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.
