Page 208 - Planning and Design of Airports

CHAPTER 6

Geometric Design

of the Airfield

Airport Design Standards
In order to provide assistance to airport designers and a reasonable
amount of uniformity in the design of airport facilities for aircraft
operations, design guidelines have been prepared by the FAA [6] and
the ICAO [2, 3, 4]. Any design criteria involving the widths, gradi-
ents, separations of runways, taxiways, and other features of the air-
craft operations area must necessarily incorporate wide variations in
aircraft performance, pilot technique, and weather conditions.
The FAA design criteria provide uniformity at airport facilities in
the United States and serve as a guide to aircraft manufacturers and
operators with regard to the facilities which may be expected to be
available in the future. The FAA design standards are published in
Advisory Circulars which are revised periodically as the need arises [1].
The ICAO strives toward uniformity and safety on an international
level. Its standards, which are very similar to the FAA standards, apply
to all member nations of the Convention on International Civil Avia-
tion and are published as Annex 14 to that convention [2]. Require-
ments for military services are so specialized that they are not included
in this chapter.
The design standards prepared by the FAA and the ICAO are pre-
sented in the text which follows under the general headings of airport
classification, runways, taxiways, and aprons. The material is orga-
nized so that the various criteria may be readily compared. It is
incumbent upon airport planners to review the latest specifications
for airport design at the time studies are undertaken due to the fact
that changes are incorporated as conditions dictate.
The FAA presents guidelines for airfield design in a series of
Advisory Circulars. There are more than 200 Advisory Circulars per-
taining to different aspects of airport planning and design, a complete list
of which may be found on the FAA’s website at http://www.faa.gov.

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