On 8 June, 14:57, Bruce wrote:

Please don't ask any more stupid questions. *However, in the unlikely
event that you want to ask an intelligent question, go ahead.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have a question, or several. Why was Heathrow designed like that,
with six runways crossing each other in a sort of Star of David
shape? They obviously wouldn't have been able to use all of them at
the same time, was it intended that they would use two parallel ones
at any one time depending on the direction of the wind? Why were only
three of these runways ever built? When, and why did the third runway
close? What are the numbers and letters at the ends of runways? The
letter always seems to be 'L' or 'R'; the only thing I can think of is
left and right, but that would depend on which direction you were
facing. Is there any significance to the numbers, or are they just
assigned the next free number? EWR seems to have similar numbers to
LGW and LHR, so I assume it must be an international thing.

Why do airports and ex airports often seem to have been built in
clusters fairly close together. Heston, Heathrow and Northolt for
example or Waddon and Beddington (originally separated by just a road
and later merged to form Croydon), Kenley, Redhill, Biggin Hill and
even Gatwick not too far away. Again, the same thing seems to have
been the case in and around New York, Floyd Bennett Field was only
just across the bay from JFK, and Flushing was right next to
LaGuardia. I would have thould that they'd want to keep airports well
out of each others way. Indeed, this was one of the reasons given for
not re-opening Flushing, along with the fact that the runway's sinking
into the swamp.