It’s a fairly straightforward question, I’m afraid…what’s the longest aircraft runway in the San Francisco Bay Area?
That’s…it, I think.
SFO is the only airport in the bay area that handles jumbo jets, so unless you include Castle Air Frce base in Merced as part of the bay area, SFO would be it.
SFO has a 11870 ft runway. OAK has a 10000 ft runway.
Airport, yes. But runway, no. I know Airforce One has landed at Moffett Field, the NASA/Air Force base in Sunnyvale. Their runway is only 9200 feet, however.
Based on that, it seems that Oakland could also handle a 747. Maybe it’s not the runway length, but other factors.
BCE
A little off topic, but amusing…
ISTR from the 80’s that a “non-stop” flight from San Jose (SJC) to Tokyo had to stop at OAK to top off the fuel when it was full of passengers. It couldn’t take off at SJC with a full load and a full tank at the same time.
Back on topic…
So far, it looks like the longest runway in the Bay Area is specifically SFO 10L/28R at 11870 ft (3618 m).
I cannot for the life of me find a cite, but if I were a gambling man I’d put my money on Travis AFB in Fairfield.
BCE
Travis has 2 runways “approx. 11000ft”. http://www.afa.org/magazine/almanac2001/bases.pdf
Travis’ longest runway (3L/21R) is 11,001 feet.