Originally Posted by
machtuk
hahaha I used to watch it from the back seat of my FC Holden, although missed most of the movies...lolol
Ahh the good old days. I worked out at Tulla started 1979 at the fuel depot (JUHI) back then there was always talk of a 3rd Rwy being built very soon, I guess soon wasn't anytime soon back then:-)
Side note: As most would know the drome was designed for the largest jets of the day B707 DC8 Etc so when the Jumbo Jets turned up not long after Tulla was opened it was chaos as the hydrants the gates etc needed extensive modification, I recall many a late night on the apron with crews modifying the Hydrant system that was only a few years old!:-)
Another side note (sorry): Being involved with much of the underground beneath Tulla I always laugh when I hear about a train station being already there for the future rail link to Tulla, trust me there are LOTS of hidden tunnels & locked steel doors down there, it's a rat infested rabbit warren where you could get lost & never be seen again!:-):-)
40 years latter I'm still waiting for that 3rd Rwy...………..will be another 40 years before we see it if ever!:-)
The whole thing was a government cock up, they knew for YEARS that the 747 was coming and the runways were completed years before the terminals. The terminals and infrastructure plans could have been EASILY changed but weren't so the airport was out of date within a year. Compare that with Changi and even DFW where I have seen both marketing/development material and both added 20-30% to the size of (then) current aircraft to allow for expansion. I may be wrong but I think this is one of very few LNP infrastructure projects in our history (Tulla) and it's funny that it was a white elephant. Not just the hydrants but half the aerobridges were useless once the terminal was handling mainly 747/DC-10 type aircraft. It took them nearly 25 years just to move some aerobridges in a pathetic attempt to update it.