In my flightsim scenery, Heathrow has a crossing runway. But in the real word there is no crossing runway, just the two 9'S/27's L&R. Was the crossing runway closed in the real world or never developed and is an error in FS9? It seems in the real world it is a taxiway.

Heathrow did have three runways, they were the two parallel ones that everyone is familiar with which run east/west, but it used to also have 05/23 running north east/south west. That runway was withdrawn from operational use in 2005, which means in FS9 it was still an active runways when the software came out (in late 2003).05/23 at Heathrow was deemed rather pointless with the advent of London City Airport, since it was of a size where aircraft that could use it would probably be more likely to want to fly into London City if the passengers were after going to London itself, and if not, then they could go to one of London's outlying airports other than Heathrow. Nowadays 05/23 is used as a taxiway, which I'm pretty sure is designated Alpha, but I could be wrong on that.There are quite a few things like that in FS, for example, in FSX, EGCC Manchester Airport still has 06/24 runway designations on the default scenery, whereas in real life these have been redesignated to orient them with the magnetic shift, placing them now closer to 230 degree orientation and making the runways both now 05/23 (right and left).Al

Heathrow did have three runways, they were the two parallel ones that everyone is familiar with which run east/west, but it used to also have 05/23 running north east/south west. That runway was withdrawn from operational use in 2005, which means in FS9 it was still an active runways when the software came out (in late 2003).05/23 at Heathrow was deemed rather pointless with the advent of London City Airport, since it was of a size where aircraft that could use it would probably be more likely to want to fly into London City if the passengers were after going to London itself, and if not, then they could go to one of London's outlying airports other than Heathrow. Nowadays 05/23 is used as a taxiway, which I'm pretty sure is designated Alpha, but I could be wrong on that.There are quite a few things like that in FS, for example, in FSX, EGCC Manchester Airport still has 06/24 runway designations on the default scenery, whereas in real life these have been redesignated to orient them with the magnetic shift, placing them now closer to 230 degree orientation and making the runways both now 06/23 (right and left).Al

Thank you for the explanation Al.

If you look on avsim here you will find a good workable freeware solution. rwy 05-23 has been deleted from the file and also there are some 700 taxiway signs added. The rwys work correctly in parallel both for fs9 ATC and PFE.Vololiberista

Heathrow was originally built with 6 runways arranged in three pairs three parallel sets in a Star of David fashion.

That's going back a bit, that was when Croydon was the main London Airport and Fairey's owned Heathrow wasn't it?Al

That's going back a bit, that was when Croydon was the main London Airport and Fairey's owned Heathrow wasn't it?Al

No. It had 6 runways when it was redeveloped as London's main airport after WW2. The Ordnance Survey map shows the layout in 1948. The terminals were the row of buildings shown just below The Magpie public house on the upper right. Traces of the original runways can still be seen on Google Earth. EDITHere's a link to a film/video of the same period.http://www.archive.org/details/london_airport_TNA

No. It had 6 runways when it was redeveloped as London's main airport after WW2. The Ordnance Survey map shows the layout in 1948. The terminals were the row of buildings shown just below The Magpie public house on the upper right. Traces of the original runways can still be seen on Google Earth. EDITHere's a link to a film/video of the same period.http://www.archive.org/details/london_airport_TNA

Heathrow was also used as the fictional airport/AF Base in Dr. Strangelove. If you watch the opening scenes with the runway lights it appears as a pattern like you see here with the multi directional runways :)ThanksDennis R

Heathrow was also used as the fictional airport/AF Base in Dr. Strangelove. If you watch the opening scenes with the runway lights it appears as a pattern like you see here with the multi directional runways :)ThanksDennis R

Do you remember the international departures "tent?"vololiberista

Do you remember the international departures "tent?"vololiberista

I remember my parents paying 5/- (