Terminal gate blocks, the nullah and the tank farm

Three pieces of the airport have been redrawn from a 1990s aerial photo and the airport plans: the shape of the passenger terminal, the drainage channel across the apron, and the fuel tank farm.

Kai Tak from above the Kowloon City side: the long terminal with gate blocks on its apron face, the tank farm at its far end, and a channel with grass verges crossing the apron toward the cargo terminal. — From over Kowloon City, looking out toward the harbour: the terminal, the tank farm and the nullah.

The terminal is no longer a box

The pier used to be one long rectangle. The apron face of the slab is now set back, and lower gate blocks stick out from it to the stand line. The jet bridges come out of these blocks.

South-west end: a long gate block with the jet bridges of stands 1 to 4. The control tower stays on the slab behind it.
Stand 5: a small gate pod of its own.
North-east end: a second long gate block for stands 6 to 8, then the main terminal block.
Each gate block has a glazed lounge band at jet bridge level, lit at night, over a dark ground floor.

The south-west end of the terminal: a lower gate block standing out from the slab, with jet bridges reaching to aircraft at stands 1 to 4, and the control tower on the slab behind. — The south-west gate block and stands 1 to 4.

The middle of the terminal: the small gate pod at stand 5, the set-back face of the slab, and the north-east gate block with jet bridges at stands 6 to 8. — Stand 5's pod, the set-back slab, and the north-east gate block.

The nullah across the apron

The storm-water channel now crosses the apron. It comes out from under the north-east end of the terminal and runs parallel to the runway, between the stands and the maintenance apron.

An open walled channel, cut into the apron, with water, grass verges and a railing on both sides.
Three taxi bridges cross it, with yellow-and-black kerbs and yellow edge lines.
It widens into a grassed oval basin, then goes into a culvert under the cargo apron.
The culvert comes out through a headwall at the head of the inlet.

The open channel and its verges are not tarmac. A jet that taxis into it is off the pavement, like the grass: it stops at the edge at walking pace and crashes at speed. Taxi over the bridges.

The open channel crossing the apron, with grass verges and railings, broken by taxi bridges with yellow-and-black kerbs, the hangars to the right. — The open stretches and the taxi bridges.

The channel running into dark culvert openings under the north-east end of the terminal, beside the red-and-white blast fence. — Where it comes out from under the terminal.

A concrete culvert headwall with three dark openings at the water's edge at the head of the inlet, the apron beyond. — The outfall at the head of the inlet.

The tank farm

The fuel tanks have moved to where the aerial photo shows them: just past the north-east end of the terminal, on its landside half and in line with the building. There are now two rows inside a low bund: three big, squat tanks on the apron side and four slimmer, taller tanks behind them toward the road. The low white building beyond them has been moved clear so they can be seen from Kowloon City.

Seven white fuel tanks in two rows inside a low bund, beside the north-east end of the terminal, seen from the road on the Kowloon City side. — The tank farm from the landside.

Sources: a 1990s aerial photo of Kai Tak, the Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport map, Technocratic Aviation's Kai Tak plan and the World Flyer plan at Kai Tak Sports Park.

根據一張 1990 年代嘅航空相同機場平面圖，重畫咗機場三樣嘢：客運大樓嘅形狀、橫過停機坪嘅排水明渠，同埋油缸區。