On 2017-01-21 14:41:32 +0000, Recliner said:

It opened in 2005, and was designed to be high enough for the
then-largest aircraft using Gatwick, the 747-400, to pass underneath.
The only other such airbridge over a taxiway (in Denver) is much
smaller, only being high enough for 737s to pass underneath. Of
course, Gatwick North Terminal now sees regular A380s, which are
slightly too high to pass under the bridge, while no 747s currently
serve the North Terminal (which will soon change, as Virgin is moving
to it).

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

Neil Williams wrote:
On 2017-01-21 14:41:32 +0000, Recliner said:

It opened in 2005, and was designed to be high enough for the
then-largest aircraft using Gatwick, the 747-400, to pass underneath.
The only other such airbridge over a taxiway (in Denver) is much
smaller, only being high enough for 737s to pass underneath. Of
course, Gatwick North Terminal now sees regular A380s, which are
slightly too high to pass under the bridge, while no 747s currently
serve the North Terminal (which will soon change, as Virgin is moving
to it).

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

The longer delay in Gatwick North is at Immigration at busy times, as there
aren't nearly enough ePassport readers. You can easily queue for 20
minutes, by which time your bags will have arrived on the belt.

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 20:49:19 on Sat, 21 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

The longer delay in Gatwick North is at Immigration at busy times

I was enroled in the Iris scheme, so no delays (apart from having to
fail to get the Iris machine to recognise me, which then put you at the
head of the manual queue).
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-sept
ember.org, at 20:49:19 on Sat, 21 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

The longer delay in Gatwick North is at Immigration at busy times

I was enroled in the Iris scheme, so no delays (apart from having to
fail to get the Iris machine to recognise me, which then put you at the
head of the manual queue).

I thought that IRIS was discontinued years ago (have you not flown in the
last few years)? So you'll now be in the same long queue as everyone
else. That can easily delay you by 20 minutes.

On 2017-01-22 09:27:36 +0000, Recliner said:

I thought that IRIS was discontinued years ago (have you not flown in the
last few years)? So you'll now be in the same long queue as everyone
else. That can easily delay you by 20 minutes.

Correct, it was replaced by the e-gates.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 09:27:36 on Sun, 22 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:

It is certainly an impressive piece of engineering - and because
Gatwick haven't got anywhere with the practicalities of you getting
your luggage within a reasonable time of landing, you usually have
plenty of time to stroll over it slowly and admire it, too.

The longer delay in Gatwick North is at Immigration at busy times

I was enroled in the Iris scheme, so no delays (apart from having to
fail to get the Iris machine to recognise me, which then put you at the
head of the manual queue).

I thought that IRIS was discontinued years ago (have you not flown in the
last few years)?

Not much, and not from Gatwick North. But I felt significantly
inconvenienced when I did.

So you'll now be in the same long queue as everyone
else. That can easily delay you by 20 minutes.

--
Roland Perry

Thanks for the photos, they are very good. They made me think of that episode of Thunderbirds that involves landing a Concorde-like plane.

On Sat, 21 Jan 2017 14:41:32 +0000, Recliner
wrote:

Anyone who travels through Gatwick has probably seen the overbridge
that connects the North Terminal to its pier 6. This is the world's
highest and longest passenger bridge over an active taxiway, and I
think it's rather elegant.

It opened in 2005, and was designed to be high enough for the
then-largest aircraft using Gatwick, the 747-400, to pass underneath.
The only other such airbridge over a taxiway (in Denver) is much
smaller, only being high enough for 737s to pass underneath. Of
course, Gatwick North Terminal now sees regular A380s, which are
slightly too high to pass under the bridge, while no 747s currently
serve the North Terminal (which will soon change, as Virgin is moving
to it).

I happened to pass over and under it last month, possibly for the last
time in a while, as BA is moving back to the South Terminal, so I took
some pictures:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/reclin...57675681821364

There's more about its construction he
http://www.ingenia.org.uk/Content/in...21/samaras.pdf


Thank you for those very interesting pictures.

--
John Ray