Technology+and+Safety+-+Philadelphia+International+Airport


 * TECHNOLOGY & SAFETY – PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT **


 * ABSTRACT **

Modern technology has created many possibilities for expansion and innovation to expand and improve the quality of aviation. More and more people prefer air travel as a means of reaching destinations. With the increase in influx of passengers for the aircrafts, there have to be more aircrafts for accommodation and in turn, the airports have to be able to manage them. These measures and procedures have to be more advanced to maintain and better the level of safety of the passengers. It is said that risk in air travel is as great as driving a car. What is overlooked is that even with the major increase of people wanting to use air travel, there are still a much greater number of those who drive automobiles. But as more and more people advocate air travel in public transportation, the ratio keeps shifting to stability. Thus engineers at airports are pushed to their limits to generate and implement ideas and procedures ensure safety in air travel even regardless of any risks it may present. Of the several main measures that airports are taking to higher safety standards, three of the most important ones are the runway lights, the radar and satellite technologies, and runway modification systems. These have the most prominent effect in aircraft safety because the time periods of an aircraft trip which are the most risky are during takeoff and landing. Philadelphia International Airport has high quality safety measures implemented to ensure the proper safety of its aircrafts. Aviation technology at the Philadelphia International Airport has enabled more efficient and reliable safety measures during arrivals and departures of aircrafts which has made it possible to become one of the top World’s busiest airports. The airport’s economic and industrial contributions to the city of Philadelphia have given it an illusion of being a type of factory that processes and monitors the influx and outflux of airplanes.


 * INTRODUCTION **

The usual thought about airplane accidents are believed to be during the flight period of the trip. While this is true, the portion of accidents that occur when on the ground is still staggeringly large. The inclusive time of take off, the initial climb, and landing is less than two percent of the total flight time, yet it accounts for when twenty three percent of airplane accidents occur [1]. A tragic accident that took place in Taipei Airport occurred in November of 2000, where a Boeing 747 aircraft of Singapore Airlines crashed while trying to take off from a runway that had been closed for maintenance. In another situation it would have been somewhat amusing but this aircraft collided with two cranes and crashed, killing 81 people [12]. The safety at the airport is vitally important. The technology and implemented methods help increase the safety standard and maintain it so that tragedies such as this are taken very seriously and avoided by initiation actions to prevent them.

The National Transportation Safety Board or the NTSB is a federal agency that monitors and records information of any type and form of vehicles, airplanes, and transportation. The NTSB implemented standards that stated the most wanted runway safety measures that had to be put in place at airports. This was due to reflecting upon major tragedies of which the most severe was in March of 1977 when two jumbo jets collided on a runway in Tenerife, Canary Islands, killing 583 passengers of the aircrafts [13]. To avoid such terrible disasters steps have to be taken beforehand.


 * TECHNOLOGY **

RUNWAY LIGHTS THRESHOLD OF RUNWAY courtesy of Barbados Free Press [6]

While driving past the Philadelphia International Airport at dusk or nighttime, by far the most obvious and the most noticeable are the runway lights, placed along and throughout the runways of an airport. Depending on what type of lights are there, they can be in a variety of colors ranging from blue, yellow, green, red, white. The lights are controlled by a Flight Service Station and are only turned on when the runway is active in use to avoid confusing aircrafts into questioning if the runway is open or not and also to conserve energy and electricity costs.

Types There are usually around five types of different lighting setups that are standard to all airports in the US and the world. First type is the Runway End Identification Lights or REIL, abbreviated. These are a pair of synchronized flashing lights at the brinks of a runway. There are usually a few pairs of these lights on both sides when entering the runway area. REILs can be unidirectional or omnidirectional. Unidirectional lights face the direction the aircraft will approach, where as omnidirectional lights can be seen from all directions [4].

