Runway

A runway is a strip of land on an airport, on which aircraft can take off and land. Runways may be a prepared surface, (often asphalt or concrete) or an unprepared surface (grass, dirt, gravel).

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Large airports may have several runways. They are identified by the magnetic direction in which they point, rounding to the nearest ten degrees. So, for example, a runway identified with "36" would stand for a 360 degrees direction (i.e. North), "09" for 94 degrees, and "17" for 168 degrees. Each runway can be used in two directions, and hence has two numbers. Since the directions are necessarily opposite, the number of a runway can always be found by adding or subtracting 18 from the opposite runway number (whichever yields a positive number less than 37). For example runway 10 is called runway 28 when used in the opposite direction.

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If in an airport there is more than one runway pointing in the same direction, the runways are identified by the letters L, C and R, for Left, Center and Right, behind the number. Such an example would be runways "15L", "15C" and "15R". In speech runways are always referred to by saying each digit of the number, followed by 'Left', 'Right' or 'Center' if necessary. The first example above would be referred to as "Runway One Five Left".

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For fixed wing aircraft it as advantageous to perform take-offs and landings into the wind to achieve the maximum lift. Airports usually have several runways, running in different directions, so that this can be done for different wind directions.

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At bigger airports, runways use a standard lighting system to allow night landings. Seen from a landing plane, the runway starts with a strip of green lights at the near end and stops with a strip of red lights at the far end. The runway itself is framed with white elevated edge lights, as opposed to the blue elevated edge lights of a taxiway. The centerline is often indicated by white lights, which may be coded alternately white and yellow and then purely yellow nearing the far end of the runway. Furthermore, many runways equipped with instrument landing systems feature touchdown zone lighting. This consists of rows of white light bars on either side of the centerline over the first 3000 feet of the runway.

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Airport: An airport is a facility where aircraft can take off and land. At the very minimum, an airport consists of one runway (or helipad), but other common components are hangars and terminal buildings. Apart from these, an airport may have a variety of facilities and infrastructure, including fixed base ...

Aircraft: An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight....

Take off: Take off is the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground (taxiing) to flying in the air (see flight), usually from a runway. Take off is the opposite of landing....

Runway related Images and Photos (experimental)

Runway	Project Runway Scissors	Project Runway Pet Designer Runway Collection Kit	Project Runway Paper Cube
Project Runway Fashion Design Runway Collection Kit	Project Runway Men's T-Shirt	Project Runway Quotes Sketch Pad	Project Runway Sewing Basics Kit
Project Runway I See You On The Runway Womens T-Shirt - Black	Project Runway Magazine Editor Tote	Project Runway Aluminum Water Bottle	Project Runway Ex-Actly! Womens T-Shirt - Black