Mizter T wrote:

I'm fascinated by these postwar notions of STOLports everywhere!
Reading about the development of London City Airport it would seem that
in the 80's people were pretty certain that STOLports were going to be
big as well - but whilst LCY is doing well STOLports haven't cropped up
everywhere else as was predicted. I'm not an expert on LCY, but as it's
had a runway extension to enable it to take larger aircraft perhaps it
doesn't really qualify as a STOLport anymore. Or maybe the term just
never really caught on!

Probably that. Notably, Schiphol's website (I think) still refers to
it as "London City Stolport". It certainly is still one, and the
largest aircraft you tend to see there is the BAe-146 (I think) small
quad-jet. Approaches are still steep and rough, but one of the most
spectacular and impressive I've seen. The runway is short (but longer
than it was) - but many of the aircraft you get there now can take off
and land using probably about half to 2/3 of it (the Fokker 50s
certainly can, being well off the ground before getting even near the
terminal when doing a London-direction takeoff).

Apparently, though, Airbus did a successful test with an A318 (small
version of the A319/20) with a software mod for steeper descents, so
perhaps some of those will be seen there soon, especially as the F50s
and BAe jets are getting on a bit.

Neil