Runway lighting also encompasses the Runway End Lights. These are a pair of four lights that are placed at both the starting and ending portions of a runway. They stretch width-wise across the runway. The Runway End Lights have a unique aspect to them. When an aircraft is approaching or leaving the runway, to the passengers of the aircraft can see these lights to be colored green. However, to those people who are not aboard that particular aircraft, taking off or landing at that time, they see the lights as being red. This safety measure indicates to the aircraft that the runway is clear and it is open for takeoff or landing; and to the outside people it is a sign of caution that it is clearly a danger zone [4].

Another type of runway lighting is the Runway Edge Lights. As can be deduced by their name, these white lights are slightly more elevated than the others and run the along the outside edge on both sides, marking the width span of the runway from end to end. These lights help the aircraft keep itself in the runway path and not stray off elsewhere [4]. The Runway Centerline Lighting System or RCLS consists of the lights that are literally embedded into the surface of the runway and run the whole length of the runway in right in the center and alternate white and red at specific sections of the runway. Philadelphia International Airport has these lights at every fifty feet intervals. This lighting system helps the aircraft follow a straight line to its destination and tells it in which direction to proceed in. It also allows for the ability to tell the exact position of the aircraft as it travels along the runway and in addition to, can let the service dispatches know where to go quickly and swiftly, in case there is an obstruction or problem on the runway [4].

Runway lights play the most vital role in air trafficking for airports. With the use of the lights aircrafts are able to stay active to transport passengers from one destination to another during the night. This accounts for half the flight travels. In the one month of May 2009, approximately 40,000 flights have been made by the Philadelphia International Airport. About 20,000 of them were possible because of the runway lights being able to guide airplanes into and out of the airport. The runway lights also have a major hand during certain whether conditions. For example, depending upon the intensity of fog, pilots of the aircrafts are as able to see the runway for takeoff and landing just as during night time because of the runway lights, and not worry about improper sight issues on the runway.

RADAR & SATELLITE Airport Surface Detection System of Model X, also named ASDE-X incorporates and utilizes radar and satellite technology at the Philadelphia International Airport. It allows the individual Flight Service Stations to easily track aircrafts on the runway and taxi when traveling on the ground. ASDE-X combines geographical and positional information from the satellite, the GPS data, and also information from the radars placed around the airport to pinpoint exactly where any aircraft or vehicle is. Its range encompasses the whole airport as well as incoming and outgoing air traffic at a five mile radius around the airport [2].

This system plays an essential role in efficiently monitoring and enabling the smooth flow of air traffic at the Philadelphia International Airport. ASDE-X generates a moving map of the airfield and airport. This is very important because it enables for possible collisions to be predicted beforehand thus initiating action orders to completely avoid the potential collision.

An improved version of this technology is currently being tested at the Philadelphia International Airport [3]. This technology known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast or ADS-B has similar processes and functions as the ASDE-X. This system takes the radar data from the ASDE-X and enables the air traffic controllers at the Flight Service Stations to know information among which are the size, carrier affiliation, its place of destination that it is headed to, about every aircraft and vehicle that is patrolling at the airport or is passing through [5]. As John Douglass states in his article of Technology Can Reduce Runway Mishaps, “ADS-B moving map displays will cut through bad visibility and provide pilots not only with their position on the airport grounds, but also with information about all other ground traffic and positions of other aircraft flying near the runways.” [14]

The FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, approves highly of the ADS-B and among the benefits it stated, the ADS-B allows for “reduced separation and greater predictability in departure and arrival times; supports common separation standards, horizontal and vertical; improves ability of airlines to manage traffic and aircraft fleets; and reduces the cost of the infrastructure” [15].

