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I was looking at London City Airport (EGLC) on Google Maps today when I noticed the remains of a very small runway marked 10/28 just across the water from City Airport's main runway. It can be seen here.

To my surprise I couldn't find any mention of this small runway after searching online and looking into the history of the airport. Using the Google Earth historical imagery feature the earliest image I could find that included the runway was 2008, so I assume it was built some time between 2006 and 2008.

Can anybody tell me what this short runway is for?

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  • $\begingroup$ God! Nice shot! I admire you being able to spot things like this! :> $\endgroup$
    – trejder
    Oct 20, 2019 at 8:48
  • $\begingroup$ It hasn't got the usual X for a closed runway? $\endgroup$
    – Rich
    Oct 20, 2019 at 22:30

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Good Spot! That was a temporary runway for the Red Bull Air Race:

https://www.forgottenairfields.com/airfield-london-redbull-airstrip-1429.html

You can see "RB" at the eastern end on your satellite imagery

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    $\begingroup$ According to the English wiki the River Thames was used as a race location for the 6th round on July 29 in 2007 and for the 5th round on August 2 and 3 in 2008. $\endgroup$
    – PerlDuck
    Oct 19, 2019 at 14:31
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    $\begingroup$ 12 years on and that's looking like it's in pretty rough shape already. $\endgroup$
    – FreeMan
    Oct 21, 2019 at 20:04
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    $\begingroup$ The page says London City was closed during the race anyway, which makes me wonder why they didn't simply use it. $\endgroup$
    – Jan Hudec
    Oct 22, 2019 at 17:09
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    $\begingroup$ @JanHudec Maybe because of LCY's rule: steep approach and steep prices ;-) $\endgroup$
    – PerlDuck
    Oct 23, 2019 at 7:11

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