Floating airport may be solution to San Diego's landlocked Airport

November 4, 2:42 AMSan Diego Airport ExaminerJoel Siegfried

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The idea of a floating airport replacing single runway San Diego International Airport, the busiest of its type in the U.S., and landlocked on 664 acres, has washed ashore again. Throughout San Diego and across the blogisphere, at sites like Gizmodo, recent news has emerged this week, stirring up a buzz of interest.

CAPTION: (ABOVE LEFT) Artist's drawing of floating airport ten miles at sea off San Diego (Photo credit: The Infrastructurist)

A slide show follows this article with photos of floating airports.

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CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT) Adam Englund, Chief Executive Officer for OceanWorks Development (Photo credit: North County Times)

It is not a new concept. In the 1960's Los Angeles floated a proposal for an offshore airport to replace LAX. Now, an attorney named Adam Englund has developed plans for a three square mile airport floating like an oil rig ten miles off the Southern California coast. His consortium is made up of pilots, naval architects, maritime engineers, and financial backers. Their company, called Euphlotea, LLC, does business as OceanWorks Development.

CAPTION: (ABOVE LEFT) Map showing proposed floating airport location (Photo credit: The The Infrastructurist)

He presented his idea to the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority in 2007. They turned him down.. Undaunted, Englund has already claimed 40,000 square miles of prime Pacific waterscape in 2007. They turned him from Santa Barbara to Mexico. In notifications to over a dozen federal agencies, including the FAA, Department of the Interior and Army Corps of Engineers, the Encinitis, CA resident has asserted his company's rights to the ocean's surface, from three to 200 miles out, and extending from Santa Barbara to the Mexico border. Don't even think of the movie Waterworld.

CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT) Map showing proposed high speed ferry connections to floating airport (Photo credit: The Infrastructurist)

The word "No" is not part of the vocabulary of any visionary. Look at Leonardo Da Vinci, a contemporary of Christopher Columbus, who drew a sketch of a helicopter in 1493. That idea took five centuries to perfect. Englund is hoping for a shorter time span.

The marine based airport, referred to as a very large floating structure or VLFS, would be located in the Pacific Ocean north of Point Loma, a community which adjoins the present San Diego International Airport.

Apparently, there's big profits to be made from such a venture, or backers wouldn't be willing to raise the $20 billion needed for its construction. They're not doing it just for the halibut.

CAPTION: (ABOVE LEFT) Sketch of Leonardo Da Vinci's helicopter (Image credit: Wikipedia)

Could it work? The San Diego Airport Examiner asked that question of Paul Grimes, a member of the Peninsula Community Planning Board, who also serves on that group's Airport Committee. Grimes has had a distinguished career as a senior manager with Continental and Pacific Southwest Airlines.

According to Grimes, "There may be some design and construction problems, as well as how to get people out there logistically. It's going to cost a lot of money, and may be impractical, unless there are some cutting edge technological breakthroughs. Consider atmospheric conditions out on the water, especially fog. It's worse there then on land"

CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT) Artist's drawing of floating airport's modular construction (Photo credit: The Infrastructurist)

A proposal for a floating airport may be as controversial as moving the current San Diego International Airport (SDIA), which is just two miles from downtown, to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, some 30 miles to the northeast. That idea has already been rejected by voters by almost a two-thirds majority. Alternately, some are lobbying for a new airport that will eventually replace SDIA, at a location called East Elliott, which is southeast of Miramar. According to a statement made by Jay Shumaker, a San Diego architect and also a member of the PCPB,  "The merits of East Elliott are that it is so far from homes yet so central in our population, and that a project there could be  bondable."

When you think of countries that have mastered their marine environments, two names should come to mind immediately, Japan and Holland. Japan already has four floating airport, at Chubu, Kansai, Kobe, and the new Kitakyushu Airport. All are man-made islands connected to the mainland by causeways.

CAPTION: (ABOVE LEFT) Kobe Airport (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An even more radical concept has been put forth by Van Den Noort Innovations BV, and its Director, Mr. Johann H.R. van den Noort in the Netherlands. As reported by Travel Counsellors in the U.K., "The (RFA) Rotating Floating Airport’s main circular body containing arrival and departure lounges and transport stations, would sit below sea level, its base embedded in the sea bed. The runway platform would float on the water, rotating according to wind direction. In essence the entire structure would resemble a gigantic propeller lodged in the ground, air traffic landing and taking-off on its blades."

CAPTION: (ABOVE RIGHT) Artist's drawing of Johann H.R. van den Noort's rotating floating airport (Photo credit: The Infrastructurist)

Are you for change and innovation, an airport out to sea wafted by Pacific tradewinds, or do you prefer your airports well grounded on dry land? Let us know your thoughts.

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