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Hao Airport is a remote atoll airfield in the Tuamotu-Gambier group of French Polynesia, notable for a runway far longer than its small population would ever need. Built to receive heavy transport aircraft supporting French nuclear testing in the region, it later served as a designated emergency landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle. Today it remains a link in Air Tahiti's inter-island network, connecting Hao to Papeete and other Tuamotu atolls.
Hao Airport sits on Hao Island, one of the atolls of the Tuamotu-Gambier archipelago in French Polynesia, close to the settlement of Otepa. It is operated by DSEAC Polynésie Française and is best known among aviation enthusiasts for its exceptionally long runway, a legacy of its former role supporting heavy airlift operations for nuclear test material rather than any conventional traffic demand at the atoll (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hao_Airport). For a simulator pilot it offers the novelty of a vast strip of tarmac set against an otherwise tiny, low-lying coral atoll in the middle of the South Pacific.
Hao Island lies within the Tuamotu-Gambier island group of French Polynesia, roughly 920 kilometres east of Tahiti (airtahiti.com/en/hao). The airfield is situated on the atoll itself, about 8 kilometres from the main village of Otepa, which sits on a separate northern islet some 3.5 kilometres from the airstrip (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hao_Airport; airtahiti.com/en/hao). As with other remote Tuamotu atoll strips, the surrounding airspace is uncontrolled and the aerodrome is isolated from any other significant airfields, with vast expanses of open ocean on all sides.
Hao Airport has a single physical runway, 12/30, oriented approximately northwest-southeast. It is a hard-surfaced, lit runway measuring roughly 10,994 feet in one direction and 10,993 feet in the reciprocal, making it one of the longest runways in French Polynesia. There is no ILS approach available.
No published communications frequencies are currently listed for Hao Airport. There is no instrument landing system, so any approach must be flown visually.
The atoll's main village of Otepa lies on a separate northern islet of the atoll, about 3.5 kilometres from the airfield itself, and can serve as a useful visual reference when approaching from over the lagoon (airtahiti.com/en/hao). The runway itself, at nearly two miles long, is highly conspicuous against the narrow coral rim of the atoll and is the dominant visual feature of the island from the air.
Hao's runway was built far longer than the atoll's small population would ever require in order to accommodate heavy transport aircraft carrying materials for French nuclear tests in the region; these cargoes were then moved onward to the actual test sites by ship (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hao_Airport). The strip's exceptional length later saw it designated as an emergency landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle, a role reflecting its unusual capacity relative to the atoll's otherwise modest scale (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hao_Airport).
Hao Airport continues to handle scheduled passenger services with Air Tahiti, which connects Hao to Papeete and to Totegegie in the Gambier Islands (airtahiti.com/en/hao). Beyond this inter-island link, the airfield's long runway remains a striking relic of its nuclear-era construction, now serving a comparatively quiet atoll community.