M RUNWAYS AT AIRPORT

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28758, 2 December 1958, Page 7

M RUNWAYS AT AIRPORT

| “No Case For Extension”

s£ No very strong case existed for *>iny increase in the runway lengths 13t the Christchurch Airport, the 4*Civil Aviation Administration adJgvised the City Council last evening in a letter which discussed £*the length of runways required #for the operation of jet aircraft. ** While airline operators who proposed to equip with the “large ■gets”—the Boeing 707 and the D.C.B—generally asked •iifor a runway length of approximately 10,000 feet, those require-/-ments were based on full loads vsnd long ranges, neither of which applied to the present of international flyJfcng to and from New Zealand, the said. Even in the case of the proposed 3pew international airport at the first stages of the project would provide no more ircthan the runway length necessary tlor the Auckland-Nandi stage. precise information was '■Tiot yet available, the runway length required for such aircraft mentioned at this stage under formal operating conditions, with fuel reserves, was about *5OOO feet. Even in the case of M slightly longer stage length ffrom Christchurch to Nandi, for 707/320 series at full payload with reserves **in still air for a maximum all rtip weight of 245,0001 b, a runway of 6600 ft, the maximum length on the main runway at /Christchurch, should be satisfactory. With the main runway and the Subsidiary runway of 5700 ft, there swere also over-runs of 12.000 ft at grach end of the main runway. Jjwhich meant that for accelerate-->«top purposes 7800 ft was available show. The runway could be increased to 8600 feet without difficulty should it ever be necessary. Ji To the council’s inquiry on the •Jieed for extending the subsidiary •kunway the administration said Jlhat would only be required if 'there was no other alternative airPort in New Zealand for the purre of landing an aircraft such a D.C.B or Boeing 707.