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Development Area In
Jean, South of Las Vegas Below is
the MGM Mirage development area in Jean, Nevada, 30 miles south of Las Vegas. Jean is located between Las Vegas and the California
border, on the east and west sides of Interstate 15.
Right next to Jean will be the proposed Ivanpah Valley
Airport. Not expected to open until 2018, to be successful it must be a futuristic airport. This means it most likely will
be a solar-powered airport, a "greywater" (used water that can be reused for other purposes, especially landscape
irrigation) airport, an airport designed with visionary architecture, an airport that can handle with ease rapid departures
and arrivals of the world's most futuristic commercial aircraft.
Right now, the supplemental commercial service
airport is still in the early stages of a Bureau of Land Management/Federal Aviation Administration Environmental Impact Statement
assessment.
| Artwork courtesy Las Vegas Review Journal |
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| Change is afoot in Jean, Nevada, as well as in the entire Ivanpah Valley, 30 miles from Las Vegas. |
Say Goodbye to Nevada Landing
The 303-room Nevada
Landing, one of the two casinos in Ivanpah Valley's town of Jean, Nevada, is closed down, eviscerated and about to
be demolished. Property owner MGM Mirage, along with its partners - two Las Vegas-based developers - says the casino
will be replaced by a 166 acre mixed-use development that will include single-family homes, condominiums, apartments,
commercial businesses, shops and a new hotel-casino.
Change is afoot in Jean, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas on I-15.
In fact, dramatic change seems to be getting into place to sweep across all of Ivanpah Valley.
| Photo by Robert L. Candiotti |
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| As of April, 2008, Nevada Landing has been demolished. |
The lighted billboard reads, THANK YOU FOR 18 YEARS. Nevada Landing yielded to demolition at its landmark position
in Jean, Nevada, right next to I-15.
First and foremost is the proposed multi-billion dollar Ivanpah Valley
Airport. The proposed location of the airport is currently going through the environmental impact statement (EIS)
process that is projected to be completed in late 2010.
Once it opens, the supplemental airport will handle
annually many millions of mostly international passengers, as well as long-haul domestic air travelers. Ivanpah
will also be the airport for the majority of Southern Nevada cargo flights.
Second, the nearby towns will
be experiencing their own changes. The towns in Ivanpah Valley, all different from each other, cannot remain the
same.
Like the determined freight train with 50 cars that passes through Ivanpah Valley every day on its way
to Las Vegas, the "Train of Change" also cannot be held back as it glides through the valley at the border
of California's San Bernardino County and Nevada's Clark County, along Interstate 15, one of America's major highways.
Shuttered and sealed off from any visitors these days, the casino's huge electronic billboard is still lit up.THANKS
FOR 18 YEARS, it reads. For 18 years, Nevada Landing was an easy and welcomed stopping spot for travelers, truckers and surreptitious
Las Vegans seeking a secret rendezvous. The past 18 years have been a period of limited change in Ivanpah Valley.
Looking at time in the opposite direction, toward the future, 18 years from now will be the year 2025. By that time, Ivanpah
Airport will be handling annually up to twenty million passengers, as well as providing modern runways for ceaseless
cargo transportation, coming and going on the world's biggest and most modern jet planes.
Ivanpah Airport
will take over from Las Vegas' McCarran Airport most of the international flights, and long-haul domestic flights
(i.e., cross-country flights), in Southern Nevada. The hope and plan is that Ivanpah begins operations about the time - projected
to be around 2015 - when McCarran will have incorporated every single possibility for air capacity expansion. Extensive
studies have concluded, beyond that point, there definitely has to be a supplemental airport for McCarran. Ivanpah appears
to be the only real possibility for that.
Right now, there are only four sites in the U.S. being considered by the
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for a new airport. Ivanpah Airport seems to be the single new airport project that
has sprouted wings and is taking off.
A new interational airport is a very major undertaking. In fact,
in the last 40 years, only two new major commercial airports have opened in the United States - Dallas-Fort Worth and Denver
International. New airports are rare, complicated and very expensive. They are awesome projects.
Can
you imagine Ivanpah Valley Airport, empty desert now, which will not even open until 2018, and then is supposed to remain
viable for most of the 21st century?
Such a long-term, monumental process inspires and requires creative
and visionary thinking.
Say Hello to Futuristic Jets Landing
| Photo courtesy Boeing |
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| Japan Airlines (JAL) has 35 Boeing 787-8s on order. |
Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner - made of composite
materials and reportedly using 20 per cent less fuel than similarly sized airplanes - is scheduled to go into commercial service
in the second half of 2010. International air carrier ANA is the launch customer. Certainly, the B787 will utilize Ivanpah
Valley Airport once it opens around 2018.
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| Singapore Airlines has been flying the Airbus A380 since the latter part of 2007. |
The Airbus A380 started scheduled services
when Singapore Airlines began Singapore-Sydney-Singapore operations on October 25, 2007. Singapore Airlines said
it configured the world's first double-decker aircraft with 471 seats for the company's three-class seating arrangement
(12 Singapore Airlines Suites, 60 Business Class, 399 Economy Class). The airline has ordered from Airbus 25 A380s, if all
the options are taken up. The manufacturing company states the A380 is a new generation
aircraft, and it burns 17 per cent less fuel per seat than today's largest aircraft. As
of December 2009, there are four airlines operating the Airbus A380: Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates Airline and
Air France. Airbus says 200 of the A380 planes have been ordered by
16 different airlines. Ivanpah Valley Airport will most certainly have to be designed
to accommodate the A380.
