What Does STOL Mean in Aviation? Understanding Short Takeoff and Landing Aircraft

When we think aviation and airliners the first thought goes to large jet aircraft. However there are many more operations which are just as important as those larger planes. The smaller, regional, planes cover the last miles connecting you to your final destination. Regional airfields are, in some occasions, so small with such short runways that they need special performance aircraft. That’s where you’d come across the term STOL.

What Does STOL Stand For in Aviation?

STOL is an acronym which stands for:

• Short
• Take Off
• Landing

In essence what that means is that an aircraft is capable of taking off and landing on extremely short runways. Most airports have runways that are longer than what is considered to be in STOL range.

Also, most airfields have runways long enough to accomodate non-STOL capable aircraft. Only in very specific situations where space and the geography don’t allow to make the runway longer do airfields compromise on STOL operations.

How Short is a STOL Runway?

As I mentioned above, most airports in the world have runways of longer than 1.000 to 1.200 meters, or above 3.300ft. However, some very special airfields might have runways even shorter than this. That in turn means that some special performance aircraft will be needed to operate flights from and to these airfields.

Runways of 800m or shorter are commonly seen as STOL infrastructures. However, there are also what is referred to as extreme-STOL runways, when they are under 400 or 500m.

Those are ludicrously short runways, and for aircraft manufacturers it is a huge challenge to design STOL-capable planes that offer sufficient capacity to make them commercially viable for airlines and operators.

What Kind Of Aircraft Are STOL-Capable?

There aren’t many commercial airliners that match the stringent standards to fall into the STOL-capable hat. Of course they are all turboprop powered aircraft. Turboprops offer the best acceleration and efficiency on short runways and flights as those that STOL aircraft often operate.

ATR was developing the largest STOL-capable aircraft (the ATR 42 and 72), however, the future of the program is not certain. The ATR 42 STOL development has been scrapped while there is still uncertainty whether the STOL ATR 72 will ever take off.

That leaves airlines with very limited options in terms of aircraft to use on STOL operations, such as:

• DHC Dash 6 “Twin Otter”
• Cessna Caravan
• Pilatus PC-12