Talk:STOLport

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What is a STOLport?[edit]

What is a STOLport? Is any airport with a short runway a STOLport or is a STOLport only ones specifically designated as STOLports by the local aviation governing authority? Is a STOLport any airport with a runway shorter than X number of ft/meters? Do we have a citation for the statement "A STOLport can also be considered an airport with a small runway." or the part that says a STOLport usually has a runway shorter than 1,000 meters? And the list of STOLports that is in the article, is that supposed to include only facilities officially designated as STOLports or at one time held that designation? Is it a list for every middle of nowhere landing strip that is shorter than 1,000 meters? Also the uncited statement "STOLports are normally used for local aviation and limited commercial operations" seems to conflict with the original intent and plan for STOLports, which was to provide shuttle service between large metropolitan areas and reduce traffic at the larger conventional facilities. --Dual Freq (talk) 04:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Commercial, metropolitan STOLports[edit]

My impression of the STOLport, at least in the United States, is that it was a failed experiment or theory from the late 60s - early 70s that was intended to provide commuter air service to major cities using short runways that were easily accessible. There was apparently somewhat of a fad in studying locations for STOLports all over the US from Boston's Logan, one floating in the Hudson River,[1] a rooftop in New York City, and the NYC World Trade Center[2] even all the way to Catalina Island, but the fears of excessive noise apparently killed these plans. Also, I can not recall hearing the word STOLport actually spoken aloud in the past 20 or 30 years. Perhaps other countries are still attempting to create and use STOLports for commercial air service, but the ICAO "STOLport manual" hasn't been updated since 1991. --Dual Freq (talk) 04:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

US STOLport stats[edit]

FWIW, as of mid January 2009, there are only 82 facilities designated as STOLports in the United States, as opposed to the other designations of Airport, Heliport, Ultralight Flightpark, Gliderport, Seaplane Base or Balloonport. By comparison, there are more than 13,500 facilities designated as "Airport", 14 Balloonports, 35 Gliderports, 5,500+ Heliports, 501 Seaplane Bases, and 138 Ultralight Flightparks (0.4% of listed facilities in the database are designated STOLports). Only 2 runways are listed as currently carrying STOL markings (Decatur Airport runway 36[3] and Iliamna Airport runway "E" (which is a water runway).[4][5] There are also only 6 runways (2 in AK and 1 each in MT, ID, VA and IN) that are designated "STOL runways", for example Wasilla Airport runway 3S/21S[6]. The 6 STOL runways are either gravel or turf, none are listed as paved. The trailing "S" designates the runway as STOL per AC 150/5200-35 page 12 (pdf page 14). The most heavily used, officially designated STOLport, appears to be 0A4, Johnson City STOLport, Johnson City, Tennessee with a bit more than 7,500 operations. The majority of the 82 official STOLports in the US appear to be quite insignificant and I doubt that any of them have scheduled commercial flights and none of them are listed as having air traffic control towers. Several also have odd or creative names like Omega 1, MJD, Gyro Town USA and STOLcrest. Also, 30 of the 50 states have at least one STOLport. As far as the United States is concerned, STOLports are extremely rare and I would guess that most people (in the US) have never heard of one. --Dual Freq (talk) 04:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are also over 11,000 runways 3,300 ft (1,000 m) long or less listed in the NFDC runway database, excluding heliports. (~370 are < 1,000 ft) I wouldn't think everyone of them qualifies as a STOLport. --Dual Freq (talk) 20:04, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]