Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) airport safety researchers at the William J. Hughes Technical Center have created a prototype taxiway screen that can help prevent runway incursions at airports with taxiways that pass well beyond the ends of runways. These screens can be placed at the end of a runway to block the view between that runway and an end-around taxiway. Endaround taxiways are built beyond the 1,000- foot runway safety area. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and Detroit's Metro airports have such taxiways, and one will be installed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to facilitate aircraft movement between the runways and terminal gates without having to cross active runways. In addition to safer operations, the taxiways have the potential to increase capacity. The two screens that will go up at Dallas- Fort Worth will be 700 feet long. Each will be 13 feet high. The screens "hide" aircraft on endaround taxiways from the view of pilots preparing to take off on active runways. The screens give the pilots a point of reference, enabling them to focus on aircraft that are taxiing on the runways (in front of the screens) and to distinguish them from those moving on the taxiways behind the screens. The screens were set up recently at Atlantic City International Airport, at the end of the 10,000-foot runway 13-31. Researchers used an airport vehicle to simulate an airplane taking off, and videotaped its movement along the runway to see how well the screens blocked a pilot's view of the taxiway areas, beyond the end of the runway. This research is intended to support a national agency standard for end-around taxiway screens. Dallas-Fort Worth plans to install the first FAA-approved screens later this year. |
