Anatomy: Landing a Plane at Reagan National Airport

• Until recently, all planes flying into DCA followed routes marked by small, World War II-era navigation towers on the ground. The towers send signals into the sky, creating “waypoints” for the planes to pass through during descent.
• The waypoints—which appear every 15 to 20 miles along the route—mark elevation and speed targets that pilots aim to hit. At a waypoint above Great Falls, Virginia, for example, planes are supposed to fly at about 7,000 feet and no more than 250 knots.

• Using the ground-based navigation towers requires planes to descend in a stair-step pattern—hitting one target, then slowing down and dropping to the next one.

• This year, the Federal Aviation Administration began adding satellite waypoints, beginning at the airport and moving outward.

• The new satellite waypoints allow the planes to descend on a smooth diagonal, which feels more comfortable to passengers and saves fuel.

• All waypoints are identified by five-letter codes chosen by the FAA’s design-and-implementation office.

• One of the 16 approach routes to DCA includes waypoints named for former Redskins—RYPIN, GIBBZ, SUNYJ, MONNK.

• Another approach takes planes through WEEEE, WLLLL, NEVVR, FORGT, SEPII.

• Roughly 10,000 feet above Dulles Airport is a waypoint that all planes approaching DCA from the west must pass through—called FRDMM.

• DCA’s only long runway is still relatively short. It’s 6,869 feet long, while most runways at Dulles are at least 10,000 feet.

Fun Fact: About 850 planes take off and land at DCA each day, usually spending no more than 30 seconds on the runway—often far less.