Small airfield with grass or dirt runway

[Airfoil]

Please add small airfields to the game that have grass or dirt runways, suitable for the Antonov An-2.
This could mean easier expansion in realistic mode early game and would also be a realistic feature. An-2 was a true workhorse of the USSR let's show it's true potential!

These small airfields could also be used later for agricultural aircraft spraying the crops, if that would be added at a later point.

[Lex713]

This was proposed multiple times before. While this is a good idea and majority of players want it too, we have no information about it from devs.

[Novu]

They probably won't add this because it would require a new mechanic to prevent the larger planes from landing on dirt runways.

[Silent_Shadow]

You can already build a 250m runway with taxiways and a 30m pad for under 30,000 rubles. Infrastructure is a little bit more expensive: an ATC tower costs around 16,500 rubles, a cargo terminal costs around 32,000 rubles, and a passenger terminal costs around 62,000 rubles.

The biggest issue is that there is no way to transport fuel or coal by air:

• Fuel is needed at all airports (and heliports) or else aircraft will get stuck there waiting for fuel, and they are not smart enough to refuel at airports with fuel.
  
• Coal is needed to heat the ATC tower, or valuable university educated workers will get sick. The airport and heliport also need heating (or citizens can wait at an open air bus stop).

Getting university educated workers to the ATC tower and supplying electricity to all airport buildings isn't too hard, but they complicate things too.

[High King Lemur]

I suppose the main reasoning for this would be the difference in aesthetic - grass runways just look more rural. These could cost just a bit of manpower. There are already mods for different airport buildings, not sure how small they get.

Don't see why we would need to prevent some planes to land on grass airfields? Just don't direct the planes to these airfields. Bigger planes can't land on short runways anyway.

[Airfoil]

Originally posted by Silent_Shadow:

You can already build a 250m runway with taxiways and a 30m pad for under 30,000 rubles. Infrastructure is a little bit more expensive: an ATC tower costs around 16,500 rubles, a cargo terminal costs around 32,000 rubles, and a passenger terminal costs around 62,000 rubles.

The biggest issue is that there is no way to transport fuel or coal by air:

• Fuel is needed at all airports (and heliports) or else aircraft will get stuck there waiting for fuel, and they are not smart enough to refuel at airports with fuel.
  
• Coal is needed to heat the ATC tower, or valuable university educated workers will get sick. The airport and heliport also need heating (or citizens can wait at an open air bus stop).

Getting university educated workers to the ATC tower and supplying electricity to all airport buildings isn't too hard, but they complicate things too.

I think there could be a small rural version of everything you mentioned. And yes, it would be nice if fuel transport by air would be possible as well.

If I set up an airport with the things we currently have, then It does not really make sense to keep it small, I'll just go for a proper runway and heavier aircrafts right away, skipping the AN-2 and sorts.

[Shady Ed]

Originally posted by Lord Metzgermeister:

I suppose the main reasoning for this would be the difference in aesthetic - grass runways just look more rural. These could cost just a bit of manpower. There are already mods for different airport buildings, not sure how small they get.

Don't see why we would need to prevent some planes to land on grass airfields? Just don't direct the planes to these airfields. Bigger planes can't land on short runways anyway.

They would need to prevent the larger planes from landing on grass airfields because you can guarantee someone is going to build a grass runway long enough to land a TU144 on and complain about how unrealistic the game is.

[mrakomo]

I remember grass (small) airports from Transport Tycoon Deluxe. You were able to assign the large planes to them and sometimes they even managed to land. They turned into a heap of flames in those other cases. It was really cool.

Having a required length of runways based on the size of the plane would be cool though. Probably the planes should refuse to take on/off rather than become a ball of flames as in this game you have huge amount of possibilities how to create your airfield, not just big and small like in TTDL.

[High King Lemur]

Originally posted by Shady Ed:

Originally posted by Lord Metzgermeister:

I suppose the main reasoning for this would be the difference in aesthetic - grass runways just look more rural. These could cost just a bit of manpower. There are already mods for different airport buildings, not sure how small they get.

Don't see why we would need to prevent some planes to land on grass airfields? Just don't direct the planes to these airfields. Bigger planes can't land on short runways anyway.

They would need to prevent the larger planes from landing on grass airfields because you can guarantee someone is going to build a grass runway long enough to land a TU144 on and complain about how unrealistic the game is.

Technically, IRL there's nothing really stopping you from landing a big plane on a long dirt runway. It probably won't be able to fly again after landing and you'd probably lose your pilot license, though.
Since we're getting vehicle wear&tear in the next update, let's make dirt runways decrease plane condition based on the size and weight. Sounds realistic to me.

[Mudkest]

as far as realism goes I just want to add that for Boeing 737-100 and 200 there was(is?) a modification to let it land on unpaved strips. Used in Canada up to 2022 even.

Not the biggest aircraft by far, but definitely larger then a Cessna :)

[KaHel]

I see possibility to it as infrastructure with limited number of builds(as free versions avaiable for hardcore-tho those airport buildings be not free but cheaper than normal) and dirt runaway.
Eg: 1 Small rural airport terminal, 1 rural control tower, 1 rural cargo terminal, small hangar (30m maybe 40), ?rural airport gate? - just to allow some air trafic early on. I think such limitation to one rural airfield it's quite resonable - later in game build normal ones and perhaps relocate rural one to new area/island etc.
Limitation could be - aside from hangar size - prevention to jets for example and maybe limit of airstrip lenght + inability to connect normal airport infrastructure to it. Also normal air infrastructre could be locked in reaserch eg: simple air infrastructure(no additional other reaserch required)>>>advanced air traffic(requires electronics and such).
Overall It would be aesthetically eye pleasing and would give more sense to smaller prop aircrafts and older ones like those found on workshop.