thing is that our European neighbours actually GET THINGS DONE

Its sooo frustrating here

all the amazing ideas but NOTHING ever gets done, we are now having the ELEVENTH aviation consultation since the last runway in the South of England was constructed.

its such a mess

Sure they built the second runway at Manchester (amazingly) but to be honest Manchester has a much more competent company running it which is much more efficient and more ambitous than BAA (similar to European hubs which like MAN get things done)

A typical example of this country was Stansted. We revamped the former US air force base into what was meant to replace Heathrow as the UKs Hub Airport. The plan was to built 4 runways in stages. So what did they do? they built the first runway but didnt bother building the rest as planned. 40 or 50 years later BAA finally realise maybe a second runway will be needed so take ages (years) to finalise a plan only for the rather slow but pro aviation government to be voted out and a Nimby bunch of Eco halfwits to be voted in and abolish all airport expansion plans. So now what was meant to be our new UK Hub Airport with a US style system of lots of runways is now an overcrowded little airstrip run by Ryanair....great

When the aviation white paper came out in 2003 I believe it had these suggestions
1. A third runway at Heathrow
2. A second runway at Luton
3. A second runway at Stansted
4. A second runway at Birmingham
5. A second runway at Edinburgh
6. New runways at Gatwick, Glasgow, and East Midlands would also be studies in the longer term

which of these has so far happened? NONE

What a surprise :o

anyway what do you think the odds are of seeing a simple strip of concrete being built somewhere in the UK one day??? and possibly one that doesn't cost £9 Billion

So we want a brownfield site in or near London with good transport links... How many runways could you fit on the Olympic Park?

Actually flyingcrazy, it is far worse than you spell out, about 30 years ago Heathrow had SIX RUNWAYS, yes some will say that they were due to the crosswinds, etc. But the truth is/was that had the government authorities who ran aviation policy AND all the airports at that time rather than essentially say, "We'll never need more than 2.5 runways at LHR......how much bigger could it ever grow??!!" "Much like those in the admiralty who thought that Britain should not have submarines because they were ungentlemanly), instead have shifted a runway or two, there would NEVER have been any debate and it would have just been done, remember that the LHR area had over 22 airstrips in 1946 as well.

Well since a load of sports arenas and other facilities have now been built there it is no longer a brownfied site. Plus it's not an island so Boris won't be interested.

Oh as as to the comments about tunnels under the MAN runways surely the same is true at LHR (even if there are not general access road tunnels) for the rain and tube servives. And a taxiway at ORD also crosses a roadway too (on a bridge) without any problems