The Report of the Commission on the Third London Airport tells the story of an interesting exercise in airport location. It includes what is possibly the most extensive cost benefit analysis ever undertaken for a civil project and it tells of an experiment in decision taking in a democratic society. At the time of writing this paper the report has been published for a little over three months but the Government has not yet announced its decision. After publication of the report there was an immediate popular outcry against the recommendation of an inland site and it now looks likely that the Government will not accept the recommendation.