A Question About Denver Intl

**FlyingKiwi** · 10-21-2003, 03:49 AM

I'm sure someone on this forum can answer my question. I landed in Denver a few days ago after a flight from Las Vegas, and after switching to top down view I noticed an area of ground at the edge of the satellite image, I have circled it. Is it a runway being built/demolished? :-hmmm

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...496a897180.jpg

**CLE757** · 10-21-2003, 03:56 AM

That runway has been built. in september i believe

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-8/60403/cle757.JPG

**USAirways** · 10-21-2003, 04:12 AM

Yeah the runway was already built, if i remember correctly it's 16,000 x 250 Ft. I think they're currently doing ILS test n other stuff.

**PHCO** · 10-21-2003, 06:06 AM

What I know is that this runway (16R/34L) is already in use since 4th of September 10:38 am (first flight = B777 - UA 244 to Chicago). The runway is 4875 meters (15600 ft) long and 61 meters (195 ft) wide ----> longest (civilian) runway in North Amercia. :-eek They had to invest 166 Mio. Dollar to built this monster. ;) :-lol

**ChrisTrott** · 10-21-2003, 03:54 PM

>What I know is that this runway (16R/34L) is already in use
>since 4th of September 10:38 am (first flight = B777 - UA
>244 to Chicago). The runway is 4875 meters (15600 ft) long
>and 61 meters (195 ft) wide ----> longest (civilian) runway
>in North Amercia. :-eek They had to invest 166 Mio. Dollar
>to built this monster. ;) :-lol

Sorry, couple of incorrect points here.

1) It's officially 16,000 feet long. That's the declared length of the runway, not including the 200 feet of overrun on either end, and it's 200 feet wide. (See the chart here - http://www.myairplane.com/databases/...hWest/DEN_.pdf )

2) It's the longest paved runway in the WORLD, not just N. America. The only runways that are longer are all dirt, and those are 4/22 at Edwards AFB which is close to 40,000 feet long with both the dirt and paved portions. The other one is the runway at Groom Lake AFB which is reported to be only slightly shorter at 30,000+ feet.

3) As far as longest paved runways in N. America (including Military), Denver is still number 1 over Vandenberg AFB's 15,000 foot runway, the paved section of 4/22 at Edwards at 14,994 feet and the 14,500 foot Shuttle Landing Facility, which are the three longest military runways in N. America.

**crashking** · 10-22-2003, 01:35 AM

This may be a dumb question but why would they need a runway of that length???

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...4e358d589c.jpg

**FlyingKiwi** · 10-22-2003, 03:13 AM

Thanks for the info guys, I knew someone would know. :)

**PHCO** · 10-22-2003, 05:50 PM

Well, thanks for the information (corrections). You can't trust all these aviation magazines .... ! :-lol

**pacallen** · 10-22-2003, 08:35 PM

>This may be a dumb question but why would they need a runway
>of that length???

Elevation of the airport is approx 5320 feet MSL. On a hot/humid/low pressure day the density altitude can be upwards of 9000' or greater so aircraft need longer runways (especially ones like max grossed 747-400s) to take off. Plus its always nice to hold a world record :).