Millions of Londoners live under Heathrow's flightpath and are impacted by the airport's close proximity to the capital, but it is not everyday that planes destined for Heathrow fly over the city.
Planes Over London provides a 14-day forecast as to whether Heathrow arrivals will be flying their approach over London. It gives visitors a 14 day forecast and a live view of what's happening now. It shows the runway currently in use and it carefully tracks the number of daily landing including delayed arrivals.
Incoming aircraft overfly the city about 70% of the time. When a strong tailwind blows they instead approach from the west over Windsor Castle, avoiding London altogether.
Heathrow operates two parallel runways that run east-west, like an equals sign (=). A runway's name is dependent on the direction it is approached from (either 90° or 270°, divided by ten for brevity), and suffixed by ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ - hence the north runway is referred to as either 09L or 27R, and the south 09R or 27L. Planes that approach over London land on runways 27L and 27R, alternated at 3pm each day to provide residents a respite from aircraft noise.
For more on the Runway Alternation Programme, Heathrow Airport provide more details*.
For any questions or comments about this project you can get in touch with us here.
Planes Over London is a project by Direction of Travel, a project that explores the culture of flying in print and online.
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