Moscow, DME - what airport?

Moscow, the capital of the Russian Federation, is a huge modern metropolis located on the territory of the East European Plain, almost in its center, on the river with the same name. The population of the city, according to the latest census, is about twelve and a half million people.

The total number of people visiting the capital every day, including residents of the Moscow agglomeration from the Moscow region, sometimes exceeds seventeen million in the busiest workdays. Transport flows of various directions intersect here, including numerous air routes.

DME - which airport comes to mind?

Three modern air hubs serve the metropolitan air corridor, and this apart from a few dozen regional airports, as well as private landing strips. SVO, VKO, DME - the airport always has its own international code. And it is indicated in the tickets, boarding passes, luggage tags and any other flight documentation. As a rule, these data are sufficient for an unmistakable determination of the necessary information about the flight. However, the overwhelming majority of air tourists in obtaining a route ticket or issuing an electronic ticket raises a reasonable question: DME - which airport in the capital region is named?

A bit of history

"Domodedovo", the same airport DME Moscow, is one of the oldest aviation hubs in the capital region. The design and construction of this air port began in 1956. Seven years later, the first airmail of the postal destination was launched from the runway of the new airfield, and a year later the Tupolev airplane with passengers was launched into the air.

Domodedovo airport". Current state of affairs

To date, Domodedovo Airport (DME) is one of the largest in Russia. For 2013, he missed about twenty-eight million passengers. Two independent runways are constantly in the mode of intensive operation, taking daily dozens of sides from all over the world.

They are located in parallel, two kilometers apart, allow you to take off and landing from each band simultaneously and independently, independently of each other. Each runway is certified by the international aviation organization ICAO in CAT IIIA category. After the reconstruction of the first strip, which was made two and a half years ago, the airport was able to receive and service the super-heavy transcontinental liners of the Airbus A380 type. In the central part of Russia, the only place where an aircraft of this type can land is Domodedovo (DME). Which airport in our vast country can still boast of this?

Classification and coding

Each organization uses its own type of airport coding, navigation fixation points (eg VORs) and other ground-based aviation facilities. DME - the code of the airport "Domodedovo" according to IATA classification. By ICAO, he is already UUDD.

According to the European classification codes have a three-letter designation, according to the American - four-letter codes. Sometimes in the designation between the letters there are figures (especially for the designation of VOR-beacons or small aerodromes of local significance and private runways). Comparison of these codes is possible only for the territory of the United States of America, where the first letter "K" Indicates that this encoding of objects in the United States by ICAO, and the next three letters completely repeat the code on IATA. For example, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, USA, according to the American classification, has the letter code KJFK, while in the European classification it has the JFK code. In other parts of the world, the encodings are not correlated in any way. And yet the question remains open. Moscow, DME - which airport, and most importantly, why he wears such an unusual designation?

ICAO or IATA - that's the question

It is not difficult to understand the situation if you look into professional sources of information on aviation. There are two international aviation organizations: IATA (International Air Transport Association), or International Air Transport Association ; And ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), or the International Civil Aviation Organization. Currently, they all have their headquarters in Montreal (Canada).

Before the outbreak of World War II, IATA was based in The Hague (the Netherlands). It was behind the scenes the regulatory and supervisory authority in providing air transportation in Europe, while the ICAO basically controlled aerial traffic in the North American continent. And although the management and development of airways has been and still is a priority in the work of these two organizations, their role in the daily life of aviation is not limited solely to these duties. Another, no less important goal is the provision of safe and regular cargo and passenger air transportation, increasing the profitability of destinations, any assistance and assistance in providing flights.

IATA in Russia

Here again there can be doubts. Your e-ticket may contain the following: Moscow, DME. Which airport In this case is necessary?

Domodedovo (DME) is an airport in the Moscow region, and it is considered to be the air gate of the capital. However, the airport is territorially located in the Moscow region, on the border of the Ramensky district and the urban district of Domodedovo, forty-five kilometers from the historic center of Moscow in the southern direction and twenty-two kilometers from the city's capital city - MKAD. The DME code itself is an abbreviation for the Domodedovo airport name. The other air gates of the Moscow region have a similar derivative basis: Sheremetyevo, Sheremetyevo, SVO. Or, for example, "Vnukovo", he is also Vnukovo, he is also VKO.

The bulk of airports in the post-Soviet space can be deciphered according to the European IATA codes. Although there are exceptions. For example, the encoding of the airport of the capital of friendly Kazakhstan, the city of Astana, bears the abbreviation TSE, which has nothing to do with the modern name of the city. However, knowledgeable people remember what name this city had borne in Soviet times: Tselinograd, Tselinograd. Hence the corresponding code.

ICAO in the post-Soviet space

And how is the ICAO designation assigned? There, too, everything is structured and laid out on the shelves. The first letter of the code shows the country, the second - the region, and the last two determine the code of the specific airport. For the USSR in due time the letter U has been fixed . After the collapse of the union, the European post-Soviet countries received the European letter-code of the determinant of the region E (for example, the Baltic countries), but the bulk of the modern independent states, usually located in Asia, retained the original ICAO codes (Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, etc. .) "Domodedovo" on this principle received a reduction of UUDD. Other airports, such as Sheremetyevo airport, are UUEE.

Codes and Flights

Why do we need these codes? Can you really just indicate the place of departure, the place of arrival, start the engines and fly with a calm soul, where do you need it? However, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. Every day several thousands of aircraft can be in the air at the same time. Not so much, you will say, and you will be absolutely right. However, in the air, as well as on the ground, there are specially marked zones - air routes.

Any board, cargo or civil, flies at speeds several times higher than the speed of the car. Especially it concerns liners on jet thrust of turbines. Unlike a car, an airplane can not be stopped in the air. Each maneuver must be predicted in advance. Even for landing, modern aircraft begin to go for ninety-one hundred kilometers from the destination airport.

The strict order of actions, the implementation of all procedures for check checklists, as well as navigation on special flight plans (fly-plans) are the main moments of the management of huge aircraft. Any flight plan is a paved way to the destination at a predetermined altitude of the flight (cruising level), taking into account the climbing of the liner and its decrease in preparation for the final approach to the landing glide path.

The way of the aircraft is its projection relative to the ground - the movement from one control point to another at the minimum distance between them, that is, in a straight line. And the most convenient way to describe a point is its unique code in one of the classification systems, that is, IATA or ICAO.

Instead of concluding

DME .... Which airport in the Moscow region has this encoding? Now you can safely and knowingly answer - "Domodedovo". And do not just answer, but also explain the etymology of this reduction, flashing your knowledge in the company of friends or among colleagues.