DESIGN
Wayports provide long-term
facilities for air traffic control, technology and next generation aircraft including commercial space program vehicles.
Wayports integrates the latest facilities for passenger and cargo security screening. Staging and phase development
is an important feature of Wayports. The first phase of Wayports could be primarily cargo until passenger demand
builds up. Facilities be phased in based on demand.
Wayports
should be large enough to accommodate at least four parallel runways separated to provide triple flow simultaneous
all weather instrument landing systems. They could have runways up to13,000 ft long or longer if needed. This runway
configuration will provide massive long range capacity. Next generation aircraft capable of carrying over 800 passengers
in all economy configuration could be in the worldwide fleet by the year 2010. These aircraft require wider runways and
taxiways with greater separations and lateral clearances, larger terminal hold rooms and baggage and ticketing facilities
during peak hour activities.
Road
and highway systems serving Wayports should be planned to accommodate future growth for origin/destination and regional trucking
and bulk break activities related to cargo.
High speed, regional or commuter rail could link nearby metropolitan/urban
areas. Airport terminals will be designed with high efficiency automated people movers to provide minimum connecting
times with parking facilities, rental car, buses and other transportation businesses to easily access the enplaning and deplaning
roads.
Implementation of Wayports would be phased in over time to satisfy demand and allow incremental expansion
over a 20-40 year time frame. Site locations and land banking needs to be done now.
SAFETY FEATURES
Security systems for screening passengers, baggage and cargo would be
more efficient than existing airports because they would be integrated with new construction as opposed to retrofitting aged
facilities.
Safety would be enhanced by expanding into unused airways
and airspace that enhances enroute and terminal area system capacity.
Reduction of airport and airspace
congestion in the hub and spoke system.
All weather landing and takeoff capability in zero visibility
conditions. 100:1 approach surfaces for all runways.
Fire and rescue facilities and equipment including
emergency response capability.
Ground safety would be significantly improved through standardization and
cloning of layout of airfield facilities and flight procedures.
Computerized airfield surface
monitoring guidance systems including in-pavement electronics to minimize runway incursions.
Weather information
related to ice, snow, fog removal, wind shear detection and special pilot briefing facilities.
Encroachment
protection for all electronic facilities and navigational equipment including radars, landing systems, air traffic control
and communications facilities.
Optimum design of airfield and terminal facilities for enplaning and deplaning
passengers with automated people movers to shorten time from curb to gates, ticketing and baggage areas.
NAME
"Wayport"
and "Wayports" describes a futuristic nationwide aviation system. Terms are needed to differentiate
between “local” and “system” airports to contrast
their purposes for public understanding, marketing and development. The term "Interstate Aviation
System" is important because the public can relate it to the Interstate Highway System and see
its value as a nationwide system. The term “Wayports” has been discussed extensively in worldwide media,
institutional, business and government circles.
LOCATION-HOW MANY
Wayports
would be strategically located, planned and developed as a part of a nationwide "system" to supplement and
off-load users of the existing airports system the way Interstate Highways supplement and off-load roads and highways.
Four
to six Wayports should be brought on line within the next 10-15 years serving the mega-regions on the East Coast, West
Coast and Mid-America. Peotone and Denver could serve as mid-continent Wayports.
Wayports supplement
the existing airport system.They are integrated with enroute and terminal air traffic control, airways, airspace, highways
and rail and be fully Intermodal facilities.
Wayports would be located
in large geographical areas and placed where they work best for the national system. Wayports could be on the fringes
of urban and metropolitan areas, at new sites, underutilized airports
or abandoned military bases. Wayports would be positioned to maximize their use and ability to
off-load gridlocked hubs that have difficulty expanding to meet long range demands due to excessive costs and environmental,
noise and air pollution impacts.
Locations of Wayports in the nationwide system would not be
left entirely up to local and state governments because they cannot perform system planning beyond their local
and state jurisdictions.
A key feature in selecting Wayport locations is a long-range
runway configuration would be utilized to provide maximum airport and airspace capacity for the next century. Land needed
to develop this configuration would be acquired, however, Wayports facilities would be staged at each location on an
as needed basis to meet long range growth and phased in based on user and tenant demands and operational levels. Future
runways would be protected by federal airspace reservations and local/state zoning. Cargo, postal or express mail may
be the initial activities at one or more Wayports. The highest priority should be enroute and terminal airspace requirements,
however, Wayports should be located reasonably close to communities where the workforce would have access to schools, churches,
shopping, etc.until they develop around Wayports. A respected nationally known urban planner said wayports provided
the opportunity to plan for new cities.
PURPOSE AND USE
The Wayports Concept is an integrated aviation system alternative
to the threat of gridlock at U.S. and world airports. The Concept calls for an integrated system of large airport facilities
to provide a massive, long-range reservoir of nationwide by-pass air capacity for all types of air services and related activities
including commercial spaceports.
Wayports provide almost unlimited airport and airspace capacity for
all airlines including low fare, regional, commuter, charter and Very LIght Jets (VLJ's) to serve originating passengers and
connecting passengers, cargo, US Postal Service and express mail and package services; aircraft manufacturing and
maintenance and general aviation.
Wayports would provide a new economic way to collect and distribute regionally,
nationally and globally for all types of aeronautical and commercial activities that do not exist in today’s congested
system. A Wayport would function as a “collector distributor” or “expediter" of goods and services.
Wayports were never intended to be used exlusively for connecting and transfer passengers. Origin destination
passengers in the general vicinity of Wayports would be accommodated as well as those delivered by regional and commuter airlines.
High speed rail links could be used for origin/destination passengers as is done in Europe and Asia today.
Land
on or adjacent to Wayports could be developed for hotels and conference centers, entertainment centers including recreation
and theme parks, merchandise marts, shopping malls and business opportunities that offer significant economic opportunities
subject to land use and zoning parameters.
COSTS
Wayports would be developed at enormously reduced costs compared to developing
new conventional airports or expanding existing hubs. Funding sources of up to 80%, similar to Interstate Highways, was proposed
in Federal legislation that was not enacted. Private industry could develop wayports with commercial development surrounding
the facility.
World passengers will double by 2020. An aviation expert
recently stated that the equivalent of at least 10 new airports the size of Dallas-Ft. Worth will be needed in the next 20
years. The first phase of Wayports can be operational in five-ten years if needed by then that will allow them to provide
near term capacity. It is important to understand that Wayports will be phased in over time with only facilities needed to
meet current demand.
ENVIRONMENTAL
Maximum environmental protection would be provided at Wayports,
especially those related to noise and air pollution. Covenants and zoning related to land uses covering the long-range would
be included in initial land acquisitions. Compatible uses of land for economic development around and in the vicinity of Wayports
would be adopted and enforced over the long-range.
FINANCING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Wayports must have positive leadership to assure
all visionary planning and implementation strategies are considered. Privatization efforts are underway in the USA to
develop large tracts of land in non-urban settings to function as cargo airports. Wayports would stretch limited federal funding
by reducing the need for large amounts of funds for new runway and airfield development at the hubs that currently has a high
priority in capturing federal financial assistance. Wayports could be owned and operated by local, state or federal governments
or privatized without the need for local, state or federal funds. Wayports can be implemented in a more economical, environmental
and politically acceptable way than conventional alternatives that have difficulties overcoming opposition which has prevented
the expansion airports in the world in the last 20 years.
