Suitcase wheels. Plastic bags. Frappuccino cups. Chipmunks. Birds. These are just some of the things pilots don't want to see on the runway as they're accelerating for takeoff or coming in for landing.
Foreign object debris -- what the rest of us call junk on the runway -- isn't just an inconvenience, it's a major threat to safety. French authorities say a metal strip lying on the runway caused a Concorde crash at Charles de Gaulle that killed 113 people eight years ago. The tire blew out, creating still more foreign object debris that punched a hole in the plane's fuel tank.
Most airports have safeguards for identifying and handling FOD, but they come down to little more than dispatching some guy with a broom to sweep the runway twice a day.
Fortunately, a handful of companies are taking a more sophisticated approach.
QinetiQ Airport Technologies has been testing what it calls a debris tracking system at Vancouver's airport. Four radars scan the runways for potentially dangerous items, which are displayed on a screen in the airport's ops center. QinetiQ plans to add cameras to the system so airport officials can immediately identify anything the radar finds so they can determine how big a threat it poses.
Stratech Systems takes it up a notch with the iFerret Intelligent Airfield/Runway Surveillance and FOD Foreign Object & Debris Detection System (note to the marketing department: work on the name). iFerret continuously searches for FOD in hangers and on aprons, runways and taxiways using Intelligent Vision, a computer vision-based technology. It's the same technology that powers some of Stratech's other, more creepy products, including the Intelligent Border Crossing System, the Parkvasive Vehicle Tracking System and the Super Bullseye II Weapons Scoring System.
Other companies are getting in on the game. Xsight Systems sells a system that can be bolted onto existing runway lights. Trex Enterprisesfeatures a mobile unit on the back of a truck that picks up debris after it's been identified, sort of like Wall-E scooping up trash.
The FAA is testing these systems and plans to give some of them the thumbs up soon. Then it'll provide grants to help airports buy and install them.
Photo by Flickr user as737800