RUNWAY MODIFICATION Overruns To avoid and prevent overruns of aircrafts after landing, the Philadelphia International Airport has implemented a special type of runway pavement after completing the extension project on Runway 17-75 [11]. This pavement is called the Engineered Material Arresting System or EMAS. The EMAS is composed of material blocks that are constructed from water, foam, and cement [8]. This material is a cellular concrete that will and subside and collapse when its weight limit is breached and safely bring the moving aircraft to a stop [7]. The FAA has strongly encouraged and recommended airports to incorporate this system to select, if not all, runways [9]. There have been many incidents where large aircrafts have been unable to completely stop along the length of the runway and have resulted in overshooting it and causing disastrous collisions.

Of the many incidents, one tragedy occurred in December of 2003. A Boeing 727 aircraft overshot the runway after landing and crashed in Cotonou, Benin. Of the 163 passengers, 151 died in the crash [10]. To avoid the risk of such disasters happening, systems like the EMAS were brought about and put into action.


 * CONCLUSION - AIRPLANE FACTORY **

The safety and security procedures at the Philadelphia International Airport have made it possible to become the 9th busiest airport in the world. The airport is owned by the City of Philadelphia but it does not run on local tax dollars from the city. The Philadelphia International Airport alone contributes $14 billion of the total $22 billion of Pennsylvania State’s revenue. The level of safety at the airport despite the risks of air travel is high, thus helping it be one of the top hot spots for air travel globally. The more passengers the airport gets the more aircrafts it will need. To maintain and manage the same or better levels of safety with an increase in the air activity, more procedures more efficient systems such as the ADS-B need to be implemented to keep up with today’s growing population and market. The airport was recently grated $5 million in April, 2009 as announced by the US secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, for economic recovery. LaHood states, “this money will put people to work at airports..while providing an important investment in the aviation safety and efficiency”. Congressman Robert Brady advocates, “this stimulus for the Philadelphia International Airport equals increased safety”[16]. The Philadelphia International Airport acts as a factory, a processor that takes in airplanes, safely, and sends them back out, also safely. Its reputation keeps growing and the more aircrafts it maintains the more efficient the safety measures have to be to combat the risks and keep the airport and air travel safe and active.

[1] “Oster, Strong, Zorn”. __Why Airplanes Crash__. © 1992: Oxford University Press. Pp 9-20. < [] >.
 * REFERENCES**

[2] “Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X”. __Federal Aviation Administration__. U.S. Department of Transporation. < [] >.

[3] Ranson, Lori. “FAA and US Airways move closer to ADS-B in Philadelphia”. FlightGlobal. Air Transport Intelligence News. 13 January 2009. < [] >.

[4] “Runway”. __Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia__. 1 June 2009. < [] >.

[5] “Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Air Travel (FAA)”. __Research and Innovative Technology Administration__. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. 05 June 2009. < [] >.

[6] “Who Pays for the Stolen Runway Lights in Guyana?” © 9 September 2008: Barbados Free Press. 06 June 2009. < [] >.

[7] “Record of Decision”. __Philadelphia International Airport__. 07 June 2009. < [] >.

[8] Glab, Jim. “Technology Enhances Runway Safety”. © 2008: ExecutiveTravel. 07 June 2009. < [] >.

[9] “Actions Taken and Needed to Improve FAA’s Runway Safety Area Program”. __Federal Aviation Administration__. Report Number: AV-2009-039. Issued: March 3, 2009. 8 June 2009. < [] >.

[10] “List of Notable Accidents and Incidents on Commercial Aircraft”. __NationMaster__. < [] >.

[11] []

[12] Lloyd-Parry, Richard. “Airline Admits Crash Jet ‘on wrong runway’”. © 4 November 2000. 09 June 2009. < [] >.

[13] “Aviation”. __Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements__. National Transportation Safety Board. 09 June 2009. < [] >.

[14] < [] >.

[15] “Surveillance and Broadcast Services”. __Federal Aviation Administration__. © September 2008. U.S. Department of Transportation. 09 June 2009. < [] >.

[16] “US Transportation Secretary LaHood Announces $10.5 Million in Economic Recovery Funds for PA Airports, Including $5 Million for PHL”. April 15, 2009. __News Room__. < [] >.