CHAPTER 5 Modeling AND ANALYSIS
5.1 Airport Classification:
To stipulate geometric design standards for the various types of airports and the functions
which they serve, letter and numerical codes have been adopted to classify airports. The
guidelines prepared by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be followed.
Airports are classified based on the aircraft they accommodate.
Critical Aircraft:The FAA defines the critical aircraft as the aircraft most demanding on an airport design
that operates at least 500 annual operations at a given airport. In most cases, the largest
aircraft determines most of the dimensional specifications of an airport. The largest
airplane in the world, Airbus A380 -800, will be the critical design airplane.
Table 5- 1 , and Figure 5 - 1 show the characteristics of the critical aircraft (A380 -800), as
determined in the aircraft manual which was attached on the Airbus website.
Table 5 - 1 The characteristics of the critical aircraft (A380 -800)
Manufacturer Airbus
Model A380- 800
Approach Speed(Vref / Knot) 138
Wingspan, m 79.75
Tail Height, m 24.07
Max. Landing Weight 870,826 lb
Max. Takeoff Weight 1,267,658 lb
Main Gear Width, m 14.34
Cockpit to Main Gear (CMG) 30.66