Airport-dle
The clue is the runway layout, drawn largest runway first
Airport-dle gives you six guesses at one airport out of 1,076. The clue is not a photograph. It is the airport's runway layout drawn as bare lines, and it starts with only the longest runway.
The layout, drawn largest runway first
At the start you see a single stroke: the longest runway at its true orientation, scaled to the frame so its actual length gives nothing away. Each wrong guess adds the next-longest runway on the airports that have one, and about two thirds of the pool is single-runway, so on those days the drawing is one line and stays that way. Where more runways appear, the drawing keeps true relative lengths and positions, except at the handful of fields whose source rows carry no runway end coordinates.
The drawing carries geometry and nothing else. There is no name on it, no code, no text of any kind, which is why it can be shown before you have guessed anything.
What the five columns tell you
Every guess is scored against Country, Continent, Elevation, Runways and Longest runway. Country, Continent and Elevation either match the answer or they do not. Elevation is a band rather than a number, so a match puts the airport in a broad altitude class rather than pinning it.
Runways and Longest runway are numeric and show an arrow pointing the way the answer lies from your guess. Those two columns narrow things fast once you have a continent.
Where the data comes from
The dataset is OurAirports, CC0 1.0 public domain. The build keeps only airports typed as large with scheduled service and at least one runway carrying a heading, which leaves the 1,076 airports in the pool. The runway drawings are made from the same public-domain runway geometry.
The calendar runs one airport a day for 1,076 days. When you finish, the reveal names the airport, gives its codes, links to a map, and shows an English Wikipedia summary excerpt under CC BY-SA 4.0.
After the puzzle
Finishing unlocks a short set of bonus questions, and how many you get depends on what the data supports that day. They ask which of two airports sits higher, which is the biggest airport in a named country, which airport serves a named city, and which airport is a hub for a named airline.
They are not gated behind each other and getting one wrong does not close the next, because the point of them is the fact rather than the score.
Questions
Is it the same puzzle for everyone?
Yes. One airport a day, identical for every player, changing at midnight UTC. The bonus questions are generated from the puzzle number, so those match too.
Do I need an account?
No. There is nothing to sign up for. Streaks and stats are kept in your browser's local storage rather than on a server.
Is the runway drawing to scale?
Angles and relative lengths are true, so the shape of the field is honest. Absolute size is deliberately hidden: the drawing is scaled to its frame, so a long runway and a short one look the same length.