Alaska's $75.5 million airport to nowhere (Anchorage, Akutan: subsidized, cost, distance)

[Ruth4Truth]

I wonder how rising ocean water levels and increased storms will affect that new harbor, and others around the state....

[The Homogenizer]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Please don't read things into my posts that aren't there. I was just trying to explain to you how some people feel about it. Personally, I simply don't care.

That's reasonable. Thanks for the info.

[The Homogenizer]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Please don't read things into my posts that aren't there. I was just trying to explain to you how some people feel about it. Personally, I simply don't care.

I stand corrected (by myself). I knew that you had used the weasel wording "some people", but I didn't take issue with it if you wanted that game. But here:

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

You realize, don't you, that most of the land in Alaska is owned by the feds?

I hadn't imputed anything; you clearly assumed responsibility for the argument.

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I wonder how rising ocean water levels and increased storms will affect that new harbor, and others around the state....

Does it twice a day, called tides!

[dcbrewmeister]

"This project will also construct a hovercraft facility at the Head of Akutan Bay. This facility will include a ramp, pad and a hovercraft maintenance building. The existing amphibious ramp will be expanded to accommodate the hovercraft as well..."

Central Region Projects, Transportation & Public Facilities, State of Alaska

And a 4500ft runway is not really meant for large passenger planes coming from or going to asia... maybe as an emergency but barely if that's even possible... Planes like the Airbus A380 take a runway of the 10,000+ ft range, so I doubt a major airline will be using it even for emergency purposes... And it's really just barely big enough for anything larger than a small jet (10 pass or less)...

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by dcbrewmeister

"This project will also construct a hovercraft facility at the Head of Akutan Bay. This facility will include a ramp, pad and a hovercraft maintenance building. The existing amphibious ramp will be expanded to accommodate the hovercraft as well..."

Central Region Projects, Transportation & Public Facilities, State of Alaska

And a 4500ft runway is not really meant for large passenger planes coming from or going to asia... maybe as an emergency but barely if that's even possible... Planes like the Airbus A380 take a runway of the 10,000+ ft range, so I doubt a major airline will be using it even for emergency purposes... And it's really just barely big enough for anything larger than a small jet (10 pass or less)...

Well a 10,000 runway is for normal operations and not emergencies. If you are trying to stop a big plane, and you only have a 4,500 foot runway verses Ocean or mountains as an option, I think you'd have everyone going for the runway.

The fact that they may need to use a long runway to take off on is pretty normal. But amost any of the airlines can get down and stopped in under a mile, even if your speed is down to 45 MPH and you run out of runway, more people will survive than at 120+ MPH impact.

Another issue is that landing requires very little power on the glide/flare and drag is a plus when stopping, taking off you are fighting air and gravity which both work with you on landings. The plane may be toast landing in such a place because they can't fly out, but a water landing in that part of the world is pretty much a lost cause. The flight landing on the Hudson River had Ferries, tug boats, private craft and a host of other vessels in the area. Most of Alaska's coast line has nothing but quiet and very cold water.

When they built the Golden Gate Bridge, it was a Bridge to nowhere for all practical purposes.

[stiffnecked]

Originally Posted by dcbrewmeister

"This project will also construct a hovercraft facility at the Head of Akutan Bay. This facility will include a ramp, pad and a hovercraft maintenance building. The existing amphibious ramp will be expanded to accommodate the hovercraft as well..."

Central Region Projects, Transportation & Public Facilities, State of Alaska

And a 4500ft runway is not really meant for large passenger planes coming from or going to asia... maybe as an emergency but barely if that's even possible... Planes like the Airbus A380 take a runway of the 10,000+ ft range, so I doubt a major airline will be using it even for emergency purposes... And it's really just barely big enough for anything larger than a small jet (10 pass or less)...

I'm guessing you're not real familiar with real world aviation? In a true emergency 4500 feet would be long enough to land an Airbus. They might blow out all the tires but it woud be much better then a belly landing in the middle of the ocean.

[dcbrewmeister]

So you guys think they built a 4500 ft runway so an Airbus, or any other trans-pacific airline, can make an emergency landing... and not as a new hovercraft base...

[akpls]

Most of the runways built in the Aleutians started life as military runways built during WWII.

[stiffnecked]

Originally Posted by dcbrewmeister

So you guys think they built a 4500 ft runway so an Airbus, or any other trans-pacific airline, can make an emergency landing... and not as a new hovercraft base...

Yep, you might want to read up on the rest of the story. Building of the runway had nothing to do with a hovercraft base.

How Akutan became Alaska's $64 million 'airport to nowhere' through missteps | Alaska Dispatch

Earlier this week, Peninsula Airways stopped running the only regularly-scheduled air service to the remote Aleutian community of Akutan, temporarily stranding its residents and leaving mail undelivered. That’s despite a new multimillion-dollar airport finished just last month. And while the sudden stoppage of service was a bit of a surprise, it wasn’t wholly unexpected, as PenAir continues to move away from small-plane service to some of Alaska’s most-isolated communities.
Mail and passenger service has reportedly resumed since, on charter flights operated by Grant Aviation.
PenAir has for decades operated the vintage Grumman Goose, a World War II-era amphibious aircraft, as the only way in or out of Akutan by air. That's been possible thanks to an Essential Air Service (EAS) contract that subsidizes the 11 regularly scheduled flights that PenAir makes each week between Dutch Harbor and Akutan, which has less than 100 full-time residents.

Akutan, Alaska's troubled Air service resumes at expensive new Aleutian Islands airport | Alaska Dispatch

The mail got through to Akutan last week, after a brief suspension when Peninsula Airways suddenly stopped flying the amphibious Grumman Goose. A few days later, Grant Aviation carried the mail and passengers on a charter flight to the new airport on Akun Island on Oct. 25. The Goose made its last water landing in Akutan on Oct. 21, at the community identified on maps as "Akutan SPB," for seaplane base. In September, the remote Aleutian Island community's first airport opened, though the mail still has to go to a dock to get to the post office.
And while a famous though unofficial post office motto claims that tough weather won’t prevent the "swift completion" of mail delivery, that's never been the reality in Akutan, so a few days late was no big deal.