Heated Runways
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As an aside Manchester used to have a heated elevated approach road leading up to Terminal 1 multi level car park, dont think its still used (far too costly)
Manchester is due to do some serious reconstruction on the original runway in the next few months, so adding heating elements as part of the rebuild might be possible. However, it might be more useful to install heating on some of the stands - much more difficult to plough effectively than long straight(ish) extents of taniway and runway.
By the way, I'm told that I invented underground heating (for city streets in particular, but I would have made the patent more general) over 60 years ago.
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Reader comment from this morning's .... I'll let you guess :
Maybe we should build a nuclear power station next to Gatwick airport, then the left over heat could be used to warm the runway in cold weather.
- Wiztwas, Berks, 06/12/2010 08:56
- Wiztwas, Berks, 06/12/2010 08:56
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Just what the heck as physics got to do with it. Bet you what you like that sometime in the future people will say "remember in the olden days when airports used to shut down because of snow on the runways , unbelievable isn't it"
Whilst clearing snow it always seemed to be easier to move snow and ice from concrete rather than tarmac.
Perhaps airports should drill into the earth and get some heat from down there our local potash and salt mine was on the TV the other day and the miner said it was about 40 degrees down there. Only slight problem he was going down about 4000ft.
Perhaps airports should drill into the earth and get some heat from down there our local potash and salt mine was on the TV the other day and the miner said it was about 40 degrees down there. Only slight problem he was going down about 4000ft.
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Teaching even basic physics at school would ensure that daft threads like this never arise in the first place.
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Almost all of our runways these days are surfaced using a type of Hot Rolled Asphalt. Some aprons are concrete but not many.
If you re-heat asphalt you will turn the bitumen binder into a liquid and cause deformation of the surface.
As most international runways have a laying tolerance of +/- 3mm it would be impossible to heat the surface without running the risk of creating areas of standing water. (puddles to you and me).
Tarman
If you re-heat asphalt you will turn the bitumen binder into a liquid and cause deformation of the surface.
As most international runways have a laying tolerance of +/- 3mm it would be impossible to heat the surface without running the risk of creating areas of standing water. (puddles to you and me).
Tarman
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laser?
What about the might of power and efficiencies of laser? Laser technology has been mastered from medicine to thick metal cutting, from precision astrophysics to hi-tech weapons, thermonuclear reactors..
A frequency could be set only for snow molecules on couple lasers on mid-high masts next to runways to continuously scan runway surface and automatically adjusting power levels depending on snow intensity. This would do no damage to any other surfaces or materials as frequency would be specific and target only ice type molecules.
I.e. - Laser ice removal system - Patent 4900891
I assume the same principle could be used for clearing fog around airport lets say 10miles radius..
A more powerful laser I assume could be used for disrupting hurricane cores?
If only worldwide industry would work as hard in putting more comfort and performance in industry as in naughty full-body scanners..
A frequency could be set only for snow molecules on couple lasers on mid-high masts next to runways to continuously scan runway surface and automatically adjusting power levels depending on snow intensity. This would do no damage to any other surfaces or materials as frequency would be specific and target only ice type molecules.
I.e. - Laser ice removal system - Patent 4900891
I assume the same principle could be used for clearing fog around airport lets say 10miles radius..
A more powerful laser I assume could be used for disrupting hurricane cores?
If only worldwide industry would work as hard in putting more comfort and performance in industry as in naughty full-body scanners..
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Here's an idea for a solar-powered runway-heating system: As soon as the snow stops falling, use a low-flying cropduster plane to sprinkle the runways with some black powder (powdered charcoal would work fine, I think) -- then as soon as the sun comes out, its rays will heat up the charcoal and melt the snow! No external power required. (This system was actually used in Russia to melt the snow off of the fields for planting crops early in the spring, or so I'm told.)
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Great suggestion Agent153Orange! Then we need only wait two weeks for the runway to re-open again. 
The best way to remove the snow according to professionals is to do this the old fashioned mechanical way using a unit with snowplow, rotating sweeper and blower. Such a unit can typically remove the snow from an area of 330,000 mē/h. As a comparison, the northern runway at London-Heathrow covers 195,000 mē, and only one unit can remove all snow from the runway in only 36 minutes. My home airport (Oslo Airport, Gardermoen) uses 10 such units to form snow removal "trains" (faned out like in the photo below), and then it takes 5-10 minutes to clear a runway for all snow.
The best way to remove the snow according to professionals is to do this the old fashioned mechanical way using a unit with snowplow, rotating sweeper and blower. Such a unit can typically remove the snow from an area of 330,000 mē/h. As a comparison, the northern runway at London-Heathrow covers 195,000 mē, and only one unit can remove all snow from the runway in only 36 minutes. My home airport (Oslo Airport, Gardermoen) uses 10 such units to form snow removal "trains" (faned out like in the photo below), and then it takes 5-10 minutes to clear a runway for all snow.
