Monday, June 30. 2008

Radar used to keep runways clean and safe

C|net describes the use of radar to find "junk" on runways. The idea is to keep runways clean and reduce damage and loss of life. The technology is from QinetiQ

... Heathrow International Airport, the world's busiest, has now installed a permanent dual radar system called the Tarsier, which scans 3,658 meters of runway in search of junk 24 hours a day.

The Tarsier uses networked high-frequency, high-resolution radar and integrated digital signal processing to pinpoint anything from a pigeon to a cellophane sandwich wrapper (PDF).

Foreign object damage, or "FOD," is responsible for $60 million worth of damage a year, an average of $15,000 per aircraft for each major airline in the U.S. alone, according to the FAA (PDF).

...
The smallest item detected to date is a 10-millimeter metal fitting in an area the size of 30 football fields, the company says. Once an object is found, Tarsier reports its latitude and longitude to within 3 meters via GPS.

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Excellent

It is usefull for safety measurements and Security control .

Keep it up.

Regards,
Satyanarayana P.V ,Manager
Photogrammetry & LiDAR Mapping

Speck SpatialTech Limited.
(Wholly owned subsidiary of Speck Systems Limited)
A/16/II, Sri Manu’s Aroha Chambers,
Dr. A.S.Rao Nagar, Hyderabad – 062, INDIA.

Mob: +91 99485 23405, Fax: +91 40 2712 0044.
Tel: +91 40 2713 3828 / 4903 / 4907, 66316070 - 74
Email: satya.pv@speckspatialtech.com;satyam_venkat_oct2@yahoo.com
www.speckspatialtech.com

#1 Satyanaryana on 2008-07-01 01:43 (Reply)

I "ll agree that the potential application is excellent.

What I'm concerned about though, are the side-effects,
both "good" and "bad".
This is after all about full and actually very detailed
monitoring of runways - and maybe not just the runways...

#2 Mantelas on 2008-07-01 03:45 (Reply)

After the Concorde crashed from hitting a small piece of metal on the runway, airports have been looking for a way to prevent future accidents. At major airports in the US an airport employee drives down the runway every few hours looking for debris. A constant scan via radar makes a lot of sense.

#3 Roy on 2008-07-01 11:23 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to	[ Top level ]#1: Satyanaryana on 2008-07-01 01:43 #2: Mantelas on 2008-07-01 03:45 #3: Roy on 2008-07-01 11:23
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information?   Subscribe to this entry