I waited my entire career for Stansted to get going. Finally, I was flying from there, but too old to enjoy it.
The thing is, the runways suggested would really have to be pointing the same way as the existing . . . wouldn't they? The continuous requirement to avoid annoying the residents of Bishops Stortford means one can never realign the runways in a veering kind of way, and SID turns would be severely limited immediately after takeoff to the west.
Runway heading has us seeing Harlow on the port side in about 7 st miles - closely followed by Greater London. Luton ahead at 23 miles-ish if a turn onto west is made after Bishops Stortford. The trouble with the south of England, is that there is not a heck of a lot of
true open space.
Then again, the issue of dragging more and more hardware over the city is something I've always been uncomfortable with. London is one of those places that doesn't offer many areas thump a double engine failure into.
Let's face it, the last one making the grass was a combination of skilled use of flaps, and a lot of luck.
Still, we've been saying it has its dangers for over 40 years, always with fingers tightly crossed, but should we just assume we can fill the skies with yet more metal over millions of people's heads, and just assume that's okay?