 This is an artist's fanciful concept of the rumored
"blended wing" Boeing 797. Whether the B797 is rumor or not, Ivanpah Valley Airport's runways will assuredly be
designed to accommodate all reasonably conceivable modern jet aircraft. It will be an airport of the future. Image
courtesy truthorfiction.com.
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| Artist's rendering courtesy boeingmedia.com. |
Certainly, development of futuristic aircraft
will continue. For example, on October 24, 2007, Boeing announced it has completed a test of a propulsion system for its High
Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft. (See the artist's rendering above). This is a hydrogen propulsion
system that uses a Ford Motor Company-developed engine. Says the Boeing news release, "The test simulated conditions
at 65,000 feet for a total of three days...demonstrating the technical readiness of the hydrogen system." This system
is being designed for unmanned aircraft, but it reflects the aviation industry's commitment to creating aircraft for the
future. There is no telling what kind of futuristic aircraft will land at Ivanpah Valley Airport over the facility's lifetime.
| Shanghai maglev image courtesy Infrastructurist |
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| Shanghai's demonstration maglev inspires plans for magnetically levitated trains around the world. |
Maglev Should Run Between Las Vegas and Anaheim - With Stop at Ivanpah China already
has a demonstration maglev (magnetically levitated) train that runs between Shanghai's financial district, Pudong, and the
city's airport. It is described as a demonstration line to prove a maglev can be successful. Currently, there are proposed maglev systems in several different countries of the
world. What an accomplishment it will be if a Clark County, Nevada, to Orange County, California, maglev is actually built
with the ability to glide along at 300 miles-per-hour from the Southern Nevada desert to the Southern California
sea, including a stop at Ivanpah Valley Airport - Las Vegas' proposed new international airport. Both Ivanpah Valley Airport and the Nevada-California maglev can be dazzling
components of a 21st Century transportation system that helps ensure high level connectivity for both Las Vegas
and Anaheim.
Ivanpah Airport and Electric Vehicles Ivanpah Airport will be a haven for, and supportive partner with, electric vehicles. The United States' newest airport will be a magnet for the world's newest - and greenest - transportation
variations: cars, trucks, motor scooters, bicycles,etc. Projected to open around 2018, Ivanpah Valley Airport will exist
easily and beneficially with trend-setting vehicles. The definition of Ivanpah
will include its eagerness to exist with environmental innovation. Ivanpah
Valley Airport will not open for many years, but at least here are some images that can stir one's imagination regarding the
types of ground vehicles that will be arriving at, and departing from, Ivanpah in 2018:
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| When ultimately operational, Ivanpah will welcome and embrace zero-emssion cars like Nissan Leaf. |
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| Travelers will hurry to Ivanpah in Tesla Roadsters to catch jet flights bound for exotic lands. |
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| When Ivanpah Airport does open, FedEx will be operating electric vehicles such as Navistar trucks. |
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| Ivanpah will be abounding with electric trucks, such as this ZAP Xebra truck. |
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| Zipping back and forth between Ivanpah and Primm, Nevada, in electric driverless buses. |
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| Zero-emission lanes will accommodate getting to Ivanpah on electric bicycles and electric scooters. |
PRT Podcars at Ivanpah? Before the end of 2009, Personal
Rapid Transit (PRT) podcars are expected to be operating along specially-constructed guide-ways at London Heathrow Airport
between Terminal 5 and distant car parking. PRT vehicles are also being developed for introduction to Masdar City in Abu Dhabi,
described as a zero carbon, zero emission town that will be the epitome of sustainable urban living. Masdar City had its groundbreaking
in February, 2009.
| Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) designed by Zagato |
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| This PRT was unveiled at the 2009 World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. |
Masdar City, described as as $22 billion project,
is being designed to exist with no traditional automobiles. The goal of Masdar City designers is for residents and workers
to get where they want to go exactly when they wish to travel. In
the U.S., the cities of Ithaca, New York, and Santa Cruz, California, are both reported to be considering building PRT transportation
systems. The Institute for Sustainable Transportation is saying
a podcar sysem will be up and running in an American city in as few as five years. So, it is probably not be too far-fetched to think, if it is ultimately built, Ivanpah
Valley Airport will have its own PRT system.
Ivanpah
Has Potential For Excellence
From its very first day of operations, Ivanpah will be accommodating the world's
most advanced jetliners.
Ivanpah has the
potential to be one of the most extraordinary airports of the world. It invites the loftiest thinking, and the most enlightened
design and planning possible. However, all of this needs to be recognized now so Ivanpah Airport can be relevant, efficient,
sustainable, impressive and exciting in 2018, and far beyond.
And this level of revolutionary development
should resonate to all the towns in Ivanpah Valley.
For all intents and purposes, Ivanpah
Valley is a blank canvas. But it won't remain blank for long. Wanted: forward-looking artists, scientists and
designers. Cutting-edge art and and humanistic science can paint a pretty picture.
To learn more about the evolution of the need for Ivanpah Valley Airport, click here.
To see a present-day photo of the site for the multi-billion dollar Ivanvah Valley Airport, click here.
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