Airport Engineering

Airport Engineering encompasses the planning, design, and construction of terminals, runways, and
navigation aids to provide for passenger and freight service. Airport engineers design and construct
airports. They must account for the impacts and demands of aircraft in their design of airport facilities.
These engineers must use the analysis of predominant wind direction to determine runway orientation,
determine the size of runway border and safety areas, different wing tip to wing tip clearances for all
gates and must designate the clear zones in the entire port.

Airport engineering (civil engineering)

The planning, design, construction, and operation and maintenance of facilities providing for the landing
and takeoff, loading and unloading, servicing, maintenance, and storage of aircraft.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc.

Airport engineering

A terminal facility used for aircraft takeoff and landing, and including facilities for handling passengers
and cargo and for servicing aircraft. Facilities at airports are generally described as either airside, which
commences at the secured boundary between terminal and apron and extends to the runway and to
facilities beyond, such as navigational or remote air-traffic-control emplacements; or landside, which
includes the terminal, cargo-processing, and land-vehicle approach facilities.

Airport design provides for convenient passenger access, efficient aircraft operations, and conveyance of
cargo and support materials. Airports provide facilities for changing transportation modes, such as
people transferring from cars and buses to aircraft, cargo transferring from shipping containers to
trucks, or regional aircraft supplying passengers and cargo for intercontinental aircraft. In the United
States, engineers utilize standards from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), aircraft performance
characteristics, cost benefit analysis, and established building codes to prepare detailed layouts of the
essential airport elements: airport site boundaries, runway layout, terminal-building configuration,
support-building locations, roadway and rail access, and supporting utility layouts. Airport engineers
constantly evaluate new mechanical and computer technologies that might increase throughput of
baggage, cargo, and passengers.

Site selection

Site selection factors vary somewhat according to whether (1) an entirely new airport is being
constructed or (2) an existing facility is being expanded. Few metropolitan areas have large areas of
relatively undeveloped acreage within reasonable proximity to the population center to permit
development of new airports. For those airports requiring major additional airfield capacity, however,
and hence an entirely new site, the following factors must be evaluated for each alternate site:
proximity to existing highways and major utilities; demolition requirements; contamination of air, land,
and water; air-traffic constraints such as nearby smaller airport facilities; nearby mountains; numbers of
households affected by relocation and noise; political jurisdiction; potential lost mineral or agricultural
production; and costs associated with all these factors. Some governments have elected to create sites
for new airports using ocean fills. The exact configuration of the artifical island sites is critical due to the
high foundation costs, both for the airport proper and for the required connecting roadway and rail
bridges.

Airfield configuration

Since the runways and taxiways constitute the largest portion of the airport's land mass, their layout,
based on long-term forecasts of numbers of aircraft landings and departures, is generally one of the first
steps in the airport design. A paved runway surface 12,000 ft (3660 m) long and 150 ft (45 m) wide is
suitable for most applications. Runway length requirements change according to the type of aircraft,
temperature, altitude, and humidity encountered. A parallel taxiway is generally constructed 600 ft (180
m) from the runway (measured centerline to centerline). It is connected by shorter high-speed taxiways
to allow arriving aircraft to leave the runway surface quickly in order to clear another aircraft arrival as
quickly as possible. This combination is generally referred to as a runway-taxiway complex.

Ideally, airports can exclusively utilize parallel runway complexes so that incoming and departing aircraft
can also be parallel for safe, simultaneous operations. Under these conditions, runway thresholds would
be slightly staggered to avoid wake turbulence interference between incoming aircraft. Staggered
thresholds might also be used to minimize crossing of active runways by taxiing aircraft. Each crossing is
a potential aircraft delay and a safety hazard.

When airports have sufficiently high-velocity crosswinds or tailwinds from more than one direction,
crosswind runways must also be provided. These crosswind runways are located at some angle to the
primary runway as dictated by a wind rose analysis.

Runways are paved with concrete, asphalt, concrete-treated base, or some combination of layers of
these materials. Runways for larger aircraft require thicker, more expensive pavement sections.
Engineers design these pavements for long design lives. The expected life of a concrete runway can be
increased from 20 to 40 years, based on enhanced mix designs and sections. See Concrete, Pavement

A system of vehicle service roads must be provided around the perimeter of the airfield both for access
to the runways and for security patrols of the perimeter fencing. Airfield security fencing with a series of
access gates is monitored with patrols and, increasingly, a remote camera surveillance system.
Terminal configuration

The terminal is generally the airport building that houses ticketing, baggage claim, and transfer to
ground transportation. The concourse is generally the combination of facilities for boarding aircraft,
sorting baggage according to flight, and unloading cargo carried in commercial aircraft. Airport terminal
and concourse configurations generally fall into three categories: (1) terminal contiguous with concourse
satellite extensions (known as piers or fingers) used for boarding aircraft; (2) unit terminals, which serve
as transfer points both from ground transportation modes into the building and from the building into
the aircraft; (3) and detached terminal and concourses, sometimes referred to as a landside and airside
terminals, connected by a people-mover train system, an underground walkway or a surface transport
vehicle.

Support buildings

The primary types of support buildings required by the airlines for their airport operations are flight
kitchens to prepare meals for passengers, hangars to service aircraft, and ground support equipment
buildings to service ground support vehicles such as tugs, baggage carts, and service trucks. The high
number of trips for support vehicles to travel from these buildings to load or service aircraft requires
that the buildings be located in reasonable proximity to the aircraft gates. However, the buildings should
be sufficiently far to allow the concourses to be expanded without requiring demolition of these support
facilities.

An airport requires fire equipment to provide extremely fast primary and secondary response to each
and every runway. Locating the aircraft rescue and fire-fighting stations requires careful positioning with
respect to the taxiway system. Other types of support buildings include storage buildings, employee
facilities, administrative offices, vehicle maintenance buildings for snow removal and airport vehicles,
roadway revenue plaza offices, and training facilities.

Fuel and deicing facilities

Economies of scale and safety considerations generally encourage the implementation of large,
centralized common systems for aircraft fuel. The large storage tanks required to ensure adequate
reserves of fuel are located in remote areas of the airport, generally in aboveground facilities.
Underground distribution piping then transports the fuel to hydrant pits or truck fueling stations close to
aircraft operations. This system, like most utilities, is designed with backup capacity by looping piping
around each service area. If a break occurs in a section of pipe, valves are automatically closed and the
supply direction is reversed. Fuel tanks require extensive analysis of structural, mechanical, and
electrical design. These tanks are widely spaced to avoid the transmission of fire and to allow room for a
surface detention area to store burning fuel.
Port and Harbor Engineering

Port and harbor engineers handle the design, construction, and operation of ports, harbors, canals, and
other maritime facilities. A harbor (or haven) is a place for ships to enter and find shelter from storms or
other natural phenomena. The modern harbor is a place where ships are built, launched, and repaired,
as well as a terminal for incoming and outgoing ships. There are four principal classes of harbors;
commercial, naval, fishery, and refuge for small craft. Harbor may be natural or artificial.

A port is a harbor with the necessary terminal facilities to expedite the moving of cargo and passengers
at any stage of a journey. A good harbor must have a safe anchorage and a direct channel to open
water, and must be deep enough for large ships. An efficient port must have enough room for docks,
warehouses, and loading and unloading machinery. Geographically, a port or harbor is usually limited to
a comparatively small area of usable berthing space rather than an extended coastline. Some ports
along exposed coastal areas, for example, the western coast of South America, have little harbor area.