737 taxi way width

[Boeing Pilot]

Anybody know the minimum taxi way width for the 737?

[OverRun]

Australian: 18 metres, plus 3.5 metre wide shoulders each side, all within an overall 52 metres taxiway strip width.

UK CAP168: 15 metres

FAA - have to look it up later but I think 15m

[Boeing Pilot]

Thanks. UK is fine.

[Musket90]

In UK it's 15m wide if aircraft wheelbase is less than 18m, otherwise it's 18m wide if aircraft whhelbase greater than 18m.

[OverRun]

The wheelbase of the 737-500 is 11.1 m through to the 737-900 which is 16.97m, so they all fit under the 18m limit. So the 15m minimum width applies for the taxiway. I checked the FAA and they are also 15m width for the Boeing 737 (FAA design group III, ICAO design code C). The Australians permit a reduction to 15m width for less than 18m wheelbase.

In the back of my mind, I have the thought that you can get it into narrower taxiways by applying the UK CAP168 or FAA minimum clearance between "the edge of the taxiway and the wheels". Then you can get down to 12.1 metres width, but most authorities will round that up and state their required minimum width. Might be able to get a dispensation for a one-off or if the aircraft is marshalled or switched off and tugged.

[OverRun]

A rather big plus for PPRUNE as one struggles on with everyday aviation.

I was working on a partial-runway repair project last week. Single runway and an inadequate parallel taxiway. No problems on paper – adjust the declared distances for the shortened runway and accommodate the jets by moving the construction equipment off the runway when they were landing or taking off.
Unusually, it all went pear shaped. The repair section was not finished in the time allowed (not finished? understatement because we spent most of the night planning how rip the poor quality result up!!), but we still had to move the jets past the unfinished works.

We did so by using a follow-me car which led the aircraft down the bitumen runway bits outside the works (the airport is diplomatically forgotten but it starts with B and we’re leading 738, F100 and 717 aircraft in case any of you Ozs think this sounds familiar).

The width of pavement past the works was a big problem – everyone was saying it was not enough for a code C taxiway at 18m. Someone suggested it wouldn’t work at all and we needed to be bringing the stairs out to the runway and making the punters walk – but I’m sure that was just Australian humour. But we just couldn’t get 18m width.

Then I remembered the Tech Log discussion a couple of months ago (in this post) about minimum taxiway width for code C aircraft and 737s. Some people, and certainly myself included, could have missed that and used 18m taxiway width as the minimum width for a 737. But the true answer is 15m width; which we had at this airport by about 0.1mm. So we could do the marshalling-taxi thing on a genuine legal width.

I guess it is easy with engineering stuff inthe office, with air-conditioning and hot/cold running secretaries walking around, to determine the right clearances and widths. But out in the field, the engineering is a lot harder. The e-mail doesn’t work properly up the bush, there are no head office people on hand to pontificate and take the rap, and the decision comes down to a lonely you. So when faced with a possible 15m taxiway width for a 737?? Well, check PPRUNE and go forward. Thanks guys.

[alexban]

for the 737-700 ,the distance between main wheels is 5.7 m,and between nose and main gear is 12.6 m.The minimum width of pavement for 180 turn is 65' (300series)/66'(-700s) ,so about 20 m.
You have to keep this in mind in case you want the planes to do a backtrack on the rwy with a 180 turn on it.

[Mahi_India]

Aircrafts,wheel base

Is there any database available,which lists out various aircrafts as per ICAO codewise along with the aircrafts dimensions?

If so, please let me know the source of that,as this particular task taking time for me in preparing the masterplan.

[OverRun]

Mahi

There are - most people use a book like Jane's (very expensive) or Australian Aviation's great and inexpensive reference: Civil Aircraft.

The Australian CASR139 also gives dimensions. So do most of the airport textbooks (see http://www.geocities.com/profemery/aviation/textbooks.html

But what in the heck are you doing writing a masterplan if you haven't already got those books and more?

[Capot]

In case we forget.....ICAO (CAP168 in UK) sets out taxiway width requirements, but it's the radius on the corners and junctions that also matters.

[lgwpave]

Taxiway Junctions

Capot has a point - those widths mentioned in previous posts are for straight sections of taxiways. Once you get to any changes in direction/junctions the width has to increase to allow a defined clearance from the outside of the aircraft wheels. This clearance depends on the taxiway code.

There are a number of computer programs that do this for you by "driving" the aircraft around a plan of the pavements and tracking the wheel paths.