A World Tour
Dangerous Airports
Imagine a runway that disappears at high tide, or an airport so high that planes prefer to fly early in the morning. Fasten your seat belt!
Did you know?
At Barra Airport in Scotland, planes land on a sandy beach! It is believed to be the only airport where scheduled flights use a beach as a runway, so flight times change with the tides.
Leh airport in Ladakh is one of the highest airports in the world, at about 3,256 metres. Its flights run in the morning, because mountain winds blow there in the afternoon.
Daocheng Yading Airport in China, about 4,411 metres above sea level, is the highest airport in the world for passenger flights.
Try this: Paper Plane Landing Challenge
Fold a paper plane. Use tape or chalk to mark a 'runway' 1 metre long on the floor. Stand three steps away and try to land your plane on it. Then make the runway shorter: just half a metre. Is it harder? Change the wing shape and test which design lands best.
Go further: Why Thin Air Makes Flying Harder
Air gets thinner the higher you go. Thin air has fewer air particles, so a plane's wings get less lift and its engines get less push. Hot air is thinner too. That is why planes at high, hot airports need longer runways and sometimes must carry less weight. Some flights are planned for cooler times of day, when the air is denser and gives more lift.