TechnoBrain Releases Tokyo Haneda International Airport for MSFS 2020/2024
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The article announces TechnoBrain's release of Tokyo Haneda for MSFS and provides extensive historical context on the airport's development from a 300-meter airfield in 1931 through post-WWII American occupation, gradual expansion, the 1978 opening of Narita that relegated it to domestic service, and subsequent modernization projects that restored it to international status. While focused primarily on historical background rather than addon features and specifications, the piece establishes the airport's significance and scale for flight simmers.
Excerpt from Threshold
TechnoBrain has recently released their rendition of Tokyo Haneda International Airport (RJTT) for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024. The airport serves the Greater Tokyo Area and averages 78.7 million passengers per year, making it Japan’s busiest airport.
The airport started its life in 1931 as a tiny airfield with a 300-meter-long concrete runway, a small passenger terminal, and two hangars.
Traffic figures grew throughout the 1930s, leading to the extension of the runway to 800 meters and the construction of a new runway, also 800 meters long. The airport’s land area also increased from 53 hectares to 72.8 hectares.
It was also during that time period that the Japanese government started planning to build a new Tokyo Municipal Airport on an artificial island in Koto Ward. At the time, it was five times the size of Haneda and easily the largest airport in the world by the era’s standards. Work was scheduled to start in 1939 and finish by 1941, but World War 2 put a permanent end to it.
Post-World War 2, Haneda was occupied by the United States Army, becoming the Haneda Army Air Base. Many nearby residents were evicted during that time to allow further expansion to accommodate their infrastructure. Both runways were extended to 1,650 meters and 2,100 meters, respectively. By the time everything was finally completed in 1946, the airport was already occupying 257.4 hectares, slightly larger than the old Tokyo Municipal Airport project.
Part of the base was returned to Japan in 1952 and named Tokyo International Airport. The remainder remained under American control until it was returned to Japan in 1958.
When Japan Airlines began domestic operations from the airport, there was no passenger terminal. This became a reality in 1955 after two years of hard work, followed by an extension for international flights in 1963.
The introduction of jet aircraft in the 1960s led to many changes and improvements, including runway extensions, the repurposing of runways as aprons, and the construction of a new international arrivals facility.
In the late 1970s, Narita Airport was inaugurated, taking over most international service in the area and relegating Haneda to a primarily domestic airport.
For the next 32 years, Haneda lived through its “domestic era,” a period in which many expansion projects were carried out to ensure it could actually serve Greater Tokyo properly: a new landfill in the mid-1980s, a new passenger terminal, new runways in the…
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