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https://web.cvent.com/event/f9fa585e-9809-4883-b816-4409768c0e0e/websitePage:18647cf2-f444-46d9-8b37-39c723ad529e

PIPE-A NEW AIRPORT CONCEPT

At the heart of the new concept pipe is a simple, closed viaduct, a kind of traffic ring, round which all the important airport fuctions are grouped. The key word PIPE is intended to indicate that everything - passengers, aircraft crews, personnel, baggage, freight, supplies, waste etc. - converges on or diverges from this ring on several levels, by either conventional or automated transport systems. It is stressed that the system could be applied both the new airports and to airports that are being remodelled. All activities could be planned step by step. In the final account a reduction of at least 20 per cent could be expected in operating costs and capital expenditure. The concept involves better technical cooperation between the airlines, with the object of maintaining special services on a joint basis and thus saving personnel, time and money. All the basic elements would be treated in the same way, the various aircraft types, runways and taxiways, aprons and aircraft parking areas, passenger and freight terminal, control tower, air crew building, maintenance and personnel facilities, workshops, security and emergency systems, access roads and car parks. The apron is rectangular in shape and contains no areas that are difficult to use. Its size depends on aircraft movements on the ground, not on peculiar termial shapes. Aircraft, grouped by categories, are all parked noise-in along the PIPE, with bridge connections. All separate aprons, taxiways or duplicate handling equipment. When the airport has a parallel runway system, the PIPE ring encloses all the elements. With other runway configurations the passenger terminal and car park lie outside the ring. Since there is today no justification for locating the freight terminal away from the passsenger termial, this building is situated within the operations area, at the point where wide-body aircraft dock. An internal transit system links all points of the operations area with one another. On the airside, taxiways laid out in a double ring, with one-way traffic, make for simple, safe aircraft movements. The grouping of aircraft into size categories reduces the amount of specialized ground operations personnel and the technical services required. And because all equipment is also centralized by sector, aircraft turn-around times should be shorter. A reduction in capital expenditure is obtained primarily by providing a single-level terminal building which can be extended step by step in the form of small modules. Costly baggage conveyor systems would be unnecessary. The apron could manage with a minimum of concrete area. Since the airbridges are used only for specific aircraft types, considerable savings could also be made in this area. Another advantage of the linear aircraft positioning is to be found in the simpler fuelling and airfield lighting installations.

  • Corporate Authors:

    Bauverlag GmbH

    Wittelbacherstrasse 10
    6200 Wiesbaden,   Germany 
  • Publication Date: 1976-4

Media Info

  • Features: Figures;
  • Pagination: p. 26-28
  • Serial:

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00155707
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Aug 31 1981 12:00AM