Airport Safety Detail

Thursday, December 1, 1966

Evaluation of Runway Centerline, High-Speed Exit Taxiway and Runway-Remaining Lighting Systems for Category III Operations

RD-66-6 Author: Russell E. Gilmore


Evaluation of Runway Centerline, High-Speed Exit Taxiway and Runway-Remaining Lighting Systems for Category III Operations

A project was undertaken at the Federal Aviation Agency's National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center (NAFEC), Atlantic City, New Jersey, to determine the minimum visibilities at which a pilot could remain an effective part of the aircraft control loop while using the United States standard runway and exit centerline lighting for guidance during takeoffs and rollouts; and to evaluate the effectiveness of a color-coded centerline which indicates the amount of runway remaining.
An area on the runway near the exit centerline was found to cause the subject pilots confusion in visibilities below 1000 feet. The project was expanded to include evaluation of green exit centerline lights as a way to reduce or eliminate this confusion. A simplified low-visibility simulator, which would control the visibility from the cockpit of an aircraft, was developed for the project and used in all test runs to provide simulated low visibilities.


RD-66-6
Author: Russell E. Gilmore

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