Energy impact of short-haul STOL systems

An analysis has been made to evaluate the impact on fuel requirements of a segregated short-haul system. A comparison has been made between two alternate scenarios: one with STOL, and the other without STOL. For the New York to Washington, D.C. city pair the results show: (1) the modal efficiency approach, while indicating the with STOL scenario requires more fuel than the without STOL scenario, is of questionable validity because it does not account for various effects which exist in realistic scenarios; (2) evaluation of fuel requirements based on more detailed modeling indicates that while a STOL scenario requires more fuel than without STOL when an idealized CTOL system is postulated, the STOL scenario requires less fuel than without STOL when the CTOL system has even moderate delays. These results are due to a combination of effects: the closer and more convenient locations of STOL ports to the traveler, congestion at the CTOL airports, and the impact of the through passenger traffic. Sensitivity of results to STOL aircraft block fuel and to CTOL congestion delays are considered.