Reef Runway

HNL's Runway 8R/26L, or "Reef Runway" was built from crushed coral and reclaimed land to handle additional traffic for outbound flights for commercial and military flights.

The 12,000-foot runway is also a designated alternate landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle vehicles.

I took this photo from the Pu‘u ‘Ualaka‘a State Wayside Park (or Mount Tantalus Lookout). In the foreground is part of the downtown Honolulu skyline, and Honolulu Harbor. There's a Continental Airlines 767-400 about to touchdown on Runway 26L, with a Northwest Airlines 757-300 holding for departure, and an Aloha Airlines 737-200C taxiing toward the cargo ramp. In the background is the ‘Ewa plain of west O‘ahu.