Question: why is there always grass or dirt next to a runway?
 

Hi,

I was reading an accident where people got injured when a plane diverted off the runway (garuda indonesia) and ended up in muddy grass.

These kind of incidents tend to happen often. I tried to Google for an answer but couldnt find one: why are airfields not just paved completely?

Surely this won't be a money issue, so there must be some other reason. I would imagine that runway excursions on paved surfaces would decrease risk of breaking wheels, engine damage and impact forces.

Maybe someone here has an answer! Thanks!

I'd guess drainage.

The run off from runways and aprons is enough to cope with without even more concrete. Either the grass/dirt acts directly as a soakaway or run off is piped under it to soakaways or holding tanks.

Cost, would be my guess.

Together with pointlessness ...

It also clearly defines the edge of the runway

So pilots don't land perpendicular to it

Of course, airfields all started off as grass fields.
As aircraft got bigger & heavier a hard surface was needed as a runway. These hard runways were constructed on the grass airfields, the remainder of which remained as grass.
I guess that no one ever felt the need to pave over the rest of the airfield. To do so would have led to a blurred distinction between the runway & the rest of the field. Also, to have paved the whole area over would have been extremely expensive, & totally unnecessary.

Search for 'Converse Airport, Indiana' then…!

Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!

:D:D:D

I'm pretty sure that I've seen airports where the runways and taxiways had a large border, also of concrete. Perhaps either in the USA, or the Far East.



SHJ

Manston, UK, used to be one of the widest runways, to cope with crippled aircraft landing, a very large area covered in foam made for a safer 'arrival' as it was highly likely the crippled aircraft would not be able to maintain a straight line after touch down.

... and Carnaby, and Woodbridge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Carnaby

Not quite. I believe the idea was the three 'emergency' runways ie Manston, Woodbridge and Carnaby were constructed with runways 5 times normal width, 750ft instead of 150ft, so that 3 'strips' of 250ft wide were formed. Aircraft would land on one of these (not sure if it was the left or right one) until it got blocked, then the adjacent one would be brought into use.
There was an excellent article about this in 'Air Pictorial' back in the '60s or '70s.
As far as I'm aware, the foam carpet didn't come into use until the creation of Master Diversion Aerodromes in the late '50s/early '60s.
Another 'wide' runway was Shobdon in Herefordshire, which I believe had a double width runway to permit training on glider tugs operating takeoffs and landings simultaneously as the grass edges were too soft and not load bearing.
Back in the USA, Newark has extensive areas paved over although there is grass between the runways and I believe other airfields in the USA have this too.

Perhaps we should tarmac over all the fields at the side of motorways for the same reason. Or put crash barriers down the side of runways :E

Mind you if the whole of an airfied was tarmaced over, cross wind landings would be a thing of the past. :ok:

Let's tarmac the sides of motorways and A roads, and even some B roads, then we'll have lots of places to land.

Oh, maybe we should just make sure that we're able to land the aeroplane on the runway in the existing conditions.

Pilots are supposed to be able land on the already wide enough bit designated 'the runway.' Clue's in the name. :)

Perhaps have a look at GIB (Gibraltar) on Google earth.
It's all tarmac or concrete. No grass, but there is water and a road

IIRC is GIB for a great part built on reclaimed land and reclaimed land is too expensive for lawns ;-)

Directly to the question, I would like to state that plenty of runways have snow and ice on their shoulders :-)

Like the grabble areas at the outside of the curves at racing-circuits, soft ground beside and at the end of runways might be practical due to the catching force!

I read somewhere that 'Bakersfield' Calif was originally a 1 mile square concrete airfeld