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I believe or was told when I served there that Brize Nortons was also heated when the USAF used it, the system was offered for sale on handback but the Brits thinking, well we are gonna get it for free declined to pay, at which point the USAF put a caterpillar down one side of the runway with a hook down and tore out all the wiring......... may be wrong but that was what I was told.
As for heating Heathrows LOL...... just when are you planning to close them to dig them up and lay this heating system? of course you would have to do all the taxyways and aprons too.
As for heating Heathrows LOL...... just when are you planning to close them to dig them up and lay this heating system? of course you would have to do all the taxyways and aprons too.
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In a discussion about using paid-for energy to melt snow on a runway someone has to ask...
OMG! What the heck has physics to do with heating and energy? 
Everything, pal, everything! It's the only thing that has anything to do with it.
Still, the penny really should drop with anyone who's ever paid a domestic heating bill...and seen the size of a runway.
I rest my case!
Just what the heck as physics got to do with it
Everything, pal, everything! It's the only thing that has anything to do with it.
Still, the penny really should drop with anyone who's ever paid a domestic heating bill...and seen the size of a runway.
I rest my case!
In the same way that areas are measured in multiples of the size of Wales, and height in the well-known unit "the double-decker bus", let's measure energy in terms of what an A-380 burns on its way to Australia.
So how many A-380-trips-to-Australia would it take to melt one runway's worth of snow at 6" deep?
So how many A-380-trips-to-Australia would it take to melt one runway's worth of snow at 6" deep?
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Yes a runway is a fair spread of Tarmac, but to look at it another way it's only about the same as 18 soccer pitches. And those of us who pay domestic heating bills are not in the business of making money from our houses. If you look at it from yet another angle consider the loss of revenue if our Refinerys and Chemical plants didn't spend millions on keeping pipes and vessels up to temperature so that the "product" is free to flow in cold weather and thereby keeping the revenue coming in. At the end of the day the technology is there in other industries, it's just a case of someone doing the sums and adapting that existing technology to Runway Heating. It is possible and to say "It would be too expensive" without a proper feasibility study is to be defeatist.
I too rest my case !!.
I too rest my case !!.
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Quote.
Yes a runway is a fair spread of Tarmac, but to look at it another way it's only about the same as 18 soccer pitches. And those of us who pay domestic heating bills are not in the business of making money from our houses. If you look at it from yet another angle consider the loss of revenue if our Refinerys and Chemical plants didn't spend millions on keeping pipes and vessels up to temperature so that the "product" is free to flow in cold weather and thereby keeping the revenue coming in. At the end of the day the technology is there in other industries, it's just a case of someone doing the sums and adapting that existing technology to Runway Heating. It is possible and to say "It would be too expensive" without a proper feasibility study is to be defeatist.
I too rest my case !!. end quote.
Heathrows northern runway covers 29 times the surface area of Arsenals football pitch. And there are two, although the southern is slightly smaller at 25 times the size.
The comparison with refineries is flawed. Without steam heated pipes, the product wont flow, all year round. Not the case at aiports.
And heated runways wont help if the exits, taxi ways and stands are all frozen.
Case rested.
Yes a runway is a fair spread of Tarmac, but to look at it another way it's only about the same as 18 soccer pitches. And those of us who pay domestic heating bills are not in the business of making money from our houses. If you look at it from yet another angle consider the loss of revenue if our Refinerys and Chemical plants didn't spend millions on keeping pipes and vessels up to temperature so that the "product" is free to flow in cold weather and thereby keeping the revenue coming in. At the end of the day the technology is there in other industries, it's just a case of someone doing the sums and adapting that existing technology to Runway Heating. It is possible and to say "It would be too expensive" without a proper feasibility study is to be defeatist.
I too rest my case !!. end quote.
Heathrows northern runway covers 29 times the surface area of Arsenals football pitch. And there are two, although the southern is slightly smaller at 25 times the size.
The comparison with refineries is flawed. Without steam heated pipes, the product wont flow, all year round. Not the case at aiports.
And heated runways wont help if the exits, taxi ways and stands are all frozen.
Case rested.
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Well it least it gives us something to read while we wait for the snow and ice to melt
More hot air please
Suzeman
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Hot Air !! now there's an idea Suzeman. Mayby they could make further use of the now "not required" Harrier Force by getting them to make slow passes down the runway at about, lets say 20 feet (depending on thickness of the snow). That should do the trick !!.
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Or maybe they could build some hot-air pipes from Congress to all the nation's airports -- that should supply enough hot air to keep them ice-free all winter long! (In Great Britain, Parliament could be used as the hot air source in place of Congress.) 