A joint study is being made by C.A.A. and R.A.E. of the operation of S.T.O.L. aircraft in terminal areas, with particular reference to airport capacity. In this paper we present some results of this study concerning a single S.T.O.L./R.T.O.L. runway, to show in particular the marked effect that the need to separate aircraft for turbulent wake considerations could have on this capacity. There is considerable advantage to be gained with the heavier aircraft if this turbulent wake effect is reduced by aircraft design. The paper was presented at the 19th Technical Conference of I.A.T.A., Dublin, 1972.

The development of short take-off and landing aircraft (S .T. O. L.) is being considered as one means of containing the expected growth in passenger and cargo traffic without necessarily incurring the cost and disturbance to the environment involved in building large airports for conventional aircraft (C.T.O.L.). Also for a comparable cost to that of building a C.T.O.L. airport, a number of S.T.O.L. ports can be built, thus making air travel more convenient for a larger number of people. In the system study of S.T.O.L. operations, the capacity (movements per hour) of a S.T.O.L. port is a significant parameter. A research study of future S.T.O.L. operations, using an existing airport complex as an illustration, has been carried out in the U.K. This study involved considerations both as to reducing the noise effects on the community and to increasing capacity, in order to match the future anticipated demand. This paper is limited to the capacity of a hypothetical single S.T.O.L. runway.